Or others are more impressionable, rather than the ‘golden ears’ troupe, you do have to at least acknowledge that possibility.
Hi @MoonDrifter , not sure if your question regarding Innuos users sharing their experience with downloading directly from the internet got answered, apologies if it did, just one from my perspective.
I have a Zenith and have had it for a number of years now - very reliable and it runs Roon for me avoiding my need for yet another box! The Innuos Sense app/web interface is really good too.
But to your question about downloads, this is super easy to do.
Whenever I download from Qobuz etc. I download to PC/NAS/USB (delete as required) and then import the files into my Zenith via the My Innuos web interface - see here for the interface and what the next step looks like:
With the USB method this is done by inserting the USB stick into the Innuos USB port directly.
I used to download quite a lot of Hi Res but these days tend to do a batch every now and then - its definitely reduced to virtually nothing now the streaming service quality is so good. The Innuos still offers me the option should I need it though.
Hope you find this helpful.
1 Like
What exactly defines a member of this group?
1 Like
As explicitly specified in duncs post.
I don’t see why hearing something when someone else doesn’t means that one has ‘golden ears’. The expression seems to imply something special on the part of the observer.
No and I totally agree that some may have better hearing than others, you have picked up on the golden ears bit there without acknowledging the point of my post. Do you agree that its very possible also that some people are more impressionable, believe the hype, pay into the marketing and ‘hear’ a difference?
1 Like
I certainly haven’t got golden ears at the age of 55, and like anyone over 25, it’s all down hill from there.
I do have a system that is capable of showing what cables, etc can do. Plus i have guy’s from this forum that will back that one up for sure, as they have heard my system.
I am a great believe in the fact that if yoh have just spent thousands on something, then straight away you will think its better, it has to be as it cost much more.
Well to start off with, i borrowed the D100 from paul (hifi lounge) so i wasn’t under any pressure to like what it did, plus i was hoping i couldn’t hear any difference as i didn’t want to spend day’s once again re ripping all my cd’s.
As said before i dont know why, nor do i care much as for why, but for me it was worth re ripping them all again.
Cheers dunc
3 Likes
It’s the ‘I don’t care what the science says, I know the earth is flat’ stance that some posters seemingly adopt.
If your brain ‘hears’ something that’s fine and it makes no sense to challenge that subjective reality, but when this is extended to insisting against all the evidence that this is objective reality then things tend to go downhill.
2 Likes
Although your very high frequencies start to fall away, your hearing acuity to timing, timbre and detail typically doesn’t… so you can quite possibly be having golden ears well beyond middle age, unless you are into bat music, or you start to have noticeable hearing loss or tinnitus.
I remember reading some interesting research papers in the AES library on the subject how spatial awareness and timing wasn’t specifically impacted with age and the reduction of the high pass bandwidth.
4 Likes
Let me put it to you this way. Do you believe it’s very possible that some people are so convinced that no difference can possibly exist that they don’t hear a difference when one actually does exist?
The two scenarios are equally likely if you want to postulate a psychological influence in this way.
One cannot possibly know if either scenario is happening because there is no reference point available. If you listen and don’t hear a difference you may say person X who does hear a difference is subject to some sort of psychological bias that makes them think a difference exists when there isn’t one. Equally, person X may say that there is a real difference and you fail to hear it because you are subject to some sort of psychological influence which makes you think a difference doesn’t exist when it really does.
It’s quite impossible to determine which scenario is objectively correct. So the sort of reasoning along the lines of "there really is no difference - he or she is only hearing a difference because of the hype, they’ve spent a fortune on it, they beieve all the marketing and good reviews etc. etc. is really utterly meaningless and pointless.
Note that I’m not suggesting that psychological influences do not exist. They do of course. I’m saying that using them to explain why people hear improvements that you do not and are sceptical are able to exist has no logical validity.
2 Likes
If that’s your own experience then fair enough. It certainly isn’t mine. When I bought a CDS3 and 252 back in the day I was mightily disappointed. I believe they cost me in the region of £10K or so. That didn’t make me think it was good. I was just pi**ed off that I’d spent so much money to get something which sounded so bland and un-Naim like.
I don’t know how anyone would go about any sort of sensible evaluation of equipment if simply spending a lot of money made it automatically sound better to them. It must be very hard going. Still, at least people like that will be easily pleased and never disappointed.
1 Like
I agree, and it’s demonstrated on this very thread. People who insist that all bit-identical rips must sound the same are insisting on this despite the objetcive reality. There are good objective reasons, as explained clearly in posts here and in some technical detail, to explain why these rips will not necessarily sound the same.
If someone doean’t hear any differences say between rips made via a Melco D100 and a cheap drive then that’s fair enough. But to suggest that it’s impossible for these differences to exist due to the rips being bit perfect, and for others to hear them, in inexplicable in the face of the technical evidence.
1 Like
This has been a fun thread and remarkably we are all still here and discussing amicably. That’s great and let’s keep it like that! 
I hope the OP got useful advice. Keep us informed about what you decide to do!
2 Likes
As I have pointed out to you several tines before, that has always been acknowledged by at least some of us who recognise that psychological influences can affect people’s hearing. What I think is wrong (either way) is to dismiss psychological influences, or somehow believe that one is in some way immune, unless something is done to rule them out. As any scientist news, the first step in investigating anything is there verification of the observation this is being investigated. Yes one can ignore it, not be interested in investigating not be interested in knowing what’s happening, not be interested in knowing whether what one is hearing is real or the result of some psychological influence*, and bd quite happy - but others like to know and understand. (*Note, this is absolutely not the same as suggesting someone has been making it up or imagining it, as you have suggested previously when the possibility of psychological influences has been raised.)
1 Like
It’s certainly not something i do, as i tend to always try before i buy.
But for certain it happens alot, as people tend to buy the next new thing, or next up in the range without testing them side by side, believing that for certain it’s better, when that’s not always the case.
1 Like
OK so you do agree that this could be a problem? (from both sides)
I just don’t understand how in 2024 we have no possible way to determine if something sounds different or not, crazy!
1 Like
Surely you just listen?
That is what i do, and if i feel i can hear a difference then great, if not then i don’t buy, and look for alternatives.
This is what i do, and so far it has worked out fantastically for me.
I have had quite a few disappointing demo’s along the way, that i would have thought would have been very different.
1 Like
I’m sure there is an internet meme about the futility of debating with people who are impervious to reasoned argument - either through missing the point or wilful denial.
I’m also sure that this is a 360 degree perception 
That’s something different though. Not the same as spending a lot and then being convinced it’s better just because it cost more.
I’m certainly guilty of buying without trying - hence the CDS3/252 disaster. I’ve only got myself to blame though. it was a stupid thing to do and it taught me a lesson. Up until then I’d just been working my way up the range, starting with a 42/110 and later a CDI. I didn’t bother listening because I ‘knew’ (or thought I knew!) that the next one up would be better. And it was until the CDS3/252. Anyway, once bitten…
I don’t recall that or the precise context. But anyway water under the bridge, it’s what I’m saying now that matters.
I agree. Absolutely. My post makes it very clear that I acknowledge the existence of pyschological influences and that none of us are immune.
People who postulate these influences to explain why others hear ‘impossible’ differences that they don’t hear are making the mistake of thinking they are immune and are using their own experience as a valid reference point. Which, of course, it isn’t, as they are not immune.