What’s the best HiFi product of the last 20 years and why?

What’s the most important headphone of the last decade and why?

op is out here actually doing something

be the change that you want to see and actually post something

Marking the flair on this one Solved!. We did it, Reddit!

It’s really not so simple. The specs show:

< 0.35% at 20kHz, 135W, 8Ω load

< 0.04% at 1kHz, 135W, 8Ω load

Measuring at 20kHz, harmonics are ultrasonic and inaudible.

If you were to say the amplifier measures less than 0.04% THD at 1kHz into an 8 ohm load, most would think it’s excellent and inaudible.

PPM isn’t applicable for audio because there are no parts to count.

Shure cables are extremely durable.

Generally speaking, THD is just the start of a larger discussion. It’s not a useful metric for listener preference.

Psychoacoustics is wildly subjective compared to the THD measurements.

Dr. Earl Gedees wrote about this in Premium Home Theater, 4.1.b (pg 58) which claims:

There is virtually no correlation between Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) or Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) measurements of a system and the subjective impression of the sound quality of that system. The correlations were weak, but most shockingly they were negative—according to these tests people liked THD distortion. This is actually somewhat true in general that people prefer some forms of distortion to no distortion.

What The [THD] Specs Don’t Tell You… And Why is a great video from RMAF 2015 from Audio Precision. The presenter demonstrates different types of distortion and shows just how inaudible or audible it can be.

Take this pre-amplifier comparison for example. The OP could reliably ABX the Conrad Johnson tube from the Benchmark solid state and preferred the one with arguably higher distortion.

This second vs third harmonic distortion test concluded that tracks with second harmonic distortion were preferred in about 75% of cases; 25% those of the third; surprisingly never the original tracks.

Have a look at this blind test of distortion. A second harmonic of 0.02% THD is weakly preferred over 0.0000002% THD in nearly every case.

Bob Katz also built a harmonic generator to test his preference as well - read about it here. Their preference? Added second harmonic distortion between -60dBFS (0.1%THD) and -66dBFS (0.050% THD).

u/TransducerBot is taking the day off because my Internet is down.

In the meantime, enjoy the shit show.

It’s spelled AMP

This is the 2nd highest voted comment, but the 8th top comment ranked by “best” which says a lot about how controversial the voting is.

this is r/headphones, not r/fun though

The worst case failure I’ve seen is high-frequency oscillation on the output. I had a Marantz that would output ~60v at 35kHz. You would never hear it, but it would smoke any tweeter connected to the amplifier.

This is the best price you’ll find on these. If you’re waiting for the deal, this is it.

In terms of smart speakers, I’ve not found anything better sounding than the HomePod.

The new HomePod sounds better than the Sonos Era 100 when I compared them. I returned the HomePod and kept the Sonos though. The frequent streaming dropouts on the HomePod made it way too frustrating to use.

Holy moly, that’s gorgeous.

UMIK-1 from MiniDSP. It’s USB so you don’t need an interface and includes a correction filter.