Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

Amir/ASR never changed my mind about anything because my mind is still open to unexpected audio experiences & observations (or as open as I can make it). That's the opposite of the mindset required by devotees of that website.

Audio is a big tent, a lifelong journey. Equipment/gear is obviously a big part of it; but maybe the biggest part of it are all my experiences hearing music performed in the real world (those experiences are rocket fuel for audio, at least in my case). So for me, open-ended audio discussions are catnip. I enjoy and participate in them.

But discussions on ASR are anything but open-ended. The regulars drank the Kool Aid long ago and punish anyone who hasn't or won't.

Kinda like spirituality. While I'm entirely without religion, I can enjoy and participate in respectful discussions of spirituality. But that's a very different experience than being in a cult where one leader's beliefs are spoon fed to me. I'll do the former sometimes, but the latter--never.

The only thing Amir changed my mind on is to never visit the site again.  Not because I do not believe in measurements the site is pure hate.  If you don’t like what we say its attack and even take posts down.  That is not vey open.  I do not want to visit nor give it any clicks towards money.  Period

@tosch "

Did ASR change my opinions?

It changed my opinion on DACs. There is very little difference. I did some prikitive blind-testing at home and can't hear differences."
Wow, really? I have read a number of times on ASR that "Dacs are settled". "If they measure well they all sound the same."
Now I read a similar comment from you. For me they sound very different. When  was searching for a DAC I listened to about 5 different ones  at a dealer through the same equipment, There were big differences in noise levels and sound quality, and no, the most expensive was not necessarily the best. 
At a friend's house I listened to a few more, again on the same recordings - mainly opera. Those based on ESS chips sound grating to me and I found it hard to listen to them for any length of time. One Chinese brand in particular does very poorly with female voices. I ended up buying a mid range one, but the one that sounded second best to me. (I could not the one that sounded best.)

Amir provides data (measurements) that anyone can use. He implemented scoring and his "can recommend" or "can't recommend" verdict. When I am looking for a piece of equipment, I'll review data available online (including ASR), look at what is important to me and note what is good, bad and don't care. Real life makes corrections: sales are tempting ;-) when someone on forums is selling their few months old piece for 40-50% of the new, it is hard to pass.

Several amps were measured fair (average and slightly below). - oh well, they sound well to me and I would put them ahead of several other "well measured" lifeless amps.

as others posted, your ears in your space with your setup during extended listening sessions and various material is a way better denominator than "best of the year" or "best measured".

@p05129 

I’ve only watched snippets of ASR because he’s hard to watch. I watched the video where he went after GR Research which he looked like a fool, the other times, he wanted to promote a cheap product and wanted to degrade a more expensive product.

First, I test plenty of expensive products.  At least I think they are.  Take these Genelec 8361A speakers for $5,000 each:

https://youtu.be/FfWijCRMUHI

Are you wealthy enough for these to be too cheap for you?  How about this NAD M23 at $3,700?

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/nad-m23-stereo-amplifier-review.45462/

My own amplifiers are $25,000 *each*.  So I have no bias toward expensive or cheap gear.  I measure them all the same.  The measurements have no bias.  If an amp has more noise and distortion than another and costs 5X more, then it looks bad.  That is not because I did that to it.  It is because the designer didn't bother to make the amplifier as performant as he could.  Yet the marketing material screams fidelity in exchange for a large check to be written.

Give me high performance and great engineering and I don't care how much it costs.  I will recommend it.  Sure, the membership may want better value but you don't have to join that opinion.

And it is not just me.  A number of studies have shown that there is no correlation between price and performance.  I could build a case out of gold and charge an extra $10K for the equipment.  You think that makes it sound better all of a sudden?

As to GR research, you have that backward.  You are believe the word of someone trying to sell you something (Danny) vs an independent reviewer (me).  You have to have very little sensibility to put your trust in a company rep who offers zero proof of efficacy of what he sells.  Wires wrapped around a rope to make it look thick?  Yep, that is what he has done:

https://youtu.be/_7HbjdQRaAM