Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?


It’s easy to make snide remarks like “yes- I do the opposite of what he says.”  And in some respects I agree, but if you do that, this is just going to be taken down. So I’m asking a serious question. Has ASR actually changed your opinion on anything?  For me, I would say 2 things. I am a conservatory-trained musician and I do trust my ears. But ASR has reminded me to double check my opinions on a piece of gear to make sure I’m not imagining improvements. Not to get into double blind testing, but just to keep in mind that the brain can be fooled and make doubly sure that I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing. The second is power conditioning. I went from an expensive box back to my wiremold and I really don’t think I can hear a difference. I think that now that I understand the engineering behind AC use in an audio component, I am not convinced that power conditioning affects the component output. I think. 
So please resist the urge to pile on. I think this could be a worthwhile discussion if that’s possible anymore. I hope it is. 

chayro

Amazing to see this thread still going.

If Amir is worthless or a charlatan as some here claim, why are you bothering to read and post about him? Are you trying to protect people from him? Are you St. George slaying the dragon? Or, perhaps you have too much time on your hands and this is the best you can come up with for amusement?

My voice would be completely lost on the Internet if people didn't see value in my work and didn't talk about it.  And continue to support the activity by sending me huge volume of audio gear to test. 

Pretty much nails it. I'm not an active participant on ASR, but for pete's sake, the notion they are all zealots following a cult leader...come on. This is not the 118th Congress!

Even something as basic as tuning an instrument by a skilled musician can sound better than just adjusting the strings (or tube length) to a set and measured frequency. Something about the feel of the instrument in a master’s hands that is superior to measurements.

Indeed, piano tuning is a bit of an art, as you have to set the temperance intervals slightly out of tune deliberately, and it will be slightly different for every piano.  Tuning it like open guitar strings with a tuner would sound horrendous.  But all of that is still just physics, and measurable. Pianos are musical instruments, not music reproduction.

Audio recording reproduction is related for sure to the gear design...But it is relative to the room acoustic potentials too...

We can use this analogy between piano and tuning though , because a small specific room coupled to specific speakers and gear is not a perfectly designed DSP system as in Dr. Choueri perfect design compared to it... The gear coupled to the room is like an imperfect out of tune instrument... It resemble an instrument to be tuned for the ears pleasure, because the different distribution of the pressure zones of the room are like the cord of a piano must be controlled and acted upon to compensate for the gear limitations and the owner hearing limitations using measures and listenings to improve it or "tuned" it ... Small room acoustic is not Great Hall acoustic, different acoustic architecture completely because of the difference in reverberation time positive and negative part among other things...

The acoustician , or here the improvised acoustician, the room’s owner, may and can tune it like a piano tuner tune a piano indeed ... Imperfect results are not bad results if they astonishingly improve the experience at no cost...

Electronical Reproduction of a recording and small room acoustic translation are two different things..

They fuse together in the revolutionary design of BACCH filters system for example in a virtual room processing technology...It will be my ONLY upgrade one day...

But when i was alone in my room i tuned it, as imperfctly it may be at the end , it was astonishing for my ears, and with them... With succees FOR ME and for my experience AT NO COST ... And i learned a lot in the process...

Audio is about psycho-acoustic first and last, not about the gear market nor it is about the welcome falsification of the market claims by Amir , so useful it can be and it is...

 

But before anyone draws an analogy to audio reproduction, pianos are instruments, not reproduction.:)

@mahgister i prefer to make everything as accurate as possible in the reproduction chain and THEN EQ (or BACCH, as you’ve mentioned a dozen times) to taste. If your electronics are adding fixed EQ or distortion, if your speakers aren’t flat with even dispersion you are in the circle of confusion. Certainly we can season at the end, but if you don’t start with fidelity to the original, you are nowhere, and varying masters will cause no end of trouble.

I’ve not heard BACCH. I do use convolution filters I created from REW (something I learned at ASR!). They make a huge difference, especially if you start in the right place. You can’t solve for poor dispersion with EQ. You can’t correct distortions, or FR varying with weird loads in the electronics.

Then we understand each other...

I never claimed that my room was perfect,... But a tuned set of one hundred Helmholtz resonators located in specific spots ( an other acoustic devices) around and near ears and speakers was my own mechanical equalizer... Not perfect AT ALL... But astonishing if compared to my room with no passive acoustic treatment and especially with no mechanical large band equalisation ... Someone can use EQ but it cannot do the job i did with my resonators mechanically adjustable and vice versa my mechanical equalizer cannot do the job of an electronical equalizer ... When there is astonishing improvements for someone though , even if it is imperfect, i will not call that "a circle of confusion" ...

I spoke a lot about the BACCH because it is a revolution not much well known that can make headphone sound as speakers and can make a sounfield for speakers in your living room as in a virtual acoustic room... We dont need anything else...

It is the hard designed proof of what i claimed : psycho acoustic is the heart of audio, not market gear claims, nor falsifications of these claims...Thinking otherwise is entering in "a circle of confusion" : quarrel between opposite extremist side...

 

 

@mahgister i prefer to make everything as accurate as possible in the reproduction chain and THEN EQ (or BACCH, as you’ve mentioned a dozen times) to taste. If your electronics are adding fixed EQ or distortion, if your speakers aren’t flat with even dispersion you are in the circle of confusion. Certainly we can season at the end, but if you don’t start with fidelity to the original, you are nowhere, and varying masters will cause no end of trouble.

I’ve not heard BACCH. I do use convolution filters I created from REW (something I learned at ASR!). They make a huge difference, especially if you start in the right place. You can’t solve for poor dispersion with EQ. You can’t correct distortions, or FR varying with weird loads in the electronics.