Belgarathian

A mATX sized Mac Pro with consumer chipsets starting with an i5 and RX 5600 wouldn't be terrible... Configurable up to an i9-10900K and RX 5700XT (or maybe big Navi?)

3 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Their systems, no. But the services and features they've brought out have been phenomenal.

I was talking about the naming scheme 

Not to be confused with the Xbox one X. 

The last couple of generations haven't been kind to Xbox.

450W PSU seems low, I'd be pairing a 650W with it but that's just me. Usually you get maximum efficiency around the 80-85% utilisation. 

• 240mm Cooler instead of 360
• 650W PSU
• Maybe a 512GB NVMe SSD and a 4TB HDD?
• Go 3700 instead of 3700X
• AMD system MB doesn't effect performance (other than ram compatibility), so a good Asus B450 board which supports 3200mhz would be fine which will save $. X570 is always a better choice, but at the moment the price of X570 boards is high.

With those changes you should be able to either squeeze a 2070 Super in or 32GB of RAM.

Soooooo i9-10900K 10c/20t v Ryzen 9 3950X 16c/32t

Looks DOA to me, would likely need a 10-15% lead in single core performance to be compelling because it's going to be thrashed in multi.

36 minutes ago, Monstieur said:

The Cipher v2 cable has different tuning. Both cables have active DSP meant for correcting specific headphone models like the iSine series & LCDi3 / LCDi4.

Holy necro this was posted more than a year ago...

I'm almost certain the V1 just had a super average DAC/AMP that meant there was less bass and more distortion which meant it sounded more spacious and airy at the time. 

33 minutes ago, TechyBen said:

Nope. Probably actual price. I doubt many could afford the monthly payments on that for their entire WAGE.

Yeah, uh... I don't know what to say other than it was sarcastic.

Uh, guys... I think the Apple FX converter is broken. 1 NZD is a fraction less than 1 CAD.

Someone should blind order this for Linus and just get him to read out the receipt in rage mode like the RED camera video.

Make sure you pay extra for the wheels and Pro stand. 

Thank god the shipping is free.

Edit: I really like that we've already got next gen RDNA cards coming soon for the machine.

I feel like this is a reddit question...

On 12/6/2019 at 8:16 AM, HarryNyquist said:

Yet another company degrading their customer service below the bottom line in the name of money.

That Porsche Taycan isn't going to buy itself. 

I think I'll switch to Firefox Private Network when it comes out of beta. Support a good cause and the company seems like it'll have my back.

3 hours ago, mmda said:

The only MQA compatible DACs that I am aware of are $1k+. They all sound mediocre at most.

You've never heard real DSD then. Converting the PCM master to DSD isn't real DSD.

 

Measurements don't tell you how a DAC sounds, only the flaws. Measurements can't tell you the sound characteristics of DACs. Using measurements as a form of validation on whether or not a DAC sounds good is ridiculous.

The Massdrop x Airist Audio R2R DAC measures like complete crap, yet is praised for its sound quality. It's almost like measurements isn't everything.

Just because you can implement delta-sigma DACs well doesn't fix the inherent problem it has with quantization noise. Even 'multibit delta-sigma' DACs only go all the way up to 5-6bits of conversion.. 

You’re correct, you can’t measure subjective opinions but you can measure objective performance against the source to determine if the dac and amp audio chain is producing an accurate reproduction of the source material. 
 

subjective listening is inherently bias and people will prefer different properties in their audio gear, this may include distortion which accentuates the high frequencies giving a dac an ‘airy’ or ‘spacious’ listening experience. the colour of audio gear and bias in A/B testing that isn’t blind has been proven to effect responses when reviewing equipment. 

2 minutes ago, Lathlaer said:

AFAIK Focal never even pretended that those diamods are there for the sound improvement. It's just a showpiece, status symbol for them to be able to claim that they have the most expensive headphones in the world (as a counter to Sennheiser's Orpheus). 

 

Too bad they went about it in a very crude and barbaric way.

What I would do for a Focal Stellia ...

My comment was also tongue-in-cheek

5 hours ago, mmda said:

I have that problem with MQA as well. And honestly I don't even like the way it sounds. I'd rather wait for DSD which interests me more

That's because every bloody DAC decodes it differently (I think, I'm no expert on MQA)... I don't think I've ever had 2 DACs sound the same on MQA, yet PCM and DSD is perfectly bloody fine. 

3 hours ago, mmda said:

It comes down to how it converts digital-to-analog. R2R dacs convert each individual bit in the signal, whereas a delta-sigma dac converts only 1 bit and uses quantization signal processing to basically over-samples the rest of the bits. This allows the R2R conversion to be more accurate, and avoid a substantial amount of quantization noise which affects the high frequencies. 

Sure but I'm yet to see an R2R DAC measurably outperform a competently engineered DAC using AKM or ESS chips. 

4 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

 

No, but these are.

What the fuck... 

I'll bet... "The crystal resonance properties of the diamonds help diffuse surrounding sound improving noise isolation for a more pure and true to music listening experience.. Gold reduces EMI lowering the noise floor for the purist listening experience..."

I'll bet when you add this to your cart Amazon starts recommending healing crystals and essential oils.

7 minutes ago, Stru said:

Such snake oil in this video. $4,000 for an aluminium shelf? "Best headphone's I've ever listened to"? No sign of the HD800s to bring reality crashing in by referencing to a set of earphones made by a company that doesn't sell products with snake oil. I'd like to see a fixed set of good headphones -HD800s probably a good choice- for future "audiophile" headphones.

HD800s have their own problems... Massive sound stage, great treble and mids, no bass. Great for orchestral performances, etc but they won't be for everyone. 

1 hour ago, Lathlaer said:

I am no expert but IMO the price range would be around 700 USD for a pair of headphones + 300 for AMP/DAC. If we consider a cheap crappy headphones X as the starting point at 0% and the total sound nirvana at 100%, then buying something like Focal Elex or the equivalent will bring you to about 70-75% with a setup at about 1k USD.

 

Focal Clear or Sennheiser HD800s will bring you 75-80% but the price of the setup will probably double to about 2k USD. As you can see, the higher you go, the more expensive it gets to achieve minimal improvements.

 

Focal Utopia or Audeze LCD4 or Stax 009 will get you to (depending on the reviewer) 85-90 %but that setup is usually between 7-15k depending on the Amp/DAC .Abyss 1266 is rated often higher by many audiophiles so let's say it will bring you to 91-92%. I think a reasonable Abyss chain isn't much more expensive than those above. You certainly don't have to spend 35k USD on an Abyss chain.

 

and Orpheus will get you to 93-95% but here you can touch yourself watching how the headphones roll out from the marble case in front of you

 

It's hard to judge because honestly, what stops you from using amazing headphones with an amp that costs $100 (provided it can power them)? Nothing. 

 

Nothing also stops you from getting a Chord Dave and slapping a $100 headphones to it. 

 

In my examples I try to give more "balanced" setups price-wise. Dunno if resident audiophiles here will agree

 

 

 

Get yourself the RME ADI-2 (~$1000 USD) or Matrix Audio Element X (~$3000 USD) as your starting point DAC/AMP and then find the headphone that has the tone you like the best. Both these all-in-one units are measurably transparent to your ear.

Even the Drop x Sennheisser 6XX will sound magnificent. If you fancy treble and mids over bass, then maybe the HD800S. Every headphone will sound different, but your AMP/DAC shouldn't. 

The only way AMPS/DACS add colour, space, tone, (insert adjective here) to your music is through distortion, noise, channel imbalance, etc. - All bad things. 

If your AMP is under powered, it can sound closed in, muddy, have no punch, etc. To fix this, check the output of the amp at your headphone ohms rating to see if it has enough power to drive your headphone. Typically an amplifier will be able to deliver more power through a balanced output, so sometimes replacing your headphone cable with a balanced connector to use this plug will improve the listening experience (note that the cable construction is important, not the material. Don't listen to people telling you that silver cable etc will improve your highs, just make sure you get a robust cable that has been built well... The important figure here is resistance and capacitance, not material)

1 hour ago, Derkoli said:

Also don't forget the AMP doesn't even have balanced inputs, but the output is balanced, go figure.

Well you don't necessarily need balanced inputs... A well designed AMP/DAC should be able to use RCA and achieve the same results. That said, if you're have grounding issues then a balanced input/output will usually solve solve them so it's always a preferred connection.

So many snake oil products were sent all he needed was the DAC and amp.

If he had shit power in the building, he could have run it through a UPS but otherwise the amp and DAC should have been able to isolate mains noise themselves if they were engineered correctly, no need for all the snake oil cables and power supplies.

The DAC is a R2R Ladder DAC which means that they believe they can beat DAC chip OEMs like AKM, TI, and ESS or save a cent, but usually ends up resulting in garbage with lots of noise, distortion, and other weird oddities. The spec for the DAC is 0.008% THD+N which equates to ~81dB, so the DAC doesn’t even meet CD spec of 96dB... Not sure where they got their stated 130.5dB of dynamic range as it doesn’t correlate to any of their other specs. If it is true though, then yes... it’s a chart topping DAC so long as they haven’t stuffed up the fundamentals. I’m sceptical as hell though.

Going by specs, the amplifier looks okay delivering tons of power which is usually the single most important metric for an amp given that Planar Magnetic headphones are notoriously difficult to drive.

The Drop THX 789 and a Topping D50 would probably outperform for less than $1000 or even an RME ADI-2 all in one for example.

On the positive side, the headphones are very, very good. Just a shame they paired them with a crap chain.

Depends what you want to do and what your budget is, but the R5 3600 on a B450 motherboard is incredible value for money.

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

I've always wondered how the camera mp ratings work. Samsung has that 108mp sensor out, and they still got it to work. 

 

You failed to mention the most impressive part; it beats the 855+ and A13 on Antutu by a substantial margin. 

 

It'll be interesting if Mediatek starts playing with the big boys. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'd love to see how much battery this thing consumes. 

Yeah, but AnTuTu even says you shouldn't compare Android v iOS because the versions are significantly different and not apples to apples. Even with that in mind, this processor is an impressive step forward for ARM in general!

Quote

First of all, since there are obvious differences in the kernel and the development language used by the iOS system and the Android system, the iOS version and the Android version of Antutu Benchmark are two different softwares and the test methods for the two versions are significantly different.

 

Second, Antutu iOS version and Antutu Android version use different APIs when running the GPU test. The iOS version uses Apple’s Metal API while the Android version uses OpenGL ES and vulkan API. Although the test scenarios used in the two versions are the same, the rendering mechanisms are different, neither does the stress requirement for the hardware.

 

All in all, the scoring mechanisms for the iOS version and the Android version of Antutu Benchmark are significantly different, and therefore the test results of the two versions are not directly comparable.

Source: https://www.antutu.com/en/doc/119646.htm

On 11/16/2019 at 10:26 AM, mr moose said:

Apple, the only company to remove common features and push (force in some cases) you to buy new instead of repair,  and have fanboys defend it like they are gracing you with charity.

 

 

Can't forget Razer

Or pretty much any other ultrabook manufacturer. 

I have 0 issue with microtransactions so long as they're either cosmetic or don't give players an unfair advantage. 

4 billion. Holy hell.

On 11/14/2019 at 5:09 PM, captain_to_fire said:

Why would Apple need T2 for the SSD controller when in fact, it’s a couple of NVME drives in RAID0? 

What's your source? If so, that would be the first time Apple has used RAID in their laptops to my knowledge. 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15101/apple-rolls-out-16inch-macbook-pro-a-bit-more-refined