AB Testing Experiences

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Surprised that you can’t hear much of a difference between SACD and mp3.  I listen primarily to Classical and the differences between mp3 and Redbook are pretty overwhelming, let alone mp3 and SACD.  I do notice that when I play pop mp3 sounds pretty decent.  In fact I don’t own any pop recordings, I just Bluetooth them from my phone via Qobuz.

It’s hard to do truly blind listening.  I have two SACD players in my system, and Oppo 105 and a Sony 5400 ES.  I have a Bryston DAC3 with 4 HDMI inputs, and both players output DSD over HDMI.  I have several SACDs where I have wound up with multiple copies, and recently spent some time comparing the two players, switching between HDMI inputs on the DAC.  Not truly a blind test, and the HDMI hand off isn’t instantaneous either.  I have also switched between one of the HDMI inputs and the Coax input that I use for the streamer and the usb for the PC, comparing rips of CDs, and again it isn’t blind.  I enlisted my wife to change inputs at one point, and she was nice enough to cooperate, but she was clearly bored, and it also led to the question on her part “Since they all sound the same to me,why do you need all of these different boxes?”  so heed my experience and don’t go there