Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

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

Let me address the larger point here.

The beef some of you have with me is misplaced.  What you see is not me, it is me and literally tens of thousands of your fellow audiophiles working together to bring more transparency to audio gear.  They send me equipment, I test and publish them.  We then collectively discuss the findings.  Certain truths pop out of this process.  That truth resonates with so many audiophiles who are desperate for reliable facts about audio gear.  This is the appeal. This is the reason ASR has grown so much and so fast. It certainly is not because I am good looking or know how to write a sentence without a typo!  😁

Nothing about this stops you from doing what you want to do.  If you are able to get that NAD or Genelec amp/speaker I post about first to evaluate, go right ahead.  But if you can't, then where are you?  We live in a world where everything is going remote and online.  

Some of you falsely claim that we are all different.  If that is the case, then you better not believe anyone's opinion here about any gear then.  Ditto for any reviewer out there.  The alternative you offer then is not knowing anything.

I know some like to make themselves feel good by making stuff up:

1. Better measurements mean better sound.  This is sometimes the case, sometimes not.  This is how we look at measurements, not what you claim. A low noise amplifier will have less chance of hiss.  That is a fact.  A low distortion amplifier may sound the same as a high distortion amp if you are not able to hear such non-linearities.  

What good measurements show is that you can push impairments so low such that they fall below threshold of hearing -- something determined with listening tests. We are fortunately enough that many DACs, some pre-amps and amplifiers now fall in this category.  And get there at very reasonable costs.  This, we need to celebrate.  Not have angst over.  I replaced my expensive, many thousand dollar Mark Levinson DAC with a few hundred dollar DAC.  The latter is better in every way and costs a lot less due to economy of scale.  Great win for us!

2. We don't listen.  I listen to a ton.  Every speaker, headphone and headphone amplifier for example gets a listening test.  This adds up to hundreds of listening tests a year.  I listen to these classes of products because they do indeed perform differently from each other.  I even listen to stuff that doesn't make a difference as to cover that base as well but obviously don't want to waste time doing it all the time.

3. I must have commercial interest.  Well, I don't.  I don't need the money.  I don't make my living from this effort. I enjoy it as a good hobby that has massively positive reward.  

4. I must hate this and that.  I can't afford that.  But if i did, measurements can be repeated by anyone so can't be gamed that way.

5. We rely on measurements alone.  That is just wrong.  Measurements are only one aspect of product evaluation.  We use engineering, audio science research and understanding of how products work in our total analysis.  And I say "we" as there are many technical experts on ASR Forum.  It is the totality of this kind of evaluation that damns certain products, not just pure measurements.  

6. That we don't value listening tests.  We absolutely do.  We just want them without bias.  This is why you saying this and that sounds better has no value.  You have to run a controlled test as we know without it, any outcome can be had.

Bottom line, use ASR as an additional source of information. No harm comes out of that.  Fighting us as if we are your enemy makes no sense unless you are selling overpriced, non-performant gear.