I see that Archimago has now released details of the devices used in the blind test, as well as publishing the first set of results, see links below:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/05/bl...gital.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/05/bl...gital.html
Looking at the posts here it looks like only three of us tried this and sent in some results. Or looking at this more positively, 101 people reported results, meaning this forum alone accounted for 3 percent of the global total, not bad....
For me it was certainly interesting to listen to these devices in truly blind conditions. Per my earlier post I mentioned that there was one device I particularly liked less than the rest, I can now advise that this was device D, which turns out to be a 2001 Sony SCD-CE775 mulit-disc CD player.
For the record, my selections were C, B, A, D in descending order of preference.
It is interesting for me to think back to listening to these files. There are many things you could listen for, bass performance, sound stage, sibilance, and so on. I recall at the time I was listening to one thing in particular, which was HF accuracy and any kind of noise or digital hash in the upper frequencies. The only reason for this is that these aspects of sound happen to be my personal obsession of the moment, so when listening to the files these aspects were naturally prominent in my mind.
Now we have the results, it is therefore interesting for me to look at the measurements and muse over the possibility that something measured correlates to what I thought I was hearing. A slightly problematic approach though, as it is impossible to prove any actual correlation.
I guess that I am happy that I picked the Oppo as being the best, on reputation and measurements it is probably the best item used in the test. I am not getting too smug though, one aspect of the results that surprised me a bit is how close I put the iPhone to the Oppo. Maybe with my expectation bias fully primed I could listen again and find all sorts of deficiencies with the iPhone, but the facts stand, when listening blind I did not find much of a difference between the Oppo and an iPhone 6. All of this does provide food for thought though, as an example, the two devices I liked best were using minimum phase filters, the two devices I like least were using linear phase filters. Does this relate to my HF listening observations? Maybe, or maybe I am putting 2 + 2 together and getting 5, again a case of it not being possible to prove the correlation between cause and effect. As an example, the Sony was also worst performer for jitter, so I expect that there are multiple effects working together Although the LP / MP filter aspect is something I can easily investigate further, especially now the new HQPlayer 4 has additional minimum and linear phase filter options.
One other thing occurs to me is that I actually own one of these devices, an iPhone 6. (an iPhone 6 Plus, in my case) Maybe I'll give it a try analogue to the Devialet, I just need to find a 1/4" jack to RCA adaptor, I'm sure I have one somewhere. Crazy I know, but might be a bit of fun, and per the measurements the iPhone does not look that far behind the Oppo.
As a final thought, I wish now that I had spent more time and taken more notes during the blind test, it would have been quite enlightening and informative I think. I shall certainly try this next time Archimego comes out with another test.
There is a part three of the results pending, I will be interested to see if my observations were typical or if I am some kind of weird outlier, what's the betting that it is the latter?
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/05/bl...gital.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/05/bl...gital.html
Looking at the posts here it looks like only three of us tried this and sent in some results. Or looking at this more positively, 101 people reported results, meaning this forum alone accounted for 3 percent of the global total, not bad....
For me it was certainly interesting to listen to these devices in truly blind conditions. Per my earlier post I mentioned that there was one device I particularly liked less than the rest, I can now advise that this was device D, which turns out to be a 2001 Sony SCD-CE775 mulit-disc CD player.
For the record, my selections were C, B, A, D in descending order of preference.
It is interesting for me to think back to listening to these files. There are many things you could listen for, bass performance, sound stage, sibilance, and so on. I recall at the time I was listening to one thing in particular, which was HF accuracy and any kind of noise or digital hash in the upper frequencies. The only reason for this is that these aspects of sound happen to be my personal obsession of the moment, so when listening to the files these aspects were naturally prominent in my mind.
Now we have the results, it is therefore interesting for me to look at the measurements and muse over the possibility that something measured correlates to what I thought I was hearing. A slightly problematic approach though, as it is impossible to prove any actual correlation.
I guess that I am happy that I picked the Oppo as being the best, on reputation and measurements it is probably the best item used in the test. I am not getting too smug though, one aspect of the results that surprised me a bit is how close I put the iPhone to the Oppo. Maybe with my expectation bias fully primed I could listen again and find all sorts of deficiencies with the iPhone, but the facts stand, when listening blind I did not find much of a difference between the Oppo and an iPhone 6. All of this does provide food for thought though, as an example, the two devices I liked best were using minimum phase filters, the two devices I like least were using linear phase filters. Does this relate to my HF listening observations? Maybe, or maybe I am putting 2 + 2 together and getting 5, again a case of it not being possible to prove the correlation between cause and effect. As an example, the Sony was also worst performer for jitter, so I expect that there are multiple effects working together Although the LP / MP filter aspect is something I can easily investigate further, especially now the new HQPlayer 4 has additional minimum and linear phase filter options.
One other thing occurs to me is that I actually own one of these devices, an iPhone 6. (an iPhone 6 Plus, in my case) Maybe I'll give it a try analogue to the Devialet, I just need to find a 1/4" jack to RCA adaptor, I'm sure I have one somewhere. Crazy I know, but might be a bit of fun, and per the measurements the iPhone does not look that far behind the Oppo.
As a final thought, I wish now that I had spent more time and taken more notes during the blind test, it would have been quite enlightening and informative I think. I shall certainly try this next time Archimego comes out with another test.
There is a part three of the results pending, I will be interested to see if my observations were typical or if I am some kind of weird outlier, what's the betting that it is the latter?
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
