PeteHalo said:
Would anyone of you care to run the tests on your gear and post the figures and graphs for reference? For some reason those who own high end gear seem to be a little shy on publising any hard facts Should be interesting to see some facts instead of the usual hearsay.
I consider Bobalou's post as factual as the published specs. Bobalou knows someone who has actually owned and used the unit, and is reporting what that person's experiences are with it. For me that is more fact than some pumped up specs from the manufacturer which mean very little beyond marketing.
When it comes to audio gear, it's not always about what you call "hard facts". It's about how the gear sounds. As I've posted earlier in this thread, Behringer and other manufacturers sometimes play the numbers game, trying to make the gear look good on paper. The only problem with that is that the gear can look good on paper and sound bad in real life, or not be useful in real life. I'm sure that some of those ADA8000 noise and distortion specs are "better" than my Manley VariMu, but guess which *sounds* better.
You can post specs all day and it won't tell you a thing.
It's also about how the gear holds up over years of use. I've owned Behringer in the past and it is about as flimsy and weak as you could possibly imagine. Not surprised at all to read the many posts on the net about people sending unit after unit back in order to get one that works right.
Originally posted by PeteHalo That's why I also ask for rational conversation instead of the usual B-bashing.
But by that statement you are determining what's rational and what isn't rational. I think the discussion you are attempting to have is fundamentally NOT rational. We are talking about how things sound here, and while specs play a certain role in that determining that, there are many other factors. You can't rationally determine the quality of gear just by the specs. You have to hear it.
For that reason, I consider posts by actual users of the gear to have greater credence over posts of specs. The more objective the better, of course.
*However*, when you get into the world of of the manufacturers that cater to the low end of the market, you find that many of the people using the gear do not have experience with the really fine equipment. So you often read raves about gear from people that are comparing it to a soundblaster card or some other horrible low end whatever. So I find that a lot of the raves come from people that haven't experienced the good stuff.
What I want to see is not specs, but opinions from people that have used great gear.
Again, I can't comment on this actual ADA8000 myself as I have not heard it. I'm simply discussing what I consider the misguided concept of "spec wars".