Audiophiles on Audiogon.

I used to read Ken Rockwell's reviews on camera bodies and lenses, I think he did a pretty good job there. (I have not read his site in many years though, so don't know what he's up to nowdays.)

However, picturing audiophiles as people who buy 20K$ cables for 1K$ amplifiers is the equivalent of picturing photographers as kooks buying multi K$ optics for disposable cameras. Need not say more on that matter and the distorted optics implied....

Despite the fun caricatures often painted of audiophiles one thing is true. Every audiophile (I know of) is emotionally heavily attached to his stereo equipment, or in other words, to the way his stereo equipment portrays sound and music. As a result they can be (and are) often quite abrasive and intolerant of folks who prefer sound portrayed through different means. This more often than not ends up in verbal abuse on forums.

I'd say regardless of how how audiophiles express themselves, every audiophile feels PASSIONATELY about sound and music. Those with more experience are able to express themselves as adults, being respecful of their fellow human beings, and while others care more about their own love of gear than about experiencing the rest of the world.

Let's suck it up. It's life. This happens everywhere, is not limited to audiophiles.

Just look at the camera / optics world. That world also has their hardcore fans, and we can mock them or not. I decide not to mock, and allow them to be passionate about what matters to them. One aspect or passion or pursuit might be meaningless to you, yet it means a lot to another human being..... this is the cornerstone of all human experience, and the driving force behind art, diversity, and discovery.

Audiophile success must be based on acoustic learning not on the gear...

if someone know what he is doing , he can create great sound experience with ANY relatively good gear at ANY price level in ANY room...

Focus on exlusive gear listening, or focus on gear evaluation only by some set of measures for comparison , can be legitimate concern and they are yes, but are meaningless without personal control on some acoustical correlative aspect of the experience...

Good sound dont cost big money necessarily , but it cost time and thinking  yes...

Ken Rockwell sells himself and want click baits not knowledge in audio first and last...Provocative tone is a sign of ignorance or/and sometimes great litterature nothing else.....

Honestly, I can see why people post challenges to Audiogoners.  First, non-technical, many posts are about promoting products without providing technical specs and measurements.  If a cable is capable of making significant sonic improvements, it got to be measurable.  ASR fills some of those gaps but, rather being praised for what he has done for the community, Audiogoners diss/discredit him and insist measurements are nonsense and only their ears can be trusted.  These anti-scientific arguments will only earn nothing but heavy critics.  Of course, if you got disposable money, spend it without hesitation and it is absolutely none of our business.  But making defensive arguments against science is just not beneficial to the community.

OP asks what we think of the "findings". There are no findings there just ignorant opinion. 

Audio science is COMPLEX...And science is not reducible to technological play and tools...

Measures of piece of gear with tools dont tell all the story...

correlation with acoustic experiments are necessary...

Audio science need tools and educated ears....

Separating ears and tools is not very wise....You cannot study ears without measures and you cannot study gear without ears....

I am flabbergasted to be in the obligation of saying this common place fact to gear brandname subjective fetichist and to obsessive objective  measuring fetichist ...

Gear focussing obsession is less important than acoustic and psycho-acoustic science...