PonoMusic player by Neil Young

[Fsck]

the idea is that listening+testing=more complete analysis.  I see nothing wrong with that.  I would not rely soley on either one, to be honest.  I think that's all he (and others) are saying.

the ones that ignore test gear entirely, those are the ones I am suspicious of.  but those are not the people I was referring to in any of my posts.

I would basically agree, except that very few (I've personally never heard of anyone) people collect enough samples of subjective listening tests to even make any reasonable suppositions. Even the psychology-types learn basic sampling skills so if any of those guys have bachelor degrees or above, they should try to get a refund.

[GK]

The post-DAC analogue circuitry of this thing is apparently designed by Charles Hanson. Charles is the guy behind Ayre Acoustics, the magic myrtle blocks and the brown noise "irrational but effective" compact disc.

The claims made wrt negative feedback are pseudo technical drivel to the n-th degree. Charles Hanson is an anti-negative feedback crusader. It's his schtick to differentiate his audio products from the competition. According to him negative feedback is "bad for the sound".


 

[jancumps]

.... Charles Hanson is an anti-negative feedback crusader. It's his schtick to differentiate his audio products from the competition. According to him negative feedback is "bad for the sound".


 

Oh no! here on the eevblog we only give negative feedback. Now we're stuck.

[CanadianAvenger]

On the whole listen vs test thing.

About 20 years ago, my company got its first internet connection using an ISDN telephone line. After a few months we started having some problems where the connection kept dropping out. The phone company techs kept coming out and throwing their expensive testers on the line, sometimes leaving them to log over several days, and each time the tester said the line was perfect. After about 5 such service calls, I managed to convince the guy that the tester was not telling the truth. He was an older guy and said he would try one more thing. He reached into his bag, and grabbed his old POTS line tester [basically a clip on analog phone handset] he clipped it on, and almost immediately we could both hear the problem. Every once and a while there was a loud thwacking crackle on the line, like a lightning strike. Sure enough after the tech moved the line to a clean pair, we never had another drop-out after that.

Tests are only as good as the test case they are designed to measure. Listening allows for a much broader evaluation, though to lesser precision.