Hydrogenaudio Forums

Furthermore, a lack of acknowledgement by this topic's author will result in closure of the discussion. The acknowledgement shall be stated publicly in this discussion and within a reasonable amount of time.

Those questions seem aimed at relatively inexperienced enthusiasts with their emphasis on the DAC itself. In my experience the DAC itself matters much less than the analog electronics it is integrated into.

Regardless I voted for the period option.

People who think that there is an audible difference between DACs is the only demographic which I am interested in for this poll.
For example: If I want to know what specifically republicans think of trump, I am not going to ask democrats "what do you think of trump". Vice versa. It's not going to be helpful in answering the question.
This is not a poll aimed at people interested in audio on the whole, just to people who believe there is a difference. Also, If I were trying to get an answer as to if there is a difference or not, asking random people on the internet is certainly not the way to go about it. As you all know there are far far better and objective ways of determining that.

I am fully aware that looking at measurements there should be no difference between any reasonably designed (and they don't deliberately have high distortion) DAC assuming it not on a complete shoe string budget , eg a whole dedicated DAC for a few dollars, or it being severely affected by some kind of interference, eg cables wrapped around a high very powered transformer. Also, I am aware in ABX tests DACs do not fare well, as the measurements say they should.

As part of what I am doing I will conduct an ABX test (a proper ABX, not just a blind test) with several people between DACs. Most of them are around ~$100 but it ranges from $17.5 (OREI Digital to Analog Audio Converter) to $2800 (Auralic Vega, was $3500). Not that it should make any difference in the ABX: but Looking thorough the last 110+ DACs (complied a list of their distortion, but not the other measurements yet) measured by Stereophile (past then, the measurement equipment is bad and this is going back to ~2005 from memory) the Auralic Vega is overall the best measuring DAC with the exception of $36000 dCS Rossini.

It's ok guys, I got this.

Just submitted 12 random (or maybe not???) poll replies, using the Head-fi and reddit polls.

Greasemonkey (and a set of proxys) to the rescue!

Will automate to do more @ random times.

Neb90 on reddit

Don't really get the joke?
I am genuinely looking for said peoples opinions, doing as you said would not be helpful.

What are you trying to test with the data?

Probably the sheer gullibility of audiophiles.

If that is the case then we're looking at a TOS #14 violation and the link to his external poll (if not the entire discussion) goes poof.

If that is the case then we're looking at a TOS #14 violation and the link to his external poll (if not the entire discussion) goes poof.

"This survey is anonymous and is for academic purposes."

If it were for marketing purposes why on earth would I perform said ABX test and post the results?

The purpose of this survey is as I stated is for academic purposes. What I want it for is to research how any measurements/design aspects could relate to the believed differences in sound. It is also to try help people in the ABX to differentiate DACs. This may sound somewhat pointless though it is in part an aspect of the assessment criteria (for myself). Regardless, the ABX is most certainly of worth.

This survey belongs on head-fi or some other placebophile forum.  I don't believe that anyone on HA is actually going to believe there is much of a difference, if any in a DAC.

So far I have 13 responses from here. I'm not sure how seriously people answered it but the average % for the for each option is ~20%. The first question results looks similar to that of r/audiophile except everything is a slightly lower %.

Why do you have the need to be so hostile and harm the guy's research? Sometimes I don't understand this place.

Why do you have the need to be so hostile and harm the guy's research? Sometimes I don't understand this place.

It's nothing personal, I do that with all online polls.

This survey is referring to DACs which are functioning and are of a somewhat reasonable design, eg functioning as intended (working, no oscillations, reasonably flat frequency response, not ultra-high distortion).

Noise can be audible in otherwise good sound devices when nothing is playing.

No.

I'm suggesting you figure out a functioning "DAC" does not output audible noise.
(and need not cost $30k or other reductio ad absurdum)