Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Double Blind Test

This one's for you John.

http://www.matrixhifi.com/ENG_marco.htm

Anyone ever hear the brand / model speakers they used?

That is a great article. I wonder how the people felt that brought the expensive amp and cdp (especially if they picked the wrong system).

My closest experience to something like this was buying an expensive DAC ($1k) to use in my system. When I first installed it, I could swear that I heard details I was missing before. Eventually, after switching back and forth I realized I couldn't distinguish it from the dacs in my receiver.

Luckily I sold it on ebay for almost what I paid for it, so the lesson wasn't too expensive.

The only thing wrong with the the test is that they weren't using Axiom speakers. Maybe then the Axiom speakers would have helped reveal the differences in those systems.

There ya go Dean. The Behringer A500 double blind tested against the big boys.

Must be that expensive speaker cables are the only thing that matters.

My $1200 power cord is going back.

Very good, Mike. As far as the speakers which determined the quality of sound heard, I vaguely recall reading about the ATC speakers in some of the British audio mags I thumbed through. The SCM12s apparently listed for around $2,000 and got some plaudits in British reviews about six years ago.

Dave, good to hear from you again! Yeah, the purveyors of voodoo audio would probably say that the speakers(and even more, the speaker wire)used weren't adequate in "resolution" to reveal what would have to be "huge", "night-and-day" ,etc. differences.

I totally agree with tests such as these. This is why I purchased a $600 dollar Emotiva amp instead of saving up for a $7500 dollar Denon amp. I have come to understand through this site and others that there just isn't enough of a difference to justify spending that much more money.

But, these tests don't address the battle that has been raging on boards such as this one for years... is it worth getting an external amp to power your speakers, or does a power receiver do the exact same job? These tests don't deviate from a specific decible level. And they don't test out the upper reaches of the volume levels. In the past 4 days I've experimented with the Emotiva vs my Denon and found the Emotiva to run my speakers better.... at higher volumes. If I capped the volume levels at around 90 dbs or so, then I am pretty certain I would not notice any percievable differences.

But I didn't buy my amp to listen to music at 90 dbs. My amp pumps out 350 watts to each of my M80's. The best my Denon could do was 125 watts each (perhaps). And in a direct comparison of the two, there's no way the Denon can match the Emotiva when the volume goes up. For instance, with the Denon powering my M80's I could get up to +5 pretty easily. It was loud, but it started to sound just a bit strained (the Denon maxes out at +10, and amplifier distortion rises slightly near it's limit). Switch over to the Emotiva and I got it up to -13 and had to stop... it was just about as loud as I could get her before I thought my head was going to explode. But since it was no where near the limit of the amp, it still sounded very relaxed, like she was just getting started. That's the difference. They should perform a test that takes a receiver up to it's amplified limit, and note the db level it's emitting. Then play an amp with triple the wattage (basically what my XPA-3 has over the Denon) at the same db level and see if there is an audible difference.

That would be an interesting test. Who knows, maybe it would turn out similar to these other tests. All I know is to me the Emotiva can run the M80's at louder volumes much cleaner than the Denon seemed to.

Whoah! Look who's back after almost a year. Nice to see your words again.

AGREED! Dave, good to see your name pop up again. Welcome!!!!!