He said: "Buy this product because you want its features, not because you think the $4,000 is bringing you superlative objective audio performance. There are $150 stereo DACs that easily outperform it on that front."
There is nothing extraordinary in his statement. We know he is primarily focused on DAC's performance. DAC-oriented reasoning is really simple. If a product for $150 can deliver very clean audio, equally clean performance of DAC in a product for $4,000 is a must, regardless of its other features. Engineering matters more for him, so inaudiable distortion does not always mean good DAC implementation. It's a purist view. Buyers are at liberty to ignore his findings and that's ok too.
A vaccine with ~70% of protection is good enough and not as good as the one with ~90% of protection. Both deliver protection, but if the one that delivers ~70% of protection was more expensive to produce, someone needs to ask questions about engineering process. Amir does exactly that in audio world.
That's why it's inexcusable to sell very expensive audio devices with average performing DACs, even if distortion is not audible. DAC engineering must be top notch if people pay thousands for AVRs/AVPs.
Inexcusable? You're clearly not an engineer or you'd never say that and I say that doubly for Amir. An AVR packed full of amps, video components etc. is not comparable to a one function headphone amplifier in terms of noise interference. It's not even in the same solar system! Expecting headphone DAC performance from a complex home theater processor, let alone a receiver with 9-11 power amplifiers in it is absurd to put it extremely mildly. Could it be done? Probably, but would it be worth the extra weight (to isolate/shield the electronics) and cost? If it were, don't you think someone would have by now? The Monoprice HTP-1 did over 100 and Amir still gave it a headless panther over his own voltage selection nonsense. Ridiculous.
Do you seriously believe every single engineer out there is stupid and that's why they can't manage the 120dB SINAD that would make Amir happy??? Amir is talking out his muffler about something he cannot fix, let alone design and it's that hypocrisy that really grinds. The fact these things are inaudible and people like yourself talk about "no excuses" when you probably can't even change a shower head without calling a plumber is what bugs me. You have no clue what you're talking about so maybe you just shouldn’t.
Look at the things talked about in this thread. Are front wides "discrete" with Atmos? Nobody supports wides after 2016. Really??? Is Atmos so poorly understood after 10 years people on places like this can't even answer those basic questions yet feel the need to criticize inaudible noise? Ridiculous.
Yes, Atmos supports front wides. Yes, they're
rendered discrete from objects.
Contrary to popular belief, Home Atmos has only ONE bed channel. The 5.1 or 7.1 base layer is converted into *objects* on the home system and limited to a total of 15 plus the LFE. So
rendering wides is no different from
rendering mains.
No, support for wides didn't end in 2016 just because a few D&M models dropped it on 11-channel AVRs.
If I can fit 17.1 in a 12'x24' room, most people can fit a pair of wides. They go between mains and side surrounds. Whether they're on the front wall or side wall or somewhere in between doesn't matter so long as they're between them.
People are obsessed with the word "discrete" when it's lost its meaning in terms of usefulness or desirability. Cinema Atmos uses arrays for bed channels. Trinnov supports arrays at home and remapping technically makes arrays as well. I've been creating my own at home using outboard switches and mixers. Discrete isn't everything.
