Tone Deaf

@WMW Why don't you tell us how you really feel?

I'm not particularly enamored with subscriptions, but I have a few and I'm quite content to sign up for them when they make sense. I've been for the most part quite satisfied with Audirvana and it has been well worth it's cost to me. If a subscription is the cost of keeping Audirvana available to me, I'll happily subscribe. That said, with Audirvana Studio being in it's current state, I won't be jumping to immediately try it. For me to do so, Audirvana Studio would need: A working remote app the analyze that determines the MUSICBRAINZ_TRACKID defaulted to off, and make it an opt in choice Have a good number of the issues folks are currently encountering ironed out Don't know how much of the new functionality of Audirvana Studio that I would use. But hopefully enough of the issues will be ironed out before too long so I can give it a try and find out.

You just need to use chicken wire like they do in Canada! Then you would be all good! 😉 https://westkootenayhiking.ca/porcupine-proof-vehicles/

I also can confirm, and that it works as a blind test. A long time ago I had borrowed a USB cable from a dealer to test. The spousal unit knew I was playing with the system, but didn't know any of the specifics. The spousal unit had already gone to bed when I took the borrowed cable out of the system, as I had to return it to the dealer the next day. She could still hear the system from the bedroom. When I came to bed a bit later she asked: "What did you just do to the stereo? It doesn't sound as good as it did earlier...." 🤔

I don't want to completely derail this thread with talk about USB improvements, but at least this is mostly with regard to the QB-9. Some folks find the changes from the ISO Regen to be subtle, and others find them to be quite significant. I'm probably somewhere in between. Mostly a blacker background, resulting in a more relaxed sound and the other expected changes due to the darker background. Some find the change to make the music less exciting - noise can make music artificially "sound" brighter. I simply found music with the ISO Regen to be noticeably more natural, which is my highest priority when listening. There is an impressions thread on the UpTone sub-forum if you want to read more. There isn't much risk in giving an ISO Regen a try. Uptone has a 30 day trial policy, and you would only be out shipping should you decide the differences were not significant enough to justify keeping. Being from Thailand, @PrTv would have larger shipping hassles and costs should he decide to try one and end up not keeping it.

@beetlemania, agree with you regarding isolation. Ayre designed the QB-9 with galvanic isolation on the USB input, starting with the first generation QB-9, which may have been the first time this was done with any DAC. Ayre redesigned it again on the DSD version, and again on the Twenty version. But even with galvanic isolation, I have never found any version of the QB-9 to be immune to changes to the source. I performed most of my structured testing / listening with the DSD version. To my ears, even the original Regen made subtle improvements to the sound of the QB-9. The ISO Regen improved things further, and improving the power feeding the ISO Regen improved things further yet. Modifying the Mac mini to use dc power resulted in comparable improvements. I haven't performed any structured testing with the Twenty version - I just put the Twenty version back into my system without changing anything. But few months after getting the Twenty back into my system, I had an ISO Regen / LPS-1.2 die due to a faulty power brick (all replaced under warranty by Uptone). Lets just say, going back to a standard Regen / LPS-1 was a bit of a let down, and I was quite happy to get the ISO Regen / LPS-1.2 back into the system. So in my experience, the Twenty version is sensitive to upstream source changes. I believe@barrows suggestion is a valid one if someone wants to get a bit more performance out of the QB-9, and they are not using a specialized renderer, and possibly even if they are. Adding one also just might take the "edge" off something about the sound such as @PrTv is experiencing - my guess is he is hearing some type of noise making it thru to the DAC, and an ISO Regen might clean much of that up. I've also used MBP's with the QB-9 - they were not immune to USB improvements either.

I pretty much agree with everything @beatlemania wrote. For me, initially right out of the box it didn't sound that great. But after 48 hours it was clearly better than the DSD version in every way. Any changes since then have only solidified that view. I too would be surprised if the upgrade could be botched, as it is a complete board replacement. Not much to go wrong there. The most striking change to me was the transparency, with the much darker backgrounds. Stepping out on a limb here, but I wonder if there is something about your digital source that the DSD version obscured and the greater transparency of the Twenty version allows you to notice. Doubtful. What source are you using to feed the QB-9?

The ZMF Vérité would also be one to consider. The open version might be better for you based on your listening tastes. I'll let JoshM do the convincing - see his review of them. https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-measurements-zmf-verite-verite-closed-r916/

Nice looking and sounding system. Why am I not surprised with the Pearl Jam comment? 😉 "The Portland Cello Project has covers of Jay-Z and Radiohead that I really like. But, it's the Brooklyn Duo's cover of Pearl Jam's Better Man that I really love." And it is great that your daughter appreciates it. You do know though that your daughter will be taking this system with her when she goes off to college....

Joan Shelley - Live at the Bomhard Great collaborators and acoustics make this a wonderful live recording.

Hi Josh, Very informative and well written review! It is impressive how you measure the headphones, and then tie your listening impressions back to the measurements. I seem to learn something new each time you publish a review. As an owner of Vérité Closed, I can concur that the sound quality is superb. Regarding pads. It is completely understandable that you would limit your measurements to the default set of pads that came with the headphones. But as Zach encourages users to experiment with various pads, it would have been extremely informative to see how the different pads might have affected measurements. BTW, I was surprised how much the sound presentation changed with different pads. With the Vérité Closed / default Auteur pads, I found vocals a bit too recessed for my tastes, and eventually settled on the Vérité pads which give a more neutral presentation. Looking forward to your next review!

Chris, Thanks for the intriguing review. And especially for your very interesting approach comparing the DACs to the Western Stars album versions! I had listened, and really tried to like the studio version of Western Stars, but somehow couldn't ever fully engage with it, and didn't really notice the live version when it was released. But to understand your review, I had to go listen to the Western Stars live version - wow, instant connection with the music! "Western Stars - Songs From The Film" has been part of my regular listening for the past week. And better yet, I'm listening to it through my QB-9 Twenty....

Great idea, but maybe we should TP Superdad's house in Mariposa instead - he was down to two rolls in his house and might actually welcome it!

John Prine passed away today due to Covid-19 complications. There was a simple humanity to his work that will be greatly missed.

Wondering if we can move the politics discussions to the Politics-Fi sub forum?