4 ms·

I was being facetious; but my point was that for audiophiles, you shouldn't need to be disassembling components in order to tell the difference between systems.

I was being facetious; but my point was that for audiophiles, you shouldn't need to be disassembling components in order to tell the difference between systems. Sure, if you can notice a difference, then go ahead and track down where it is coming from. But if you start from the wrong end (i.e. the 'AD744 has higher noise and higher offset voltage') then you should stop and question your actions, IMO.

nawitus 13y ago
There's no reason for an audiophile to test if the part is genuine. They would need to buy a "genuine" part to compare against, but that presumes knowledge about the original part being fake.
swimfar 13y ago
Except that it's only one component of many in a system. I doubt there would be a measurable performance difference between a standard formula 1 car, and one which has had it's carbon fiber steering wheel swapped out for an aluminum one. But making a lot of small, nearly immeasurable changes can result in noticeable differences. Certainly, in the case of racecars if two components differ only in weight, we can infer in what ways this should affect the performance. With audio it's not quite as clear (to me). Is there a measurable difference in the signal between using copper and silver wire? I don't know. But if we know that one component has measurably higher noise, that seems like it has the potential to result in a "cleaner" signal. However, without going too far down the rabbit hole, I generally agree that in the end the important question is, "does system A sound better than system B".
- marcosdumay 13y ago
  Nope, we are talking about replacing the engine for one of a completely different model. Those amps and a very small number of resistors and capacitors are the first stage of amplification of an equipment. They are the biggest source of noise, by a couple orders of magnitude. If you can't tell the difference once you change them, it's because the difference is not relevant (and for audio systems, it's completely irrelevant).
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    It's hard to notice subtle things without an A/B test, it might just be that quiet parts of certain songs just don't sound as good. For something like this you would want to measure the noise levels, not make assumptions about audiophiles being wrong; they're only wrong a significant fraction of the time.
jff 13y ago
Any true audiophile will notice the warmer sound of proper laser-trimmed resistors
al2o3cr 13y ago
You could probably convince most "audiophiles" that the color of sneakers worn by the production line employees changes the sound of opamps.

nawitus 13y ago

There's no reason for an audiophile to test if the part is genuine. They would need to buy a "genuine" part to compare against, but that presumes knowledge about the original part being fake.

swimfar 13y ago

Except that it's only one component of many in a system. I doubt there would be a measurable performance difference between a standard formula 1 car, and one which has had it's carbon fiber steering wheel swapped out for an aluminum one. But making a lot of small, nearly immeasurable changes can result in noticeable differences. Certainly, in the case of racecars if two components differ only in weight, we can infer in what ways this should affect the performance. With audio it's not quite as clear (to me). Is there a measurable difference in the signal between using copper and silver wire? I don't know. But if we know that one component has measurably higher noise, that seems like it has the potential to result in a "cleaner" signal. However, without going too far down the rabbit hole, I generally agree that in the end the important question is, "does system A sound better than system B".

marcosdumay 13y ago
Nope, we are talking about replacing the engine for one of a completely different model. Those amps and a very small number of resistors and capacitors are the first stage of amplification of an equipment. They are the biggest source of noise, by a couple orders of magnitude. If you can't tell the difference once you change them, it's because the difference is not relevant (and for audio systems, it's completely irrelevant).
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  It's hard to notice subtle things without an A/B test, it might just be that quiet parts of certain songs just don't sound as good. For something like this you would want to measure the noise levels, not make assumptions about audiophiles being wrong; they're only wrong a significant fraction of the time.

jff 13y ago

Any true audiophile will notice the warmer sound of proper laser-trimmed resistors

al2o3cr 13y ago

You could probably convince most "audiophiles" that the color of sneakers worn by the production line employees changes the sound of opamps.