AVR vs Separates - Can You Hear a Difference?
- Thread starter anilpatel
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Yelamanchili manohar
Well-Known Member
I will go grab my helmet before I add, that not all AVR's are created equal, and neither are all dedicated 2 channel separates.
Considering the recent sky high prices of dedicated 2 channel kit, if I was starting out now, I would just buy a AVR with two front L&R speakers and a sub. Just makes a ton more, value for money sense to me.
ravindrads
Active Member
Seperates are definitely better even in HT setup just like stereo.. I personally use seperates as compared to my old AVR setup and I can clearly see huge diff
Most people don't even make a rig to test the difference. If they test, they manually change the speaker wires, connections to switch the units. This easily takes few minutes. In this time it is impossible for the human brain to store the information of even few seconds of how the frequency, timbre changed in the two units being tested. The only thing that that brain can perceive accurately is the difference in loudness. If the units are not level matched it leads to erroneous conclusions.
The only true way to test this is to have a system where you sit blind folded and have a switch which someone else turns it and the switch immediately switches the setup in milliseconds.
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ravindrads
Active Member
Yes agree that's the real way to make AB comparison
spirovious
Well-Known Member
After testing my AVRs as pre with power amps, I am preferring a good AVR for movie for its simplicity. All if source is OTT, then pre power nay not sound to its real potential.
Absolutely yes.
Reminds me of the time when I swapped stock power cord with a supposedly miraculous power cable (some expensive shit) provided on loan , on my CDP and amp. With no one to help I had to swap it myself , in the congested gadget corner , a strenuous effort. I strained to remember the exact musical , timbral texture of my test music CD to catch differences , if any.
Did this exercise for 12 times for each cord without finding anything audibly different and realised neither I have golden ears nor the superhuman cognitive ability to remember how something exactly sounded 2 minutes back (time taken for each cable swap ).
Reminds me of my own shortcomings. When I buy a new equipment it always sounds good. It is only later when I connect the equpment to a switcher I find that I wasted my money. This has been the case for most DACS, regardless of the cost or gushing, lavishing reviews on the net, they sound the same.Absolutely yes.
Reminds me of the time when I swapped stock power cord with a supposedly miraculous power cable (some expensive shit) provided on loan , on my CDP and amp. With no one to help I had to swap it myself , in the congested gadget corner , a strenuous effort. I strained to remember the exact musical , timbral texture of my test music CD to catch differences , if any.
Did this exercise for 12 times for each cord without finding anything audibly different and realised neither I have golden ears nor the superhuman cognitive ability to remember how something exactly sounded 2 minutes back (time taken for each cable swap ).
Apart from power cables, there are other divine things that happen which only certain folks can fathom - cables and non-mechanical equipment breakin in.
Correct. Specially speaker cables. I read somewhere that 8 seconds is the time the exact sound can be retained by good old brain...so without hot AB switching its impossible to compare and then its all perception led.
Yup - not to mention level matching as well. Even a small variation in level can affect the perception of the sound.
I have gotten around to the belief that if i have to work really, really hard to tell the difference between equipment, then that difference isnt really worth worrying about. So at this point, whether or not there is a difference in the sound quality of SS gear has become moot to me. Has made my life a lot easier, for sure!
I heard of a certain high end audiophile who claimed his 2.5L + DAC performance significantly improved after placing it on a 80k special isolation platform.
Sometimes I can't tell the difference between speakers.
Edit: I remember more than once, turning on my music system, playing some music and taking more than half hour to realize that the sound was actually coming from the TV.
Of course, there are very few people like me
in Hifivision.
Edit: I remember more than once, turning on my music system, playing some music and taking more than half hour to realize that the sound was actually coming from the TV.
Of course, there are very few people like me
in Hifivision.
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The biggest snake oil in my view is breaking in of cables - defies science in my view
This practice of putting isolators came from the days when all amplifiers were made of tubes. Tubes can be microphonic. The elements inside can vibrate causing the tube to act like a microphone and also change characteristics (gain change, etc). Many audiophiles don't even understand why the isolators were needed in the first place and the practice continues till date.I heard of a certain high end audiophile who claimed his 2.5L + DAC performance significantly improved after placing it on a 80k special isolation platform.
It's the head breaking in, which usually happens when the hammer of regret, or justification comes crashing down on the skull.
Yes. And which actually is redundant in SS devices like a DAC( not talking of tube DACs though ).
I think Separates use dedicated DAC for each channel processing, AVR uses single DAC for all channels.
Separates will be better than AVR as per their specs.
But If we are hooking up with same power AMP with AVR , Separates then it is hard to make the difference unless if we hear very closely.
If budget is not constraint , then better to go with Separates. Else AVR is suffice.
Separates will be better than AVR as per their specs.
But If we are hooking up with same power AMP with AVR , Separates then it is hard to make the difference unless if we hear very closely.
If budget is not constraint , then better to go with Separates. Else AVR is suffice.
The biggest snake oil in my view is breaking in of cables - defies science in my view
Ha, pretty much anything cables.
Although for sheer chutzpah, nothing beats Shakti Stones and green pens for CDs....
Wars have been fought here over cables (and vinyl vs digital ) with members banned,ego bruised , pomposity deflated , participation abandoned , with pages and pages of rants.
So I request everyone to …please start another one.
So I request everyone to …please start another one.
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