Let's establish a set of listening parameters and tracks. You make notes on your method and listening notes and keep it for yourself. Send me the gear you tested (UHA4, Zip, ODAC, etc.) and I'll replicate the method and make my own notes. After we'll both compare and post here. We can even have another person we both know make their own notes. After I return the gear to you, then we can go over the posted notes and we can see who is or isn't hearing what.
Unfortunately, uncontrolled tests are not evidence for this kind of thing so your proposed protocol won't establish anything.
That's not zealotry, that's physics. If there's one parameter that he forgot to mention here, it is the fallibility of human perception.
Sure it won't...
If all dacs / amps sound the same, then Tyll must be wasting his time doing this Big Sound 2015:http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/big-sound-2015-help-im-drowning-electronics#3JBKjkc8l8bYJ0vX.97
I don't think anyone says that they all sound the same. I certainly don't.
People absolutely say that. People like the AudioCritic believe that any properly designed amplifier that is not actively clipping will sound indistinguishable from any other amplifier, and the only possibly difference will be if you purposefully introduce a form of distortion via something like 300Bs. "Amplifiers have been quite excellent for more than a few decades, offering few opportunities for engineering breakthroughs. There are significant differences in topology, measured specifications, physical design, and cosmetics, not to mention price, but the sound of all properly designed units is basically the same. The biggest diversity is in power supplies, ranging from barely adequate to ridiculously overdesigned. That may or may not affect the sound quality, depending on the impedance characteristics and efficiency of the loudspeaker. The point is that, unless the amplifier has serious design errors or is totally mismatched to a particular speaker, the sound you will hear is the sound of the speaker, not the amplifier. As for the future, I think it belongs to highly refined class D amplifiers, such as Bang & Olufsen’s ICEpower modules and Bruno Putzeys’s modular Hypex designs, compact and efficient enough to be incorporated in powered loudspeakers. The free-standing power amplifier will slowly become history, except perhaps as an audiophile affectation. What about vacuum-tube designs? If you like second-harmonic distortion, output transformers, and low damping factors, be my guest. (Can you imagine a four-way powered loudspeaker driven by vacuum-tube modules?)"I'm sure Jason and Mike would be delighted to learn that they completely wasted their time creating the Rag, when it can sound no better than the Magni 2. Everything that can be done has been done, and only your headphones can make any difference to the sound.
