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Related: - Someone with online alias NwAvGuy put the whole AV industry (ok maybe not the whole, but some big players) in a loop by showing in online forums tha

Related: - Someone with online alias NwAvGuy put the whole AV industry (ok maybe not the whole, but some big players) in a loop by showing in online forums that a totally inexpensive DIY DAC (with a free design he/she shared) could be built with quality rivaling elite products worth thousands of dollars. [1] (well a hazy version of the story goes that he/she exposed various audiophile review sites and forums as being full of sponsored reviews, and that eventually lead to his/her ban from head-fi.org I think) - As for capsule mics (commonly known as condenser mic), market is flooded with DIY designs and DIY kits which let you build/buy one for $200-$400 (the dominant cost being that of the capsule itself) that will rival the quality of multi-thousand dollar mics. They go by the names Neumann clones, etc. [2] (no affiliation), [3]. In retrospect, and given the shady things AV sellers do, like trying to sell you a USB or HDMI with gold-plated pins, claiming it to be superior, it should come as no surprise. Though, no offense, but audiophile consumer base is filled to the brim with hipsters who judge the quality of a product by its price (and some of the "experts" were busted after they failed blind tests; I think opus vs flac, I'm mixing a lot of things now). [1] http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/nwavguy-the-audio-genius-who-vanished http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/nwavguy-the-audi... [2] https://microphone-parts.com/ https://microphone-parts.com/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNH46jpwJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNH46jpwJo

snvzz 9y ago
>NwAvGuy head-fi ban There's a recount of the story by some company NwAvGuy did shit on, for contrast. https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/ https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-... Chapter 12: Schiit Goes Evil?
- Tyr42 9y ago
  Thanks for that link, the tale of Schiit is great.
fizixer 9y ago
(replying to my own comment) Just looked up the issue related to audio encoding [1] There are "audiophiles" out there who claim they can discern the difference between a 96-kHz (sampling frequency) encoded audio vs 48 or 44.1 kHz encoded, which is a mathematical impossibility, given a source with 20 kHz max analog, let alone a biological one. But then some prefer 192 kHz over 96 kHz!!! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ixkjt https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ixkjt
- isolli 9y ago
  I hate snake oil as much as the next guy, but not everything in life (and music) is linear. Percussion instruments produce a highly non-linear sound wave (and if you run it through a Fourier transform then you'll need all frequencies up to infinity to reconstruct the signal). We don't know how the human ear perceives percussive sounds and how the brain forms an impression of it (at least I've never read anything about it). Just because the ear doesn't hear linear, continuous frequencies above 20kHz does not mean it cannot perceive sudden, non-linear pressure changes at a much lower time-resolution. Admittedly this is a bit speculative, but you can't write it off without justification. Here is one reference on the non-linearity of the human ear: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/31/human-hearing-is-highly-nonlinear http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/31/human-h...
toomanybeersies 9y ago
It's not hard to build a good quality (not top level, but good) DAC for less than $50. JEDAC (http://users.abo.fi/jskata/JEDAC/ http://users.abo.fi/jskata/JEDAC/) is a good example of a cheap DAC that is reasonable quality. I don't think that TI does their free sample program any more, but at one point as a student, it was possible to build it for a few bucks. I guess if you're paying full price for your ICs and you're factoring in labour, it's not any cheaper than buying one, but if you don't value your time and you're handy with a soldering iron, it's definitely worth it.

snvzz 9y ago

>NwAvGuy head-fi ban There's a recount of the story by some company NwAvGuy did shit on, for contrast. https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/ https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-... Chapter 12: Schiit Goes Evil?

Tyr42 9y ago
Thanks for that link, the tale of Schiit is great.

fizixer 9y ago

(replying to my own comment) Just looked up the issue related to audio encoding [1] There are "audiophiles" out there who claim they can discern the difference between a 96-kHz (sampling frequency) encoded audio vs 48 or 44.1 kHz encoded, which is a mathematical impossibility, given a source with 20 kHz max analog, let alone a biological one. But then some prefer 192 kHz over 96 kHz!!! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ixkjt https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ixkjt

isolli 9y ago
I hate snake oil as much as the next guy, but not everything in life (and music) is linear. Percussion instruments produce a highly non-linear sound wave (and if you run it through a Fourier transform then you'll need all frequencies up to infinity to reconstruct the signal). We don't know how the human ear perceives percussive sounds and how the brain forms an impression of it (at least I've never read anything about it). Just because the ear doesn't hear linear, continuous frequencies above 20kHz does not mean it cannot perceive sudden, non-linear pressure changes at a much lower time-resolution. Admittedly this is a bit speculative, but you can't write it off without justification. Here is one reference on the non-linearity of the human ear: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/31/human-hearing-is-highly-nonlinear http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/31/human-h...

toomanybeersies 9y ago

It's not hard to build a good quality (not top level, but good) DAC for less than $50. JEDAC (http://users.abo.fi/jskata/JEDAC/ http://users.abo.fi/jskata/JEDAC/) is a good example of a cheap DAC that is reasonable quality. I don't think that TI does their free sample program any more, but at one point as a student, it was possible to build it for a few bucks. I guess if you're paying full price for your ICs and you're factoring in labour, it's not any cheaper than buying one, but if you don't value your time and you're handy with a soldering iron, it's definitely worth it.