Quote Originally Posted by E-Stat View Post
I agree entirely. Have you ever seen a DBT between something like an Audio Research REF 610T and a NAD integrated?
I went to a DBT comparing high res digital (high res for digital, NOT for analogue, of course) to MP3 digital. Over 90% of the "audiophiles" actually preferred the MP3 digital!!! The difference was NOT subtle. My wife said, BEFORE the units were revealed, that these self styled audiophiles MUST be deaf! Two week later, I was at another blind test that had the same result (90% preferring the MP3 sound). I have been to hundreds (probably thousands) of blind tastings of wines, and extremely few experts could identify their favorite wines. I know one rich member (who buys every 95+ Parker wine), who simply CANNOT even tell when a wine is corked!!! Don't think that the exact same thing does not happen in audio "reviewing". Remember early ss and early digital were, it is widely admitted today, simply HORRIBLE!!! HORRIBLE!!! Yet, the same "experts" who praised digital at the start, tell us that this time we should listen to them. I just came back from the 2012 CAS, and in rooms that had both analogue and digital, the analogue simply DESTROYED the digital. Ditto for ss versus tubes. BTW, analogue (even via several analogue tape decks) and tubes were EVERYWHERE at the show.