ok, so now that the dust has settled a bit, thought i'd pop in with an update... please don't shoot me, it's not a snake oil update
(one of those is coming very soon, and i promise to anyone who cares it's gonna be a good one!
)
more of just an expansion on stuff that keeps coming up in other threads but i don't wanna pollute them with my blasphemous ideas!
to those that are clearly in one church OR other (most people on these forums seem to be measurementphiles
), please look away, go "enjoy the music" or whatever you need to do to
keep calm before reading this!
(mods please don't ban me and @ WiiM team - the offer to shut me up with free prototype mini v2 or ultra is still on the table)
anyways, been catching up on
scientific audiophile's youtube content (will refer to him as S|A from now on - very balanced and quite funny) and he's pointing out an issue that comes up a lot. many people on here seem to completely disregard my point when i refer to the "limitations of measurements" (or how we apply them).
in his videos on the WiiM amp and the Fosi audio za3 + v3 - S|A points out important measurements that many reviewers almost never perform (erin's audio corner does some like the pink noise test on amps) and the ways that
manufacturers can "game the system" (does anyone remember the VW fiasco?!!
) by making sure that the products test well under "standard ideal testing conditions" that they know the popular reviewers are going to use. (check out his
short video on the za3 if you want to see a great example)
for example many of these new amps can easily play a 1 KHz test tone at the rated SPL through the speakers as mentioned on the spec sheet, but when a complex signal is used like pink noise (or multitone tests, or
actual music) then they are NOT able to meet the specs they claim. obviously this affects every manufacturer to some degree or another - but it's much more rampant in the lower end class D amps than it is in the old-school class A or class A/B ones for example. this is what
andrew robinson meant when he says "the problem with measurements is that they tend to show you the best
WORST-case scenario" (and sometimes only that) in his "head to head" video of the WiiM amp vs onkyo AVR from
@D1N0 's
interesting thread...
the reason i need to point this out is because issues such as this would probably be quite apparent if you listened to an amp like this closely enough in a practical and realistc listening environment! you would maybe notice the
lack of dynamics at medium listening levels, and obviously the lack of volume when you try to crank it up... i mean shocking, right?!
you mean you actually need to listend to an audio reproduction device to evaluate it? haha!!
(as a side note - i
DO NOT
recommend listening to music loud (>75dB) for periods longer than a few minutes at a time
WITH BREAKS!! acoustic damage that causes hearing loss is real, people - and i don't hear enough people talking about this tbh
. it's worth pointing out much of these
specific issues highlighted here might not apply to playing music at "normal" listening levels <70dB)
but anyways maybe these ideas can demonstrate the value of combining both listening and measurements when evaluating equipment, and trying to improve the application of both. and just to remind people that they are NOT mutually exclusive! after all - scientific thinkers must have an open enough mind to discover something new, right? all of this applies to snake oil stuff as well, by the way.
(even if we disagree with the degree of the limitations!! 
)a
