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Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

"Audiophiles are Snobs"  Youtube features an idiot!  He states, with no equivocation,  that $5,000 and $10,000 speakers sound equally good and a $500 and $5,000 integrated amp sound equally good.  He is either deaf or a liar or both! 

There is a site filled with posters like him called Audio Science Review.  If a reasonable person posts, they immediately tear him down, using selected words and/or sentences from the reasonable poster as100% proof that the audiophile is dumb and stupid with his money. They also occasionally state that the high end audio equipment/cable/tweak sellers are criminals who commit fraud on the public.  They often state that if something scientifically measures better, then it sounds better.   They give no credence to unmeasurable sound factors like PRAT and Ambiance.   Some of the posters music choices range from rap to hip hop and anything pop oriented created in the past from 1995.  

Have any of audiogon (or any other reasonable audio forum site) posters encountered this horrible group of miscreants?  

fleschler
juanmanuelfangioii
958 posts
 

We have been saying this all along and it took you over 300 posts to figure this out.

Your opinion will differ from mine and that is life. Use measurements as one of the qualifying nodes. What you like and enjoy is the final measure.

If you are the smartest guy in the room, leave the room.

 

  The only basis on which one can logically, rationally, universally, compare audio components is on the basis of their subjective performance, subject to the simple equation above, yet think about the wasted time and energy devoted to arguing opinion on this and other audio boards...it's insane. If you don't care how well your audio components perform objectively and want to use solely your own ears to make your decisions, great! Have at it! If you find value in knowing your components are as accurate as possible to the recording, great! Have at it! If you want to use the info from measurements as an aid in selecting components and then use your ears as the final arbiter, great! Have at it! Whatever makes you happy, have at it! We should all have the freedom to choose without the incessant and idiotic arguing.

kuribo
524 posts
 

@juanmanuelfangioii 

 

We have been saying this all along

 

Not sure who the "we" you refer to is comprised of but from the title of this thread and the numerous nutty replies it has generated, as well as the incessant bickering on this site over matters of taste, it is clear your "we" is in the distinct minority. 

goofyfoot's avatar
goofyfoot
1,387 posts
 

From a personal perspective; a friend of mine drank the Kool-Aid. He told me all about ASR when I bought a tweak and told him about the differences I was hearing. Of course, I wasn't really hearing a difference, I was just imagining things in view of the fact that he knew from reported measurements, that the tweak I had purchased is totally bogus. And please let me clarify, this is a device that he has never listened to. I don't mind dissenting opinion but I was basically being told that I'm full of s###. This is arrogance that I have trouble tolerating, friend or not.

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@djones51

 

had to laugh at the irony of the title of this thread. Anyone that spends any time at all at ASR would know that ASR has nothing to say about the "sound" of equipment- they are all about objective performance.

This is true to an extent. If a component like a DAC, amplifier, cable etc.. excluding speakers has a " sound" then it’s not high fidelity or was purpose built.

 

 

That’s a good point.

The sound of equipment must be the sound of added distortion.

 

Therefore the measurement of distortion is the yardstick by which products are usually designed and compared.

Less is always better if we want to remain faithful to the original signal.

[If not, then there’s always DSP for those who want to correct perceived equipment/room/recording anomalies or perhaps they might simply prefer a particular type of distortion].

 

It’s surely no coincidence that when distortion is low that even tube and transistor amps begin to sound indistinguishable.

Ditto for everything else too.

 

Of course you have to always factor in the limits of human hearing, otherwise we’d be forevermore trying to get down to infinitely zero distortion.

Then there’s the fact that our hearing is more sensitive in the midrange, so distortion is particularly unwanted there.

All of this this suggests that as replay equipment improves there must also be a general historical convergence of the sound that it makes, which is exactly where ASR comes in.

Some products will be assessed as having an exceptionally good measured performance, and some not so exceptional.

And as anyone familiar with the site will know, all of this is usually indicated by the corresponding posture of the residential panther.

 

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/asr-panthers.11541/

 

curtdr
348 posts
 

@vonhelmholtz 

So you don't believe that isolating contagion can blunt it?  You don't believe in climate change?  OK... well... lol. How about evolution?  ... Well, in that case, you certainly would not be interested in science; I understand.... beyond that, I don't know what else to say.

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