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Is it all in my head?

Okay, sad to admit it but I just did an a/b comparison, granted it was only on one dubbed cd, between my musical fidelity a3.2 cd players dac and my new parasound z dac and could hear absolutely no difference. When I got my dac a few days ago I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but spank me and call me sally, I can't for the life of me distinguish between the two. I hooked it up such that I could go between the two on the fly with a press of a button. Hmmmm... I could hear a difference between my denon dvd 2900 and the musical fidelity a3.2 but no dice between the a3.2 and z dac. I can also hear slight, slight differences between i.c.'s and speaker cables so I dunno. I think I may be spitting the kool-aid out if it doesn't give me a buzz anymore, or else I'm gonna buy some of those ufo thingies to put on my windows (sorry G).

Doh...
b_limo
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I had a similar experience when I bought a new Stereophile class "A" rated DAC for $2,200.
Comparing it to my old DAC (Adcom DA700) no difference.
I tried it al lsorts of ways as I could not belive the new DAC was not better since it was Stereophile class A.. I even askked the dealer to check the new dDAC to see if it was damaged in some way!
Nope. So I returned it.

Sometimes the issue is some other limiting feature of the system. But in general my least good stuff IS my digital stuff.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Something is amiss. Even the smallest changes should be audible. System resolution would have to be very low not to hear changes.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
In this hobby, yes, many differences are in the head. Pshyco-acoustics is a real topic. Don't get me wrong, there are differences between gear and cables, but to varying degrees. Some differences are obvious, some are very hard to detect, and some cannot be detected at all. Just like the size of the pea under the mattress, sometimes it is so small that it is undetectable.

On another note, remember, different is different, and not neccessarily better.
isochronism
1,447 posts
 
Jmcgrogan,
I always enjoy your posts!!
Regarding your pea/mattress analogy, (the princess and the pea) the pee on top of the mattress is more detectable.
rodman99999
3,557 posts
 
What cable are you using, between the transport and DAC? Less than excellent and you could negate any audible gains that, otherwise, might be realized via the outboard DAC.
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