SUMMER MUSINGS: What could possibly be wrong with the High-End Audiophile Industry?! 🤔 (The supplier side of audiophoolery.)

Alas all good things end including summer, so this will be the last instalment to my "Summer Musings" series for the year. For completeness, since we talked about the "audiophool" consumer hobbyist last time, let's make sure to address the other side of the coin when it comes to audiophile silliness - the supplier - manufacturers, and the media that sell us stuff.

As a pre-emptive comment against sounding like a grumpy old man who doesn't want audiophiles to have fun, let me just say that this commentary is not against "having fun". If fun means enjoying your music, trying out different hardware, exploring the various sounds you can achieve at all kinds of price points, I'm totally on board with that!

However, freedom to do all kinds of things obviously doesn't imply that we shut down our brains and accept that "anything goes!". Many things can be a lot of fun at the time but not good for us, the hangover could be nasty, and regrets more common than we might want to admit. So if there's foolishness when it comes to the Industry itself, let's make sure to think about that and come to terms with it for ourselves.

In the recent post about audiophoolery, Solderdude and Mikhail wrote the following comments:

Solderdude 18 August 2025 at 23:13

I have often wondered how many snake-oil sellers actually believe in what they are selling and are equally 'misguided' by their hearing (they are human after all). Examples could be Paul McClown and Danny.

Some, for sure, are just unscrupulous money grabbers (think Machina Dynamica and absurdly priced cable sellers).

And, oh boy, most audiophools as well as audiophiles usually have plenty of money to spend on their hobby and being human and lacking actual knowledge are very easy to 'hear' things that aren't there just as they are equally fooled by optical illusions.

Some might simply have fallen for the same 'perception effects' and fully believe in what they are selling. Are these sellers also unscrupulous ?

Perhaps only the ones that sell their wares at way too high margins for what it costs to manufacture ?

Mikhail 19 August 2025 at 07:18

Should we start calling this sector of the audio industry "alternative engineering"? If there was Federal Audio Administration they would require putting labels like "Claims not verified by double blind testing" and "This product is not intended to actually improve the sound of your audio system" on their products.

Interesting points. Let's talk about this.

MUSINGS: On YouTube listening tests and the sound of "high-end" vinyl vs. streamed digital playback.

The Internet is wonderful, isn't it?!

In the span of a few decades, we can all make our presence known to the far corners of the world and express (almost) anything we want whether it's sharing what we had for lunch, whether we're "available", our political/moral/ethical affiliations, or even esoteric blog topics. 🤪

Even better, we can project sounds and videos on YouTube and the like, opening up the opportunity to reach others though a modern "boob tube" where instead of the TV station programmer telling us what to watch next, good-ol' YouTube algorithms choose what we might desire from tracked search preferences. Amazing, if not also creepy...

Of course, if we have an entrepreneurial spirit, one could receive great rewards. Monetization potential can be impressive as witnessed by some of the elaborate content on YouTube channels! That's great so long as we're seeing knowledgeable, verifiable content presented in fair ways that can help teach and promote understanding. Not so great when information is perpetuating falsehoods, potentially destructive conspiracies and propaganda.

For this post, let's talk about something we've seen presented over the years on a number of audio channels. There is at least an implied idea out there, thanks to YouTube, we can now "hear" the sound quality of an audiophile system. Furthermore, that we can make comparisons of the sound quality. Is this true?

Pacific Audio Fest 2023: Part I - Ballrooms, marketplaces, and the larger rooms... Thoughts on vinyl / LP at "hi-fi" demos.

At the time of publication, it will have been a week since the Pacific Audio Fest 2023 (June 23-25). Compared to last year, they held it about a month earlier. As usual, I took a number of photos at the show and figured it would be fun to do some reporting on what was seen and heard, offering impressions from my notes and memories of the time in Seattle.

To start, let me remind everyone that while audio shows are fun, they are definitely not the best places to listen for sound quality. This is better done at a local dealer showroom you might be familiar with or best in the comfort of home. Typically at shows, we're treated with unfamiliar music. Even if the song is familiar, they might be playing from a streaming remaster or off an unfamiliar LP. Room acoustics vary widely, and attendees are typically shifting in and out, chatting during the visit while you're trying to appreciate the music.

Nonetheless, there is something to be said about the importance of that first impression for attendees of what we hear. In an age where much of our purchasing habits come from online sources and web-based transactions, being in the presence of these devices, and the impressions they leave us with, are powerful in directing whether we're likely going to explore the brand or specific device. As such, if companies are going to attend audio shows, it is very important that they do it right.

MUSINGS: Regarding the MoFiGate class action document, the love of analogue master tapes (on recent Bernie Grundman interview), and reminder of digital developments. [Yes, Canadian iPhone 14 still has hardware SIM tray.]

There are "hot topic" debates that stand the test of time, never truly resolved as it were. Typically, these debates are arguments of subjective ideologies (thus never fully resolved even if some elements can be shown to be clearly false) rather than explorations of nuanced facts. The "Analogue vs. Digital - which is best?" debate remains popular among audiophiles since the dawn of CD consumer audio in the early 1980's. As if there is ever only one single answer to such a broad topic with various pros and cons. I suspect most of us these days have grown at least a little tiresome of the topic even if we recognize that this "issue" will inevitably arise along our audiophile journeys interacting with others.

In the last while, there have been items in the news related to analogue audio, and by extension this whole debate, I think worth examining honestly. Let's spend some time to talk about this, consider some facts, and address a few of the unsubstantiated beliefs often perpetuated even among some respected members in the audiophile pursuit.

SUMMER MUSINGS: On the dreaded "Digital Glare" in audio, and conversely, exaggerated analogue evangelism.

A reader E-mailed me the other day asking about what I thought of the dreaded "digital glare" because it was mentioned by a "more subjective reviewer" he was also connecting with.

Basically, I don't believe "glare" exists as a generalizable phenomenon that is somehow special to digital audio. Rather, my guess over the years on how some audiophiles started using this term is that many of the early CDs (not necessarily subsequent remasters) did sound overly bright and harsh. As much as I love the music on The Nightfly (Donald Fagen, 1982), Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (1985), Dead or Alive's Youthquake (1985), OMD's Organization (1980, 1985 CD release), Culture Club's Kissing To Be Clever (1982, ?1984 CD), ABBA's The Visitors (1981, 1983 CD release), despite excellent dynamic range, the sound of these albums are just "bright", too "thin", a bit "glassy". Perhaps some of this also has to do with the synthetic instrumentation and studio techniques of the time.

MUSINGS: The ongoing Vinyl vs. Digital debate...

The always assertive Batman. But assertiveness isn't necessarily correct...

(Just a shortish post this week... I've covered much of this in the past.)

As I mentioned in the comments section of the previous post on HRA, there have been discussions recently again around the sound quality of vinyl compared to CD. I assume it started from this article "Why CDs May Actually Sound Better Than Vinyl" from the L.A. Weekly. Overall, I think it's a good article! Some excellent quotes from veterans in the audio engineering business like Bob Clearmountain and Bob Ludwig. We even have the pleasure of an interview with James T. Russell - the "father" of digital optical media. Folks... These people know what they're talking about, so do not take their comments lightly.

Despite the fact that there's nothing ground breaking in that article, it's no surprise that the vinylphiles are up in a tizzy. Michael Fremer has now dragged out an old 1996 article about "Does Vinyl Have Wider Dynamic Range Than CDs?" (the PDF in the article). Let's talk about this...

MEASUREMENTS: Digital Audio and the PlatterSpeed "Wow & Flutter" App

Shortly after my last post on the wow & flutter measurements with the Technics SL-1200 using the 7" test disk, Frans suggested in the comments a test using a CD to demonstrate what the results would look like using digital devices.

Great idea!

So, I whipped out good old Adobe Audition and generated a -10dBFS (same level as the Test LP signal) 3150Hz (for 33.3rpm) sine wave. I burned it on a standard Maxell CD-R - first time in a long time I've burned an audio CD!

To purposely not do anything special to reduce the "potential" for jitter (NB: I don't actually believe this anyway), the disk was burned at 48x on an older LiteOn iHAS DVD burner which I got either in late 2011 or early 2012. I did verify the burn to make sure the data was readable.  I used my electrically "noisy" quad-core home assembled i7 workstation to do the burn as well. Despite the strong temptation, I did not use any green "Stereophile recommended" StopLight pen to color the rim of the CD to improve the sound :-).

For the graphs, remember to look at the scale on the left to get a sense of the magnitude of frequency variation. I've aimed at measuring over the course of ~60 seconds.

To start, let me just show what the results look like with my network devices streaming off my server computer before I throw the CD into a few spinners:

Logitech Transporter - balanced analogue output, wired ethernet connection to music server (main soundroom system with Paradigm Signature S8 speakers):

Logitech Squeezebox 3 (Classic) - RCA analogue output, wired ethernet connection to music server (living room Tannoy MX2 bookshelf speakers):

Logitech Boom - wireless connection to music server at 30% signal strength 2 floors apart (built-in speakers):

Home Theatre PC to TEAC UD-501 DAC via USB using JRiver Media Center 19 to stream the shared file off my server machine in another room in the house (essentially the typical PC-DAC setup):

Alright, enough with the streaming devices... Time for some CD spinners now playing the burned Maxell CD-R...

Panasonic Blu-Ray DMP-BDT220 player (2012 model) in soundroom connected via HDMI to Onkyo TX-NR1009 receiver with Paradigm Signature S8 speakers:

Windows 8.1 Intel i7 computer with CD played off LiteOn iHAS DVD burner to ASUS Xonar Essence One DAC (USB) with desktop AudioEngine A2 speakers. To make this even more "challenging", I have 8 computing threads running doing WAV --> FLAC compression just to create 100% CPU load with heavy hard drive activity:

"Lo-Fi" Sony CFD-S05: Finally, my lowest fidelity device that plays a CD; an all-in-one cassette / CD / radio. About $70 and worth every penny just to play the occasional cassette tape :-).

So, what can we say looking at the above graphs and numerical summary? Exactly what the jitter measurements over the last year or so suggests. Timing anomalies as can be detected in frequency shifts are minuscule in the digital world compared to what is seen with a turntable set-up. Dunn J-Test utilizes detailed FFT analysis to look for tiny sideband distortions which typically show up below -100dB with most decent DACs these days. There is a world of difference between what's found with the J-Test compared to the timing errors with typical turntable measurements as reported by tests like PlatterSpeed.

Looking at the mean frequency (remember, target exactly 3150Hz), every one of the devices achieved essentially perfect scores except for the inexpensive "lo-fi" Sony all-in-one (average 3153.7 Hz). Even with the Sony, my guess would be that this is due to the low fidelity speakers or "defective by design" (remember the poor frequency response) rather than an underlying digital timing inaccuracy.

If we look at the "raw" frequency graphs, we see that the major variation is at the end when I press the STOP button and the iPad is picking up the "click". Otherwise, other than the Logitech Boom and the i7 computer connected to the ASUS Essence One with very low levels of frequency undulation (I've seen this with the Essence One before with the USB interface but not with SPDIF inputs), the rest of the plots are flat lines. I am impressed by the iPad and PlatterSpeed app for being able to pick up tiny <1Hz variations.

As for the numerical analysis... Frequency fluctuation results are essentially perfect across the board and better than any turntable set-up; this includes the inexpensive Sony all-in-one CD player. The small deviations are for the most part just the bits of ambient noise or that "click" at the end being detected.

Is any of this surprising? Of course not. It doesn't negate the fact that a good turntable system can sound very good, but is a reminder of the technical limitation of a physically spinning turntable and of human hearing (ie. a non-specialized "instrument" like the iPad can pick up imperfections easily, more so than the threshold of hearing that would interfere with enjoyment of music). In fact, we might even hypothesize that a small amount of wow and flutter using a turntable adds to the "texture" of the sound, making it less "digital" sounding perhaps.

No matter how one views it, these results are a reminder for those who aspire for "high fidelity" as synonymous with "high accuracy" that digital is clearly superior (at least in the time domain as per this discussion). I was frankly surprised how well the little Sony "lo-fi" fared, actually!

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Well, it was a blast zip-lining and white water rafting over the Labour Day long weekend! It's September so time to get back to work full swing... Hope everyone had great summer months in the northern hemisphere :-).

As the rainy and cool months approach here in Vancouver, I'm looking forward to some quality listening in the 'man cave'... Enjoy the tunes, everyone...

PS: Back to School question of the week - in 500 words or less, why would anyone want to buy the 24/96 version of Maroon 5's "V" on HDTracks for $22.98? Please provide plenty of subjective descriptions :-).