There are some conceptual errors in this, both technical and subjective, that do not understand what is true HIFI:
1. Summarize audio equipment with price theory and simple "good" and "bad"
The most important thing about audio products is that "only choose expensive, not right." Because different audio products are not a thousand people, but have their own style characteristics, and everyone's preferences for music styles vary widely. If you don't find the style you like, then the top products are a waste of money.
Therefore, the first thing to understand when choosing an audio product is the basic style characteristics of the product. Some people like to use simple words such as [good", [not good" and [invincible at the same price" to describe the equipment. It is most misleading to describe the specific characteristics of the equipment. For such "evaluation" enthusiasts can ignore it directly.
The evaluation of sound is based on subjective feelings. It is impossible to completely unify to a digital absolute standard, but HIFI equipment still has a rough classification standard for sound reproduction, especially through direct comparison of different equipment. Cognition of the basic characteristics of a device: such as the cool, warm, soft, and fierce style characteristics of sound reproduction, the basic qualities such as the restoration of details, the control of low frequency, and the performance of sound field/positioning. So a referenced evaluation should include these detailed comparisons.
As a newcomer to fever, there are some things that can't be lazy. It is not only need to listen to accumulated experience, but also pay attention to distinguishing other people's evaluation of equipment, which are of reference value and which can be ignored directly. In reality, novices like to see the conclusion directly without looking at the specific details. See the so-called "second kill", "invincible", "one step in place", "artifact", "strongly recommended", "no need to consider", etc. + Action, this type of text is exactly what some malicious speculators like to instill in the public. This way, you can't blame others for detours.
2, sound sound = large thrust
A common person describes: "The volume knob is very loud as long as it reaches a certain position. The conclusion is: this equipment has a large thrust." This is a technical misunderstanding of audio equipment. An amplifier that pushes the headphone sound very loud does not mean that it has a large thrust because an important premise is needed: no distortion. Therefore, the output power in the audio amplifier device must contain three details: output power (W), load (ohm), distortion (THD), usually the default distortion data is at 1%, such a value for the actual sense of hearing It is already considered to be obviously distorted. Distortion data can be directly measured by professional test equipment, so look at the test data for the thrust of the equipment.
As a typical example, SONY's D100 recorder was called "strong thrust" by many people when it was first introduced, and some people even claimed to have more than 200 mW of domestic portable players. Why is there such a misunderstanding, because the D100 can get a large volume by turning a small scale potentiometer, and the actual test volume knob has reached the limit distortion of 1% when it is turned to half (scale 5 or so). The output power is only 17.3 mW/32 ohms. This value is not much different from the 25 mW/16 ohm conversion on the manual. Compared with the mini audio DX100 player 378 mW/32 ohm, the difference is more than 20 Times.
Another form of false large thrust is that some equipment uses the software to increase the thrust. This is also a way to greatly increase the distortion, usually only used in non-HIFI class mass audio products.
From the actual listening contrast, the sound sound is not equal to push can also be directly verified, for example, D100 drive HD650 headphones performance is very bad, not only lack of dynamic, high-frequency distortion is also obvious, is not a typical push.
3, the bass is fierce = the sound field is large
Some people have low-frequency control and exaggerated sense of volume. The sense of space created (similar to the effect of reverberation and hall sound) is confused with the sound field positioning. In fact, this is totally two unrelated concepts:
A. Sound field localization is mainly related to two characteristics:
a, channel separation: the higher the index, the wider the sound field, the more the band can be restored.
b, high-frequency analysis and detail reduction: the higher the two indicators, the stronger the positioning of the instrument, the human ear is not sensitive to the low-frequency orientation, so there will be those 2.1 speakers out.
B. The sense of space and halls are related to the low-frequency problem, mainly the low-frequency part. Low-frequency control is not easy to form some reverberation-like effects: the end of a signal with the tail of the reverberation, it seems to be dragging, and will add some false sense of space / hall.
Some people will say: Is it not good to create a hall? However, in fact, when recording, as long as the live recording (most classical music), the synchronization of the reverberant hall in the concert hall at that time has been recorded, and the audio equipment can be reflected as long as it is directly restored. The sense of real space. Poor low-frequency control is actually a kind of distortion, exaggerating the feeling of space.
4. Misunderstanding of musicality and resolution
The most common misunderstanding is to pierce the ear = high resolution, musicality = paste
This involves a subjective sense of hearing, there is no absolute standard, and reference to high-end audio equipment can also be a relative standard: the most important thing is to stay away from the dry, hard, stabbing digital flavor.
What is the real excellent resolution? Simply summed up, good resolution = rich details + not harsh, long listening and not irritating. Many people are accustomed to the digital taste of ipod and other products used to stimulate the hard high frequency as high resolution, in fact, this is the authentic distortion.
What is excellent musicality? It is neither the softness of the details of the cover and the false "details" of the spurs. The intermediate frequency is the most sensitive frequency band of the human ear. The vocal is the best way to identify the musicality of the equipment. The good musicality should be natural and rich in detail, and the vocal and instrumental music will open a clear distance. A lot of low-end and mid-range equipment can't achieve true high fidelity because of the technical cost, so it takes a deliberate way to erase some details to make the sound listen to a softer way. This way reduces the chilly digital taste, but it is more pleasing to the public. However, there is still a clear gap between this tuning method and the real high fidelity. The most important thing is that the vocal restoration lacks emotion and intimacy.
5, myth DSD format
However, in recent years, some new products have strongly promoted DSD as a selling point, making some newcomers misunderstand that only supporting DSD is a "good" device. In fact, DSD is only a kind of high-rate audio file. It is not new. The most format used for the studio master is PCM 24BIT/96K. After the original recording of DSD format, you need to convert to PCM if you need post-production. Rate format. Therefore, the choice of a high-rate file is not what format it uses now, but what format its original recording is. In theory, conversion between different formats will result in loss of sound quality. One more format support is a good thing, but the decisive factor in supporting an audio format as a player is completely misleading.
6, various misunderstandings on audio equipment technical indicators
Common misunderstandings are: technical indicators determine all theories, technical indicators are completely useless, the sound card RMAA test data and non-standard test data as "objective data."
There are two things to note about the test data:
A. First of all, pay attention to the test conditions, test methods, load conditions and other test conditions.
Some people often take the data of some non-professional websites with computer sound card + RMAA test, which is actually very unreliable, especially the test Walkman, some websites directly open the Walkman to the maximum volume, without adding Any load is tested with RMAA. Different Walkman output powers are different. The sound card is not sensitive to small input power. RMAA will get some weird data if the input power is small or too large. For the desktop audio system, the RMAA test data is close to the professional tester, and the relative data can be tested under the same conditions for comparison, but it cannot be used as an absolute numerical reference. The sound card + RMAA is easily subject to external interference such as a computer, and the data obtained by the test is prone to various deviations.
In addition, I have also seen some data measured by professional testers. Actually, I also turned the volume up to the maximum and measured the THD and then compared it. I did not consider the corresponding output power of the different distortion data of different players (at least To uniformly set an output power test distortion, this is fair). There is no sense to directly measure a bunch of so-called data without load. For the Walkman, the difference between the data added and the load is amazing. So unscientific test data can be fooled.
B. Audio products The parameters measured by professional test instruments can reflect the sound characteristics of some equipment, but they cannot completely replace the sense of hearing. Styles like warm and cold, thick, scent, etc. are not reflected in the data. Therefore, the most valuable evaluation should include effective test data and a comprehensive listening comparison.
7, blindly worship foreign big brands
The brand effect is found in any product, and in the audio field, the brand is one of the most important factors to ignore. There have been foreign audio manufacturers holding the Chinese brand OPPO Blu-ray machine and a Nissan cheap DVD to change a trademark, the appearance will sell several times the price. Such a blatant flicker, there are people who buy the same. Some of the old domestic audio companies such as Shanling are currently OEMs. I have seen a large number of foreign brand products on Shanling's production line, including some well-known high-end brands. Some of them are completely developed and designed by Shanling, directly branded with foreign trademarks, and the foreign merchants will add the price to zero. Domestic audio companies actually have excellent audio designers and excellent audio products. Many products are widely acclaimed abroad (or there will not be so many OEM business), but it is difficult to get a fair evaluation in China, and these domestic manufacturers are forced. Became a behind-the-scenes OEM, and some foreign brands have earned large profits, and then invested heavily in advertising and propaganda to continue the "myth" brand image, forming a strange circle.
As a HIFI entry enthusiast, if you abandon the brand, blindly worship the ocean and other factors, treat domestic and foreign products on an equal footing, and listen to it as a reality, you can spend a lot less money.
Third, the novice needs to learn another skill: how to listen to the contrast equipment
After reading this title, someone will definitely say: I need to learn to compare the audition equipment. Can you listen directly to your ears? Listening is subjective and involves many external factors, including front-end factors such as power handling that are easily overlooked, gentle mood and different psychological feelings of tension on music. In different audition situations, different contrasts may lead to completely different conclusions.
Many people prefer to use the instant switching contrast method, which is effective for some different equipment. But this approach is not the best way for some less differentiated equipment.
The best way to compare audio equipment is: in a quiet environment, use your familiar music to listen to it on a device for a while, until you are completely familiar with and immersed in the musical feeling brought by this device, then switch to the need to compare On the equipment, the difference between the two devices is easy to highlight. This principle is actually the same as visual recognition: outsiders can't tell the twins, and familiar people can easily distinguish them.
Therefore, for many auditioning auditions, under unfamiliar music and unfamiliar equipment, it is difficult to get a correct conclusion in a hurry of intense short-term listening. At most, listen to it. Including some blind listening comparisons, if the way is not correct (not enough familiar time and repeated comparison), coupled with nervousness, will make the difference that is usually easy to distinguish becomes difficult to distinguish.
Understand this point, in fact, for the conclusions of some rushing auditions on the Internet (one ear comparison), we can know that its reference value is not great.