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Its interesting how people's perceptions and perspectives differ.
I say this because some peoples perspective on a device like this relates purely to the performance heard and how it makes them feel. Other people link their perception of the product into their ideals/methods for audio, and others still for the OP's posting methods, and seem to contribute very little to the discussion of the actual results.
Earlier in the thread you will see me posting about the slight differences between the posted files and how they weren't particularly important to me. I've revisited this thread quite awhile later because I was compelled to. It wasn't that it placed a kernel of an idea in my head and changed my perception. My perception of what I currently have AD/DA-16x, has slowly changed through a more involved project I am working on. As I eliminate some of the larger more obvious variables that don't help to cumulatively get to the sounds I want to hear, there are smaller parts of the picture that don't seem right. I'm starting to find that my converters, as praised as they are, are not the right "perscription" for me to hear the audio in the way my brain loves it.
I think the perpose of this is that its pretty evident that there is a lot to wade through in any thread, but mostly that relates to people having dramatically varying tastes, perspectives, and reasons for their opinions. Its unfortunate sometimes opinions are more logic based than based on the audio making them feel great, or it feeling "natural". We humans do let logic seep into even areas as abstract as music.
For the creation of equipment, we couldn't have what we have without logic, but in the analysis of whether that equipment is good or not, logical tests are a great baseline but the last 5% of the equation always relates to subtle areas of perception, and how that perception makes you feel. I think some people have found this zone and are closer to "music zen" than others. There's nothing wrong with this, we're each on our own path and we all won't get to the same spot in the end.
That said I think the designer of this product is more in tune with my musical sensibilities than the ones that designed the converters I own. Listening back with my current level of experience I couldn't believe what I heard. Music borders on the abstract at all times. You have to take a complex input to your mind and place descriptives on it, then react to those. If I had to use some I couldn't believe how the apogee gave me the feeling of a "recording" but the burl went more in the direction of "a performance happening around me". These things become evident as my perception changes. As an example. I find with the drums for instance the apogee does what i find mine does. It gives a resolution and a sound that seems slightly spikey for my tastes and each element seems like an element (cymbals are cymbals, toms are toms etc) whereas with the burl sound, much truer to what my ear hears as "a drum kit" so i don't seperate the elements so easily and focus on them. They blend and glue.
Just some food for thought. I have to go to work now!
Russell
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