I have not heard all top the shelf dacs but have done a comparison with some. The Varese is very special.
State-of-the-Art Digital
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
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HFN test of DCS Varese…
Seems like it!
The best cannot be determined, I think.
Also, we would hope that trickle down is a bonus of the ongoing war.
Sales, will at the end of the day crown a ‘winner’ of sorts. Sales… the Company that sells the most Units IS the best.
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Or has the best marketing team shilling for them.
In fact. Being a subjective hobby, any one can claim his best and denigrate those he does not like - the later being the preferred hobby of some people in this forum.
But you are right sales are an indicator of success in this hobby - people buy what they prefer - what they consider the best for their budget.
The just issued TheAbsoluteSound dCS Varese test says it is a "quantum leap". People hating the use of the word in tweak marketing do not need to be upset - it is used in figurative style, not in a technical way.
Is there another hobby where so many people constantly change their gear? When people don't end up owning what they purchase for very long, I'm not sure what sales indicate.
Well, as far as I know people in photography or gaming often change gear. I can imagine people who fish and dive also change - otherwise how would shops survive?
How far do you know on this topic?
I did amateur photography, and my equipment was pretty static once I bought a very good camera and a set of flashes and a set of very good lenses. I know two professional photographers, and I know that they do not often change gear.
In my recollection the nature of photography equipment is that once you purchase a set of lenses you are pretty much locked into that brand's camera bodies. It's quite a project to make a wholesale swap to a different brand.
Huh?
How does any retail store that sells something more enduring than cookies survive?
...in the (bi)cycling world, we say: the correct number of bikes to own is n+1. And critics criticize noting one can only ride one bike at a time. It's an old story. Road bike. Gravel bike. Fat-tire snow bike. Mountain bike. Classic restored 80s bike. I ride em all, albeit not at the same time. And they get changed/updated at times.
Probably more than you think - I do not look to myself, but to friends who are in the photography as an hobby, not professionals , but organize expositions and travels to take photographs. They often swap machines and lenses. Digital cameras improve faster than digital audio.
Even myself , in the 80's and 90's went through probably a dozen Nikon's, Ashai Pentax's and Canon's.
We are addressing hobbies. Once you do it for a living, things change...
You can change in the brand. Once I got Nikon lenses I stayed in the brand. I have found that brand love in photography is not different from audio.
Well, I assume you have never joined an amateur fisherman group in a boat trip. A list of just the essentials from the net:
Fishing Rod and Reel Combo
Basic tackle box with hooks, bobbers, sinkers, and lures.
Lures and Baits
Live Bait Kit – aerator and bait bucket for worms or minnows.
Fishing Pliers
Fish Gripper
Tackle Bag or Backpack
Fillet Knife
Fishing Net
Waterproof Gloves
Polarized Sunglasses
Portable Chair or Bucket
And next the indispensable gadgets:
Portable Fish Finder
Headlamp
Multi-tool
Deeper Smart Sonar
Electronic Bite Alarm
Rechargeable Heated Insoles
Solar-Powered Fishing Line Spooler
What do you think members discuss in fisherman net groups and fisherman magazines? The size and weight of the fishes?
The human capacity to spend money in hobbies is unlimited!
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Oh nay nay, is n-1, where n is the number that brings about divorce or separation!
But marketing of high end products in any area, be it automobiles or hifi, is always about hyperbole. Each year, car companies from BMW to Mercedes-Benz to Lexus market each new model year as a “quantum leap” over the previous year. In reality, almost nothing has changed but a few bells and whistles. Genuine innovation occurs only once every 50-100 years. The transition from gas guzzlers to EVs is an example of a genuine innovation. Since the Ford Model-T, we’ve been driving essentially the same internal combustion engine for almost a century till EVs came about. There’s been a huge improvement in reliability and performance. But the underlying technology is the same. We had to wait for EVs and self-driving cars for genuine progress.
In high -end audio, streaming is the main new innovation in 40+ years since compact discs were invented by Phillips and Sony in the early 1980s. PCM technology was invented by Denon in the mid-1970s. Fifty years later, it’s still the format for almost all digital recordings. In speaker design, there’s been no innovation in 50 years that I can point to, since the development of the Quad electrostatics. Moving coil loudspeakers have been produced for over 70 years. The old Altec Voice of the Theater models are still highly prized. The Klipschorn is 70+ years old.
Don’t expect quantum leaps every year or even every decade. In fact, even in science. quantum leaps occur rarely. Einstein’s theories have stood for a century.
YesOr has the best marketing team shilling for them.
Also, attracting customers that will be happy with the purchase and then want to sell, because there Are other things they want to try and they Are easily swayed by marketing that does not deliver the goods, thats disservice in the worst way.
For the company and the end user…
So the hype must be real..
And IF the Expert agrees, and all of them…
Still, you must have sales…
And you must have trickle down…
And IT must Also live up to the hype.
Fair enough. I deleted my post to which you are responding. Please feel free to delete your post.
Sorry no. Although we can find early work on related subjects, pulse-code modulation, or PCM, was invented by british engineer Alec Reeves in 1937, who developed it while working at a telephone company.
Denon is in fact known to have developed a commercial digital recorder in 1972. But there were many previous digital recording systems - the work of Thomas Stockman at MIT is usually considered a benchmark in digital audio.
More of PCM’s history here. I stand by what I said. Denon invented PCM as we know it now as a technology for digital recording. The earlier studies were academic. One can go back to the 19th century to stuff like Morse code if you want to beat the academic bush.
Pulse-code modulation - Wikipedia
More of PCM’s history here. I stand by what I said. Denon invented PCM as we know it now as a technology for digital recording. The earlier studies were academic. One can go back to the 19th century to stuff like Morse code if you want to beat the academic bush.
Pulse-code modulation - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Sorry, but you just wrote: "PCM technology was invented by Denon in the mid-1970s" . And this is not true, as anyone can read in the link you supplied.
I referred to Reeves because he submitted a patent to the use of PCM for carrying sound in 1943 - not just academic work. But academic work can be invention!
BTW NHK is the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, not Denon. And they developed the first PCM recorder in 1967, as said in the link you provided.
Invention is not subjective, it is an objective fact. PCM means pulse code modulation, not "digital 8 channel recorder".
I personally consider the inclusion of automated emergency braking and adaptive headlights to be a quantum leap in automobile safety technology over the last 10 years resulting in a reduction of injuries and fatalities when employed. In my book, that qualifies as "genuine innovation". I now have a vehicle that includes both features and I feel "safer", for myself and others, when driving.
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