Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Buy an HD-DVD Player

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Nov 2007, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>
> > Mike Miller wrote:
> > > On Sat, 3 Nov 2007, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
> > >
> > > > 2.  I got into a discussion on a music listening group, and they 
> > > > claim that it is worth spending megabucks even for the solid-body 
> > > > electronics. They were referring to the quality of analogue-digital 
> > > > conversion, which they said was a lot more important than I would 
> > > > have thought.
> > >
> > > What are "solid-body electronics?"  Are they talking about guitars? 
> > > If so, there is no analog-digital conversion going on there -- it's 
> > > all analog from the pickup to the amp.  If they are talking about the 
> > > digital hex pickups for synth guitars, they are probably quite right 
> > > but most people aren't playing synth guitars (though I'd like to get 
> > > one -- I had a Roland synth guitar back in 1984-1986 and it was OK 
> > > but they must be amazing now).
> >
> > They were talking about CD players.
>
>
> I see.  My guess is that in a blinded trial, people can't tell the 
> difference between a $100 CD player and a $1000 CD player (if such a 
> thing even exists).
>
> I hear a lot about how great certain audio things are, but then 
> *evidence* is almost always lacking.  An example of this is in ideas 
> about encoding MP3 files.  People will make all sorts of unsupported 
> claims.  They do *unblinded* tests, which are a complete waste of time 
> in my book.


I see where you are coming from.  But the blinded trials must be 
performed upon people who claim to be able to tell the difference, not 
on a random sample from the population.  I suspect that if some people 
are able to tell the different, then it is only a very few.  And it is 
these people that the $10,000 A to D converters are aimed at.

I personally do not think I can tell the difference.  My personal 
favorite listening experience is to listen to MP3 files on my cheapo MP3 
player.

Stephen

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