Audio Bias - Do You Have Them?

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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Let's face it, we probably all have some pretty deep rooted audio bias. Are some well founded with multiple examples or are they one off situations? But how often do you check those bias? Have you ever changed a deep rooted bias? Are your bias based on something general (silver cables sound bright) or is it based on a specific brand/type of product (i.e. I heard ABC amps once and didn't like it - and therefore you never return to that type/brand again?)

Even when we know something is not an absolute, do we still hang on to that bias?

What are your audio bias and why?

Here are a few of mine:

1. Pure silver cables or Silver Coated Copper cables sound bright

2. SET tube amps sound better than Push-Pull's

3. An OTL amp is a danger just waiting to happen to your speakers

4. AES/EBU sounds better than USB

5. Class A sounds better than AB
 
1. Balanced interconnects (XLR) including digital (AES/EBU) are best.

2. Box speakers suck. Flat rules.
 
Mike.......I think bias is a prejudice, generally a partial perspective that often blinds us to the merits of possible alternatives. I think it is representative of a basic human condition and corresponds with our natural rhythm that is slow to embrace change. We basically like things to be simple and endure. We cling to that which we perceive makes us happy. We defend our bias with opinions which are nothing more than our view, judgement, and estimation of the quality or worth about something or someone. This can often be a judgement not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
I pack around an entire suitcase full of opinions and bias about all sorts of things. It makes me fell cozy. :P
 
-- I think that we listen with our eyes first. There is so much equipment out there, that if it is not visually appealing, the sound doesn't make it down my ear canal. I'm not talking about bling here. I mean good industrial visual design of the gear. Understated elegance is what I prefer and then I can hear.

-- DSD is always better than PCM. Not true but I keep learning that one over and over.

-- If it costs more it has to sound better. Sometimes.

-- Class A sounds better than A/B. If it does I don't want my listening room to be a sauna.

-- AES/EBU sounds better than USB. I think this is true most all the time. Less noise.

Reducing system noise is something that I've gone beyond bias about and into dogmatism.
 
My bias is against companies that screw people over. That might because of warranty or sometimes just because they think their s$!t doesn't stink. I could care less if their stuff sounds good - just no place for them.

Otherwise - way too many times in this hobby have I found great toe tapping emotion/music from the least expected places.
 
I've also had the bias that AES/EBU sounds better than USB.

And then I started to audition the Chord DAVE, and its USB input seems just a little richer than the AES/EBU one, when output from my Aurender N10.

Now maybe this is unconscious influence from Rob Watt, the designer of the DAVE, who wrote to me that he thinks the DAC's Toslink input sounds best (!), with the USB input only a tiny bit behind.
 
I find balanced interconnects (XLR) including digital (AES/EBU) to be very directional.

 
I don't want to speak for Dan, but I think he was joking since all balanced interconnects are inherently directional as their connectors are male at one end and female at the other.
 
Biased towards Shunyata cables. Every one I buy works/sounds great. I just can't imagine paying more money to try something else. I guess this will also apply to Magico. The drawback here is the stereo sounds so good I haven't even thought of buying anything else since I got my Lumin, and that must be pushing two years. :)
 
I shared #1 with you until I heard the Tellurium Q Black Diamonds... You should give em a listen. :)

As for the others, I peripherally agree with you, and share the same ones, yet I've seen implementation trump
topology a few times now that I try to keep an open mind..

Always something to learn!
 
Real silver done properly, is up there with tubes & VINYL.... with a sprinkle of gold dust.... ;)
 
I am biased towards Siltech cables because that sprinkle of gold dust and Kapton shielding is really something.
 
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