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

@fleschler

Amir-again dumb retort. Of course good designers use test equipment to design and test their results. However, if it ended there, they are making HUGE mistakes without knowing it.

Well, the dumbest thing is to take the word of a designer attempting gorilla marketing in forums and such. Why on earth would you trust what he has to say about his own gear? Isn’t he totally biased to get you to buy his gear? Would you trust a drug from a drug company with no government certification and controlled testing? Why would you put your guard down when it comes to audio? What happened to common sense?

And no, they would not make "HUGE" mistake if they stopped at instrumentation. As I explained, there is no reason to know they have good ears whatsoever. On what basis you put any value on what they think of their own gear vs another? He knows how to design electronics but all of a sudden, he has golden ears too?

Nothing wrong with claims about fidelity. But that better be in controlled listening tests published with full documentation. Him saying he tried many things and the one being sold is the best is hogwash.

I tested a PS audio directstream DAC. It measured poorly in low frequencies. After a bunch of back and forth with claims you believe in, it turns out that for cost reasons they used low quality transformers that produced more distortion! Multi-thousand dollar DAC used low quality parts. So you better not believe company claims. Your trust should only be on what you can verify. And I am here for verification. If you don’t like that, setup your own controlled listening tests. These are the only proof point that respected audio journals accept. Don’t make up your own methods. They only serve to confuse you into spending money after bad.

 

 

@invalid

My oscilloscope doesn't listen to music.

Then you don't know how to use it or it is broken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

@fleschler 

 Speaker designers who don't listen to adjust settings are not very good designers.

I am sure the person I was responding to was talking about electronic design. Of course speaker designers listen to their speakers. Key is whether they do that using controlled testing or not. And whether they use proper set of measurements in addition to that.  If the answer is that they don't use such measurements and only use their own ears to figure out what is or is not good sound, it would be a speaker I would stay away from.

So you are saying my oscilloscope does listen to music, I wonder what type it likes?

 

@amir_asr , I have asked in this thread and through DM’s, is this a one way street where you come here and post or are you going to tear down the wall at ASR? No one is stopping you from posting here, why are you avoiding this (and many other) questions? Are you a drive by poster or what?