Why no love from Stereophile on Wyred4Sound DAC?

[jwc]

DAC2 made theabsolutesound editors choice list for 2020. Never mentioned on stereophile. I also dont recognize much online chatter about it.

Why is that?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by jwc

DAC2 made theabsolutesound editors choice list for 2020. Never mentioned on stereophile. I also dont recognize much online chatter about it.

Why is that?

I don't know, but I have found that there has been very little overlap between products with favorable reviews between TAS and Stereophile for some years now.

[Antonmb]

There are a lot of brands and components out there to keep up with, so it’s not surprising that some components that we may like don’t get reviewed by one magazine or another.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

There are a lot of brands and components out there to keep up with, so it’s not surprising that some components that we may like don’t get reviewed by one magazine or another.

Amen. Especially in that the reviewers seem to be quite serious about their work and don't do 'casual' reviews.

[DaveM]

I found the following objective review.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum...2-se-dac.6507/

Not good. Maybe this is a different DAC than the absolute sound reviewed?

The above site does a lot of objective measurements for audio equipment especially DAC’s.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by DaveM

I found the following objective review.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum...2-se-dac.6507/

Not good. Maybe this is a different DAC than the absolute sound reviewed?

The above site does a lot of objective measurements for audio equipment especially DAC’s.

Fwiw, I have a DAC2DSDse and it's still my preferred dac, having seen off many more expensive ones in my system. Objectively, it measures very well, with just a hint of 2nd harmonic visible above the noise floor of my analyzer. W4S dacs will never "measure" as well as many others due to the fact that they're using resistors for I>V conversion and discrete buffers without loop feedback, but subjectively they're up there with the very best.

[Maks]

It took me awhile to warm up to my 10th Anniversary DAC2v2, but it is one heck of a DAC. I bought what I think was the original DAC2 (not v2) from Dan many moons ago, then got the McIntosh D100 from another user on here, then the 10th. I found the DAC2 and D100 to be very similar in sound, the 10th turns it up to 11 and I also like the large amount of inputs.

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by DaveM

I found the following objective review.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum...2-se-dac.6507/

Not good. Maybe this is a different DAC than the absolute sound reviewed?

The above site does a lot of objective measurements for audio equipment especially DAC’s.

At the risk of opening up the whole “subjective vs objective” can of worms, I don’t dispute the measurements in this “review,” but if the reviewer never listened to it, it’s hardly objective. There’s an inherent bias already present in the fact that he’s dismissed the idea of listening to it, and his assumption that the particular measurements he performed are predictive of the sound. A balanced and objective review should include both listening and measuring, preferably done separately so that the listener is not influenced by the measurements and vice versa. Otherwise it’s like reviewing a car based on a certain set of performance specs and never driving it.

[DaveM]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

At the risk of opening up the whole “subjective vs objective” can of worms, I don’t dispute the measurements in this “review,” but if the reviewer never listened to it, it’s hardly objective. There’s an inherent bias already present in the fact that he’s dismissed the idea of listening to it, and his assumption that the particular measurements he performed are predictive of the sound. A balanced and objective review should include both listening and measuring, preferably done separately so that the listener is not influenced by the measurements and vice versa. Otherwise it’s like reviewing a car based on a certain set of performance specs and never driving it.

Yes, I agree. After all, we get our enjoyment from listening to our systems which is 100% subjective. I like the members on this site because they don’t put too much emphasis on objective measures and specifications and seem to be open minded. You validated what I was starting to think about the ASR site. At least, their members are fairly polite unlike many on the AVS and audioholics sites. Just try to convince them of how much an audiophile power cable can improve the sound quality of a system. You’ll feel like you started an argument with the flat-earther society! Good car analogy.

[Vintage Pete]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

At the risk of opening up the whole “subjective vs objective” can of worms, I don’t dispute the measurements in this “review,” but if the reviewer never listened to it, it’s hardly objective. There’s an inherent bias already present in the fact that he’s dismissed the idea of listening to it, and his assumption that the particular measurements he performed are predictive of the sound. A balanced and objective review should include both listening and measuring, preferably done separately so that the listener is not influenced by the measurements and vice versa. Otherwise it’s like reviewing a car based on a certain set of performance specs and never driving it.