Interesting ASR review of small GR Research speaker kit
I bounce between various kinds of analysis — more subjective listening reports, more quantitative measurement analyses and, my favorite, those that combine both strategies to tell a useful story about audio products.
Amir of ASR has just done a very powerful takedown of a fairly inexpensive kit being sold by Danny at GR Research. Not only does he prove his point about the speakers, he also makes (to my mind) a very convincing case that Danny put his finger on the scale in how he reported his own measurements.
I'm not in any camp — Danny's or Amir's or anyone else's. What I appreciate is thoroughness and meticulousness in exposition. Danny does that in his own videos. (Again -- to me. I'm really still learning and cannot easily spot gaps in argument in this subject matter.)
I know people with some of GR's best kits — and I've heard one of them. They sounded incredible. I've watched a bunch of Danny's videos where he criticizes other companies; I've come away thinking, "Wow, he really revealed some of the grift embedded in that product."
But here, the tables are turned, it seems, on Danny. I hope he responds, both to defend his reputation and methods, but also because it will set in relief where some of the distance may be between these two dominant online figures' methods in assessing what makes for a good speaker.
Noske- that is just my opinion. Looking at the video, the reviewer didn’t like what Danny was telling him regarding how measurements are taken. I think this upset the reviewer. Plus, a while back, Danny called out reviewers for not doing appropriate tests for his speakers which also p$ssed off many reviewers. I have seen less intensive reviews for $100k speakers, all of this for a $300 speaker. |
@rbstehno Thankyou. I don’t watch videos, I prefer written words, so what you say I cannot comment on. This is a copy and paste of a few select quotes written by Amir. I have no comment as to whether a grudge or any manner of hostility may be written into it - that is for the reader to interpret with a sense of due process and common sense.
A fully finished pair costs $1,038. I am inclined to think that is relevant in the circumstances (what is their intended use?) and to keep the arrow straight. |
Most of you are responding like petulant children that don't like what someone else says. Guess what, it's an opinion, you don't have to draw anything from his conclusions or opinions about how they measure, the graphs are useful for people who like quantifying what speakers or amplifiers do and don't do. It's a resource to use. Most of you honestly act like bose people which is sad, and you all could do the audio community good by not seeming so snobbish |
I watched the video and Amir is a story teller. He does not just present the measurements he tells us if they are good or bad. His interpretations of the measurements appear highly subjective. In this and other reviews he discounts certain measurements when they don't fit his narrative. And the comments, his cult of followers getting their schadenfreude rush.
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These days when I google reviews for an audio product and links come back for ASR, I just ignore them. I’ve read enough ASR reviews to know how little they correlate to the actual sound of audio gear....and music itself. Reviewers like that spew graphs and numbers but rarely even try to articulate what they hear when they listen to the item under review. IMO the worst is when they promote measurements & stats as a complete replacement for the subjective listening experience. Human hearing just doesn’t work that way. Then there’s the fact that several ASR reviews have been rather thoroughly debunked, establishing a pattern of bias and incompetence by their reviewer. I don’t like it when people pose as audio gurus whose statements explain everything and must be believed in toto. I don’t drink that koolaid... |
