Many years ago, I had a Crown D150a and a Crown IC150a lab power amp and pre amp. With the Klipsch La Scala, they sounded so beautiful. I still regret selling them but I was married and we were buying a house. I will never get married again.

The thing is, pro amps and HiFi amps both need to be simple to be successful, pro amps have to be simple for reliability reasons, but they can also be simple because all of the "special functions" are built into the mixing consoles whereas HiFi amps have to be simple so that there's no junk in the signal path, the problem being most consumers want the junk, they want loads of flashy electronics, multiple inputs etc, none of which add to the sound, some of which can detract from it. If a pro amp is designed and built properly with good quality components, it can sound just as good as the mid-range HiFi amps, for a lot less money!

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

Agreed

I have two Crown XLS drivecores driving my Maggies. Couldn't be happier, and yes i have tried other amps. These are superior sounding. They have built in bypass filters and i find them extremely useful. To each his own.

@tonyvaldiconza3914

11 ай бұрын

I'm using two Crown XLS 1502 and a Schiit Audio Freya+ (Electro-Harmonix Gold Pin 6SN7) driving my 1.7i and very happy with the combo. Plus two SVS 3000 Micro subs.

@stephenstevens6573

11 ай бұрын

@@tonyvaldiconza3914 I'm using an old SAE 2100L preamp!! It's fantastic! I'm only running one sub. An Infinity RS12. Not so happy with the sub,but it does the job.

Not many bussiness have the guts to say what Paul said about sending it out for 30 day free trial and I’m sure EVERYONE watching would never miss treat an option like that most of us would not take up the offer but for those that are seriously considering going down that route and if it means that they end up with an amplifier that’s 20 $30,000 of equipment and they’re more than happy to pay it. I think that is a wonderful option to offer and those that are genuinely keen will pursue it and people like me that simply know that while I’d love to try it for 30 days my bank balance can’t exceed much more than the PS audio Sprout. I’m just happy that the videos are still free.

@LeonFleisherFan

11 ай бұрын

Honestly, I've been an audiophile for decades, and don't see how anyone would buy anything in that price category without demo in their own system. Certainly not a) based on someone else's opinion (self-inflated critics), or b) based on someone's measurements (dito).

@charliewilliams9811

11 ай бұрын

Repack and haul a pair of 100 lb monoblocks to FedEx ?Too much work for me. I went to Class D for the weight and the lack of heat.

@tacofortgens3471

11 ай бұрын

​@@charliewilliams9811may I ask what amp you got? I am looking at Peachtree Nova 150 which is on sale for 899

I ran a Crown Lxi 1500 for a year or so - bought it as a summer amp because it runs so cool. I was amazed at how good it sounded for the price. I got it used for around $450 and sold it for about the same. Should have kept it - they went up in price a bunch during Covid. Hard to beat for the price, looks - not so much.

@tacofortgens3471

11 ай бұрын

It does sound good, it just doeant give you the 3d soundstage, and imaging. It just paints a great picture.

@jasontimothywells9895

11 ай бұрын

Get a old crest Amp, I have 9 from back in 1997 I've only had to have the filter caps in the power supplies.

I use a Crown Lxi 1500 to power my 1974 ESS AMT-3 Rock Monitors and it sounds just fine. It's rated at 450 watts rms into 4 ohms, but I use but a fraction of that, so it's operating at a very low level of distortion.

I have had a few different boutique amplifiers in my living room including Krell, Classe, NAD, Rotel and Vincent. The Crown XLS602 I run has bested them all. Just a much larger sound with more slam and a lot more bass.

Ive got a Crown XLS1502 running my main B&W 604S3 speakers and a bridged XLS1002 running my passive SVS sub. Im very pleased with the performance and sound and keeps my receiver running cool

I just acquired a Carver PA-420 professional amplifier and coupled it with a Carver C-2 preamplifier. I currently have JBL L-100s and the setup sounds fantastic.

I owned the Mirage M1 speakers when I was younger over 30 years ago and it was difficult finding an amp to drive them properly. Many audiophile amps rated between 100-200 watts just couldn't do the job. I ended up with Classe audio DR-8s bridged, which produced 280watts and what a huge difference. The sound was amazing, I still miss them to this day!!

I have a used Crown CTS 1200 that came from a closed IMAX theater that I use for live music sound (600 watt/channel into 4 or 8 ohm). I have used it to drive a pair of power hungry Acoustic Research AR9s. While the dynamics are incredible, I settled on purchasing a second Hafler MOSFET amp and bi-amping. The sound quality from the Haflers is so sweet! Of course, it all comes at a cost.

I have the XLS 2502 (better than the XLI IMO) and it does what it does, deliver power. I played around with pres to get the sound I liked and I cannot be more happy. I had a Rotel RB1552 MKII power amp and there was barely any difference between both, with the Crown taking a huge win in the bass department.

I believe Crown made home amps in the early 70's.

@glenncurry3041

11 ай бұрын

Crown was started in the late '40's by a minister, making tape desks reliable enough to be used in missionaries around the world.

@BennieWilll

11 ай бұрын

Crown also made wonderful reel to reel decks

My philosophy is from a very old saying: keep it simple stupid. The more stuff, bells and whistles you add the more headaches you end up with.

I have four crown xls (two) 2500 and (two) 2000 all mono powering a pair of JBL floor standing and two subs. Sounds great and even better after implementing Paul's recoomendations.

@Kottacska3

11 ай бұрын

What recommendatios?

@BetterISupposeYeah

11 ай бұрын

@@Kottacska3 placement away from the front wall, placment of subs, short heavy gauge (10 ) speaker wires and long interconnects (all XLR), and such and all other basic stuff etc etc

Tried a lot of different mid fi amps and the sound more the same than different. Tried a Parasound Halo and i was blowned away. And it wasn't even their higher Halo models.

A really good preamp /tube would be my first thing regardless of what power amp, the crown is not bad sounding ,but you could do better. I have used the crowns for subs with good results, but found them not great for higher fr.

Great info thx

Pro amps get a lot of generalizations thrown at them, mostly about (leveled from "audiophiles") how they're not appropriate in a domestic setting wrt. sound quality. Crown made the Studio Reference I and II models back in the day, many of them still running smoothly today, and they're great sounding amps by most any standard, I'd say. The old Macro Tech series (now iTech, I believe), meant for harsh-life touring applications, actually sound very good too, if it weren't for their loud-as-helicopter fans. The newer iTech's are coupled to the likes of JBL M2 monitors, actively, and it's a highly capable sounding combo. Personally I use three MC² Audio T-series amps (one T1500 and two T2000's), actively, in my home setup, and they're fantastic amps. One of them (a T2000) replaced a Belles SA30 pure class A amp, a great amp in its own right, with no loss in resolution, tonality or other. Indeed the T2000 more than holds its own.

My experience is admittedly limited in this even though I have been an audiophile for many years (I am older than Paul!). Still, in my experience, I have not found pro audio (amps or speakers) to equal GOOD home audio gear for critical listening in my house -- so my experience and opinion coincide with Paul's. PA equipment is designed to be used in settings other than one's house, often for different purposes than is good home equipment. Still, I concede that the things that matter most for each of us are what sounds best to us, what we can afford, and what we consider the best value AFTER we have done comparison listening tests.

What’s the difference between pro and home..pro is made to endure the road..noise is most of the time not a concern…Home is all about specs, sig to noise, ..but they’re not made to move around constantly…the exception is the McIntosh amps they used for the Gratefull Dead concerts…

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

Bells and whistles

Crown Studio Reference (1 or 2) eats most high end amps for lunch

Fair comment.

I have a Crown PS-400 amp that I would never get rid of it sounds great better than most overpriced amps hands down

Here in the 3rd world it’s impossible to get a trial. Efin dealers don’t even reply when Emotiva’s head office tells them to do so. Efin china heritage. I have Maggie’s. Back in 1989 while in Japan the dealer always let me audition gear. All I had was a sony integrated amp. The dealer let me try a Macintosh Integrated amp. It wasn’t so great. Had a Pioneer integrated amp. Wasn’t much better. In ‘91 auditioned an Accuphase power amp and Accuphase pre. Returned the pre, but kept the power amp. Then he sent me a conrad-johnson PV-3. Then the magic happened! Moved to 3rd world in 2009. Accuphase died. Replaced with an Adcom. It was all that was affordable back then. It was good, but the basd couldn’t compete with there Accuphase. Covid hits and stimulus checks arrive. Got a good Class D power amp. Great power and deep bass. However I couldn’t hear much difference between the tube pre and a solid state pre (Hafler 101). Summary. Try a good class D amp. Paul’s company makes them too

Get few amps in for A/B/C comparison. But you will not be disappointed with PS Audio stuff. But comparison is must

I'll say, since you already have that amp and the Mirage has a dual binding post on each speaker, split the signal, and just get yourself a 200-250 Hifi for the mid-high frequencies and the crown one for the low frequencies then you're all set, and if you split the signal with a passive crossover will be even better....

He is asking if a similar (watt wise) HiFi amp will sound better than his XLi Pro amp. Most probably - right? But what about the the 10 x higher cost - is it worth it!? Duh...

As a fun exploration to see if I could build a speaker and system that performs the way I want... as close to a high end audiophile like sound as I could get and with the stones of a PA... I used pro speakers and amps. Frankly home audio amps just are not built to make what's needed to drive pro drivers properly unless you are talking seriously expensive amps. Pro gear can sound great when utilized well and benefit from many audiophile practices.

@Paul. Dear Paul, I’d love to audition one of your amps, but I’m overseas. That’s the problem

Hi Paul. love all your videos keep em coming.all the best .Rob Birmingham England

It's always been a funny dichotomy with the pro and home audio intermixing. Pro audio has to perform not only reliably, but the sonics at 120dB have to be ultra clean and accurate. But no pro audio installation is without some mount of sound shaping through mixers, active crossovers, equalizers and level adjustments. So it's hard to really say how well an amp like the Crown would sound from home speaker to speaker, driven by an audiophile preamp, likely with no tone controls. Home audio preamps and pro power amps sometimes don't function with compatible parameters. But I bet you can match up some quite well if you know what you're doing.

@majicogarcia8417

6 ай бұрын

I use a Mackie VLZ1202 Mixer as the preamp for my Crown XLS602. Sounds great. The Mackie mixer , like the Crown amp, has bested all of the other Audiophile preamps I tested it against.

Or he could built his own - using ice-power modules 👍💪🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰

Paul is a treasure with these videos and his awesome company. I remember years ago he auditioned a Crown (proably the 300CD) back in the late '70s IRRC, and to his ears he thought the highs sounded like broken glass, LOL.I'm loyal Paul watcher and a fan of his company even though I'm not a customer, and much of the enjoyment I get from my system has been informed by Paul's shared knowledge, so keep 'em coming boss. Fully appreciating that Paul's ears are better than mine, I am totally pleased with three re-capped and AETechron-serviced '80s-era Crown PS-200s I own, two of which were purchased on line after being used in small churches! My main system runs "rat rod style" with only an unpowered SYS preamp switch and an Auris WiFi DAC (ESS Sabre chip). It drives a speaker output level REL t5i sub and a pair of luscious big baffle Wharfdate Heritage Edition Lintons, strung together with a full set of Mogami cables and interconnects. My total Mid-Fi investment is under 2500 bananas and this rig is butter to my ears and all who visit. IMO, with 133 wpc +/- into the Lintons when they dip to under 4 ohms, there's enough overhead in these Crowns to allow a great SNR, after breakin and a bunch of fiddling to get the gain right between the analog switch and the WiFi DAC.

If a guy sells a thing, asking that guy if the thing he sells is worth the investment will only result in one answer regardless of how that answer aligns to reality.

Many pro amps (if not class d) Use something like class H, where the amp voltage tracks or is switched depending on the requested output power. This gives a significant efficiency improvement (heat reduction), but might have some negative impact on the sound quality. Besides that..I once bought a defective Crown XTI2000 to repair. After that, I will never buy a Crown again. Large heatsinks soldered on the pcb. It was a !!"*@# to replace the power transistors.

@andrewwalsh5837

11 ай бұрын

I have the Dynacord powermate MK2, 700w per chan at 4ohm, powered mixer, i think the sound on that is amazing, in my living room now as my sound system as i dont do the bars and clubs anymore, to me it beats any domestic amps in sound quality, put power aside for a minute, yes it can produce an amense amount of power, but played on normal house listening levels it sounds nice and warm and rich, thats class H, well AB output stage with class H power supply for effienency, I have never liked domestic hifi stuff even hi end, i do like the vintage amps and recievers from the mid to late 70's even early 80's, i have a akai aa-1175 from 1978 stereo reciever that sounds nice, 75W X 2 into 8 ohm, a bit more at 4 ohm, sort of mono block construction, 2 power supllies 1 for each channel

Yamaha px5

I do find it funny that audiophiles will go to concerts with bands that use Pro Amps and then go home and try to recreate the concert but refuse to use the Pro Amps it was originally created by. Sorry, I'm pro Pro amp. I have a Crown CTs 4200 I used for a while but I replaced it with a couple QSC CX254's. Never happier. The Crown was a tiny bit harsh in the top end but had killer bass. The QSC's are great across the board and are just classic A/B amps. They dont change the sound at all unless you use the limiter/filter dip switches on the back. Same size as my receiver. No wine through the speakers at low volume. Has variable speed cooling fans which is very quiet. They retail around 2 grand each and I picked them up for around $250 each in almost brand new condition. Also QSC builds their boxes upside down. All the components (boards, caps, circuits) are all mounted to the top and the bottom is left empty and gravity is your friend. If water gets in the cabinet it just sits in the bottom not hurting anything. An added benefit of that is dust and debris never settle on the components keeping them cool and clean over its lifetime. My Infinity RS IIIa's are power ho's and have killed everything they have come in contact with over the last 30 years. Now I have all the power they need and then some and they have never sounded better. All I would say is, know what you are buying. There is a lot of commercial amps out there you dont want. You have to make it work with your system and for most a 70V system will not so watch what you are buying.

@AT-wl9yq

11 ай бұрын

"I do find it funny that audiophiles will go to concerts with bands that use Pro Amps and then go home and try to recreate the concert but refuse to use the Pro Amps it was originally created by." The don't mic the PA system, they plug directly into the mixing board for recording.

For us mere peasants the crown xli series is a godsend. Never heard an audiophile grade stereo. It would probably ruin my life. I have a large room with a set of cerwin vega sl-15s powered by a crown xli2500 and a set of old ls-12s powered by a crown xli1500 run by a schiit preamp. NoRez in the cabinets and better caps in the crossovers. Probably sounds terrible to Paul but i think it sounds great. I would love to hear a PS Audio setup but like i said it would ruin it for me...

Q: Should I become your customer? A: Well, DUH!!!

@drdelewded

11 ай бұрын

HAHAHA yeah

There are some high end audio power amps that are used in the pro market .... Bryston comes to mind. The pros may want reliability first over sound quality ( maybe not ) ....... but there are some company's that can deliver both. They're the ones you consistently see in both high end consumer and pro markets.

It's truly amazing the way PS Audio will ship any product to an address in the States free of charge .... imagine the cost of shipping a BHK 250 to Phoenix ! If the potential customer have to pay the return shipping cost should they not want to go ahead with the purchase ?

I always wondered about that. How about other brands? Yamaha comes to mind.

@roofpizza1250

11 ай бұрын

Yamaha 'hides' their pro amps in their catalogue and aren't found anywhere near their regular or high end products.

get a purifi/hypex, state of the art technology at not "audiophile" price

What’s the difference between an audiophile amp and a pro amp these days?

@marckant3611

11 ай бұрын

I think audiophile amps have lower noise and distortion with moderate power of say 5 - 400 Watts @4 Ohms, while professional amps mostly have much more power with higher distortion?

@zambotv8150

11 ай бұрын

I have some oldrr Lab Gruppen amps, they can put out 2500 to 7000 Watts per channel... Newer ones 10K per channel

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

That will depend largely on your end-use scenario. The really high powered stuff is for sound reinforcement and public address use, like in a stadium where you are distributing hundreds of watts to multiple speakers. In this case reliability is more important than sound quality, although most of this stuff manages pretty decent frequency and distortion specs. For most home listening you really only need about 50 to 80 watts per channel, unless you want to make your ears bleed. Most living room listening is done at 2 and 3 watts with peaks that might hit 20 on movie effects. In private listening rooms where people are trying to make their ears bleed power usually averages about 10 watts with peaks to 100 watts. I've used 3 Crown XLS-1002 amplifiers in a stack to power high end home theatre. With over 300 w/ch on tap and the gains turned down to sane levels, they perform brilliantly. But that is an exception to the rule. It's way over-powered for the task, but strangely also much cheaper than HiFi gear. There are differences in input levels. Most home amps are designed to reach clipping at about 1 volt of input. The pro stuff generally wants 2 volts or more. Also most pro amps are using balanced audio to accommodate longer runs of line level cables between consoles and power amps. But inside the box, they're pretty much the same equipment as we use. Overall ... I see no big distinction between pro and home. Lots of people use pro amps in their listening rooms with very good results.

@zambotv8150

11 ай бұрын

@@Douglas_Blake_579 The voice coils on my BMS 18s are 4 inch diameter and they have an excursion of 10mm each direction, they are in a massive enclosure and need loads of power to move them. The windings on hifi speakers tend to be much leaner, the drivers are lighter

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

@@marckant3611 Not so much imho. Most here are thinking "Pro Amps" means 4 million watts with a power truck attached. Most "Pro Amps" are made for Home Theater up to movie theaters, small bands, theater groups, bars, restaurants and where I got my last 2 from, Church's. I have QSC CX254, 4ohms, 250 watts, 4 channels. Nothing insane and is so easy for them to achieve today its almost like they cant make it bad if they tried.

It's an interesting question this one, and the answers are almost always interesting to boot; no exception here either Paul. My stance is that HiFI amps and Pro Amps are both tools for a specific job. In a HiFi application, you are seeking to reproduce something that has been recorded; you want something that presents the recordings in a way you like, but also in an honest a way possible. The purposes of a Pro Amp is to essentially get the job done. I'm not saying Pro Amps cannot sound good (like Paul, I don't like the sound of Crown Amps either) but they are mostly intended to get your speakers working. In the pro world, we are often using DSP for all manner of things; notching out troublesome feedback frequencies or tuning the system to fit an environment.

@shangrilaladeda

11 ай бұрын

Crown doesn’t color the sound at all that is the definition of hi fi you have been lied too any change from the original sound it’s not hi fi anymore that is the definition you people came up with not me

@johnmcquay82

11 ай бұрын

@@shangrilaladeda All amplifiers have a signature sound to them, as do any and all of the components in the signal path. If they didn't, people wouldn't weigh one brand up against another; there would be one brand for everything.

@Kottacska3

11 ай бұрын

@@johnmcquay82 Like Ashly FET for me😊

@shangrilaladeda

11 ай бұрын

@@johnmcquay82 crown has no signature sound it’s built for pros and they can’t be lied to like the general public. It’s the rack look and industrial look that make most people frown on crown while the pros like it and the general public don’t, it’s the same with grass for bentgrass is considered a weed but you’ll find bentgrass all over rich neighborhoods so the poor call it a weed and the rich cultivate it

@johnmcquay82

11 ай бұрын

@@shangrilaladeda All amplifiers have a sound to them. No amplifier is simple a "wire with gain".

Wow you block my other comment

Remember, this man is a salesman. Pro amps>>>>>hifi amps. There’s a sucker born every minute….

I think Paul was mostly referring to Crown's power amps. Actually many non- pro high end audiophile salons were carrying and demonstrating Crown's Straight Line SL1 & SL2 preamps, quite a few decades ago. For sound quality they easily beat the Adcom preamp which they A/B'd for me. I hope the mere mention of A/B doesn't get the salivary glands going with some people like Pavlov's Do_g. Even though they were called Straight Line, I do think I recall them having tone controls. They were playing a Capitol label lp, and I recall the much too plentiful ticks and pops being annoying.. They sounded less pronounced on the Adcom preamp, which was darker sounding. Capitol records had the worst quality control in the industry; and one of the worst sound quality. On The Absolute Sounds Super Disc List, can anyone think of even one Capitol lp? I know the Dark Side Of The Moon on there was the British EMI SHVL pressing. So were the classicals. All British EMI I believe. There was a writer for High Fidelity magazine who was always getting on Capitol's quality control guys; as their pressings had so many ticks and pops that it was ridiculous. Actually more like loud snaps I think the TAS Super Disc List had more golden era RCA lps on it than anything. In the literature that comes with RCA's Living Stereo SACD's, they highlight that they used expensive Siltech brand cables for their mastering. High End Cables are really getting their due mention now. My local dealer just cannot keep them in stock. It's such an easy, convenient way to improve your sound quality. Remember cussing while fiddling with phono cartridges years ago? With cables it's just plug and play. Even fairly expensive cables are cheaper than upgrading amp or source, once you get to a certain level. Of course recording studios upgrading all the cables they'd need to upgrade, would cost a fortune. Some of the "Truly" great sounding labels like American Gramaphone (Mannheim Steamroller's label), do use audiophile cables. Sheffield and M& K Realtime used audiophile cables too. I'm pretty sure Mofi and Acoustic Sounds use audiophile cables in their mastering also. These are all pro recording enterprises, but not many if any "Pro Brand" equipment used by them. They are among our finest few audiophile software producers..

Sound quantity versus sound quality

All pro amps do is push out watts.

Pau;l could sell a T-bone to a vegetarian

people buying gear not meant for home use, how is this even possible......... they are named and labeled for their intended use. only exception might be PA amps for subwoofers.

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

Go online do a search ... there's nothing stopping you from ordering professional audio equipment. It's not like you're breaking any laws...

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

@@Douglas_Blake_579 lol .... but ...but....its marked Professional Use Only

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

@@finscreenname Okay ... then don't go online and do a search. No worries.

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

@@Douglas_Blake_579 I'm on your side bro

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

@@finscreenname It was a joke....

Before you knock the pro-amps, keep in mind that almost all of your music collection was mixed and mastered on pro-audio equipment... consoles, pre-amps, power amps, speakers ... none of it made for audiophiles.

@Fastvoice

11 ай бұрын

Real pro power amps are used for public concerts, not for studio monitors. In most cases these are active speakers and don't need external power amps.

@sudd3660

11 ай бұрын

douglas please, now we have to have studio monitors for home now, get informed will you. its not even logical.

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

As I said in another post, I find it funny that audiophiles will go to concerts with bands that use Pro Amps and then go home and try to recreate the concert but refuse to use the Pro Amps it was originally created by.

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

@@sudd3660 Actually, most studio monitors are much better behaved than the stuff we use... and a fair bit cheaper too. Nothing illogical about that.

@sudd3660

11 ай бұрын

@@finscreenname you find it funny, i find it ignorant of you to think like that. and audiophiles in many cases do not want to recreate a pa system sound.

Crown=Sterile

@schemkesa

11 ай бұрын

That's the way it should be. Sterile, transparant. Nothing to add or subtract

So we know what he thinks of the sound of Crown💩 I wonder his take on QSC since he has said in the past some of their PCBs are made for them by QSC.

@finscreenname

11 ай бұрын

The few examples I have used of Crown and QSC I know my Infinity's prefer QSC by far but you have to make sure all limiters and filters are left off or it will screw with the sound.

First😅❤❤

@NoEgg4u

11 ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/mXd3ppZplaWTk7g.html

The number of people that think a pro amp is just as good as an audiophile amp is hilarious.

2nd😂

@NoEgg4u

11 ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/lXxsy9htnpXRk9I.html

First you can hear differences in cables, and now between two solid state amps. I am begging you. Set up a double blind test with high quality speakers (not PS audio, something you are not intimately familiar with) and do a double blind test between the crown and two other hifi amps within with $200 of the crowns price (to keep it somewhat fair monetarily). Make sure the DBs at the listening position are exactly the same for each amp. I defy you to consistently identify which amp is which over multiple trials. Please just stop this talk. Stop the madness. It’s embarrassing.

@sidesup8286

11 ай бұрын

How some people just cannot comprehend that others have far better perception than them. They have no trouble knowing they are not the best chess player, fastest runner, can't do as well as others on an eye chart; yet it is inconceivable to them, that people can hear better. They don't even know what to listen for. Paul is not a freak. Neither was J. Gordon Holt, Harry Pearson, great audio designers and reviewers, musicians and more people than not who have heard great cables at length.

@edd2771

11 ай бұрын

Personally I have high frequency loss and I have no doubt Paul hears better than I do. But that’s irrelevant. The question is will the people who hear these differences hear them on a double blind basis? That’s the question no one dares attempt to answer. Such a test is an existential threat to a manufacturer who dares not display that the differences are not identifiable, much less worth paying for. And if you are a consumer who bought a bunch of expensive cables you don’t want to learn the truth either. But just the same, do the test! If I’m wrong I’ll be happy.

@sidesup8286

11 ай бұрын

No one dares get into double blind listening testing with cables etc. for many good reasons, and that there are no big differences between cables; is not one of them. AR (Acoustic Research) did a famous published listening test many years ago. A real group of musicians would play and then stop and let a recording take over, through AR 3 speakers. The many people on the listening panel could not distinguish when the stereo reproduction came in and the real musicians stopped playing. Now vintage AR speakers are not a model of clarity like many modern speakers. Maybe the reproduction was 10% as good as the real musicians playing, but nobody could tell when one stopped and the other came in. About all this proved is that even if the reproduced sound is only 1/10 as good, people can't tell the difference between it and real music.. So if most people can't tell 10% from 100%, would cable manufacturers be confident that people could hear a 15 to 30% difference? Besides, they're making big money; they're not looking to spend $$ to impress doubting Thomases on forums and comment sections. If it don't need fixed; don't fix it...If they cared, here are some other reasons why they would not go to all that trouble; wisely. 1. People are nervous during double blind testing. Not conducive to heightened perception. When I'm real relaxed, I hear more things within the music than I do in a nervous or stressed state of mind. 2. The music played would pretty much have to be equally familiar to all the listeners, who all have different record collections. 3. Some listeners would be more attentive and perceptive than others. 4. Cable manufacturers wouldn't want to turn it into a numbers game. That's happened before, with wattage wars in receivers/amplifiers. Avoiding a lot of that is smart. 5. Cables interact differently with different equipment. 6. Peoples personal taste would inherently come into it. 7. It would be dumb. 8. Dumber still would be trying to integrate it into their advertising. Other competitors could claim some results even better, and it would be hard to prove they're lying. Cables are big business. Don't you think some companies out there could get away with fudged blind listening cable results, if they really wanted to? Let's actually be glad that BS never started. Some people on these forums have nothing better to do than to make whether audio cables make a difference into a big JFK conspiracy. Let's be glad that the cable industry is the nicest industry in audio, and has not resorted to cut throat, attack the other guy's product activities.

@edd2771

11 ай бұрын

@@sidesup8286 I have no time to address each of your points but suffice it to say I disagree that blind testing by an independent tester wouldn’t be very illustrative. I also categorically refuse to believe that people could not distinguish between old ARs and a live orchestra. There’s your example of a vested party rigging the test for sure.

@Douglas_Blake_579

11 ай бұрын

@@sidesup8286 _"How some people just cannot comprehend that others have far better perception than them. "_ Because, by and large, they don't. The limitations of the human ear are very well documented.