Mr. “I will not do a blind test, but trust me, I hear the difference” talks about intellectual dishonesty. That’s just comedy gold.
Guys just ignore this Burle guy. He’s just another troll with wiim components trying to provoke others and hijack threads.
Amir doesn’t actually own a hifi system , he just listen to beginner level and entry level equipment, he has no clue what a real hifi system sounds like. It’s a total joke. Like you, he has no scientific basis to conclude anything but his unscientific, laughable flawed testing that fails to control for even most obvious variables like system synergy , power delivery ,and room acoustics. Please go back to ASR. you’re insufferable troll. I’m putting you on Block from here.
This is definitely something psychiatrists should be taking care of, but @Bicycle isn’t just a pathological liar. He’s a spectacularly stupid pathological liar.
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I am grateful that he blocked me. Anyway had no intention to communicate with him any further…
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This post is in support for both @Bicycle’s 2-Points & @aswiss’s reply post, noted above.
When upgrading your system for better Sound Quality, in what order should you select/purchase.
Rules to adhere to:
- Set a budget then find the best speakers/components within that budget. Take into account your hearing ← typically: the older you are, the less high-notes you will hear.
- Sound Quality is mainly noticed & most important when playing stereo music. Hence, your most important speakers are the Front Left (FL) & Front Right (FR) speakers. (Typically for surround sound & 3-dimensional sound, the immersive ambient/movement sound experience is more important.)
- if you desire a surround sound system then after the FL & FR speakers, spend more $$ on your Center speaker then the surround sound speakers.
- if you desire 3-dimensional sound, spend more $$ on your surround speakers than your height/ceiling speakers.
- Subwoofers:
- For music, get subwoofers only if you desire to hear lower audio sounds beyond your front speakers capabilities (like organ music)
- For music, balance the subwoofers’ audio with your main front speakers ← ideally, the speakers & subwoofers are to be invisible within the soundstage
- For surround/immersive Home Theater, choose subwoofers with capable clear low audio & quick LFE sound.
- ALL speakers should be the same family ← this is key to creating a uniform sound in the space. (For a surround system, imagine a singer walking around ← ensure the singer’s tone, timber,… is the same in all speakers.)
- Rule for selecting a component: “Ultimately, the component’s Sound Quality Output should be equal or a bit }pbetter then the component’s Sound Quality Input”. (typically, only hi-end components can improve the sound quality output by reducing noise/interference and by improving clocking)
FYC: For my system upgrade, I followed the following order:
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Ensure you have the best sounding speakers within your budget. ← Ensure good speaker placement (It’s your speakers that set the highest possible level of sound quality; its your speakers that dictate the levels of sound combinations & sound complexities that are possible: such as the possible depth & clarity of instruments, width & depth of the soundstage, dimensionality/position/movement of sound, etc.)
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Ensure your processing engine (DAC/preamp/prepro) matches your speakers sound quality capabilities. ← ultimately, the DAC/preamp/prepro should output equal or less noise than its source components
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Match your power amp to your speakers capabilities
- your power amp drives your speakers; hence, ensure the amplifier’s power is a good match for your specific speakers (some speakers require more power than other speakers ← ask the speaker manufacturer and/or ask your system agent; for example, my Totem Acoustic Mani 1 bookcase speakers require more power than the more expensive floor standing Totem Acoustic Element Metal V2 speakers)
- your power amp is the key component that outputs the analog signals directly to your speakers; assuming the speaker cables prevent noise & interference: your speakers, at best, can only echo what the power amplifier provides
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Setup good power from the wall to your components ← good power reduces noise & interference like RFI/EMI (e.g. wifi, bluetooth, smart devices, etc.) and household power noise (such as light dimmers, fridges, etc.). Note: This step is what gave me the most sound quality improvement. I bought a Torus Power RM-40 BAL Insolated power unit; see https://www.toruspower.com/na-rm/.
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Consider upgrading your sources (consider upgrading to RS130, RS160, etc)
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Room Treatment (e.g., sound absorbers, sound diffusers, floor rug, furniture, bookcases, art decore, etc) ← focus on reducing echo & directing clear sound to listener(s)
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Interconnects like audio cables, Ethernet cables, network switches/hubs, converter adapters, external clocks,… ← focus on reducing noise & interference and focus on syncing the clocks between key components (ultimately, interconnects should not change the type/tone… of sound)
- Good XLR/RCA interconnect cables between the DAC/preamp/prepro and the power amplifier (especially important for a stereo system’s FL,FR speakers’ power amp and for a home theater’s main base-layered speakers’ power amp)
- Good speaker cables (especially for the FL, C, FR speakers)
- Good power cables (especially for your stereo speakers’ and main base-layered speakers’ power amplifier)
- Good source interconnects to the DAC/preamp/prepro
In closing, read Yonettes’ system improvement journey posted in the Official Anthem AVM 70/90 Owners Thread | Page 1461 | AVS Forum
P.S., Yonettes is one of my online mentors. His prime experience & interest is Music Stereo systems.
Oh God.
Look, read your post. Some things right, some things… not so much.
The first thing you need to do is to set a budget. Something you can stick with…
Also take what is said with a grain of salt. This isn’t a one size fits all kind of issue.
You are right that you want to focus on your speakers and source components first.
Note that there is some synergy where you need to consider not just power but type of amp. Some sound better than others. In terms of amps you have different types of power. Class A, AB and D. Note that HiFi Rose markets class AD which is really Class D GanFET. And also note that for each class there’s a wide variety of quality and price points.
Its when you get into the cabling and power that you go off the rails.
When it gets to cables… speaker cables are the most important, then you hit interconnects etc …
For speaker cables, again you don’t need to go crazy. You can make your own, just use good quality components.
Cables matter to a point. For example, there are multiple specs for USB-C a cheap USB-C cable can be bought 3 for $10.00 but these tend to have lower quality components and shielding. Also can do 480mb/s vs USB-C 4 cables that can handle 100W power but also either 10 or 40Gb/s for $25-$35 a cable.
You don’t need upgraded power cables. Nor do you need to replace your wall sockets. Note that if you know what you’re doing… you can upgrade from builder basic but its not necessary and you don’t need to go nuts here either. ‘Hospital Grade’ means slightly better components and tolerances but that’s it. Nothing fancy.
You DO NEED A Surge Protector. Its good insurance. Depending on where you live getting a power conditioner or battery backup makes sense. (Not just surges but also brown outs. ) Battery backups tend to offer good protection but again you don’t need to go wild.
In terms of network connection… go w CAT 7 or CAT 8 wiring for interconnect. Better quality components and shielding. Also not much more expensive that CAT 5 wiring.
Not to defend Amir… he is a tool… but AFAIK, he does have his own system… not sure what it is…
As to his testing…
Amir does have an EE degree. but that’s about it. If you look at LinkedIn Profile he’s done a little bit of programming but then moved into the management track at Microsoft. (Not hands on… paper pusher)
Over the years, I’ve met a lot of Amirs.
He did buy some expensive testing gear and his tests are accurate. However he is really only testing one thing yet he makes a lot of assumptions and bases his judgement on his tests. Its like comparing two Bourbons for alcohol content and because they have the same proof, they must all taste the same.
(You can see the fallacy in that.)
W.R.T Burle… You do have to take what the YT reviewers have to say. If they review a product and give a negative review… they then face the wrath of the distributor or vendor. So no new products and they end up fading away. There are some that are shills. But there are also others that give honest reviews and have actually faced threats of lawsuits from vendors because they gave an honest but poor review.
Definitely. Of course this is in no way determined by either price or class of the amp. A well-made amplifier being a “straight wire with gain” there should not be any difference (apart from power, looks, ergonomics etc.) between good ones.
They are very important, indeed. If you do not have them, your speakers won’t do anything. And if they are far too thin, you might set your house on fire. That’s where the importance of speaker cables begins and ends.
That point being that if a digital cable isn’t broken and conforms to spec, it will work, just the same as any other cable. In real world, there’s a far better chance that a $10 cable will be conformant and not broken than a $200 one.
Indeed. One needs to remember though that a) “noise filtering” in surge protectors generally does nothing, and b) most protectors, including all the fancy audiophile ones, use MOVs that wear out with time, and will stop protecting with no indication at some point, and die after being actually hit by a decent surge. Use a SurgeX/ZeroSurge/Brickwall units that do not use MOVs.
Good Lord! Once more, with feeling. There is NO SUCH THING as a CAT7 cable that would plug into anything you have at home. By definition. CAT7 uses a different connector. It will not fit into any consumer equipment.
If you have a “CAT7” cable that does fit, you have been swindled. Of course anyone buying an audiophile Ethernet cable has been swindled by definition anyway.
CAT8 is thick, inflexible, likely to introduce ground loops, and serves no useful purpose, unless you are setting up a system on a factory floor. In apartments and small homes, 5e is perfectly fine for most applications. If you want to be future-proof run CAT6 or 6a which will happily push 10Gbps across anything but a gigantic mansion. In the latter case you will be better off running a fiber trunk between distribution switches anyway.
That’s a common complaint from people who had paid for fake CAT7 cables and do not want to hear it…
I believe it has been described on his site many times. It’s pretty good.
He ran all/some of Microsoft’s audio projects and was involved in lots of hands-on testing. Properly done testing, of course, unlike the people criticizing him with zero understanding of either science or technology.
The fallacy is in a false analogy. If you can point at something affecting sound that he does not measure, point it out. The fact is that you can’t. If you could, you’d be collecting Nobels and hefty paychecks from the industry.
I did mention “set a budget” first in the Rules…
You went in more detail than me ← that’s great; it’ll help many readers.
The only area we differ is “power”. My previous system’s preamp and all my source components were fried due to a surge. Hence, power became an important issue for my next system. After a lot of research, I discovered Torus Power. I bought the Torus Power RM-40 BAL unit. To my surprise, this turned out to be the biggest sound improvement for my system. All my system components are now connected on this unit (hence, my system is totally isolated from household power noises and all my system components have Toroidal Isolation Power plus Power Surge Protection) ← the price of this unit was definitely worth it for me.
As for “power cables”, opinions vary. The only thing I’ll say is, when I purchased the power cables “on trial”, I was hoping to improve my system by only a few more percents beyond my Room Treatments. I did notice the impoved sound. I have no regrets.