Hi djones51, Yes, you are correct. I think that I was suggesting there are measurement zealots who don’t put much stock in the subjective side.
By "beat out", I meant in my room, my system, my music, my ears. These amps were not bad, and, in fact, I said that I would recommend them in that post. The point was supposed to be (and I probably didn’t make it all that well), but testing and stats can be very important or, sometimes, not that helpful. I’ve owned a few products that tested in the tail of excellence side of the bell curve--yet I didn’t keep them because they were "beat out" by other things.
For instance, take the glorious and wonderful KEF LS50. I loved them and wish I had them around still to play with. But they didn’t work quite as well in my particular application than did the much less expensive Wharfedale Denton anniversary. This is why so many of the folks here always say try to audition or get a forgiving in home demo.
I have certainly seen folks chime in on ASR (who are new to those parts) and make a comment or ask about sound and they get pushed aside because that’s subjectivity and the product in question already tested poorly per their results. I was also pretty certain that in the ASR testing thread of the Carver that there was no talk or commentary on how the machine performed in use. Maybe I am mistaken and someone on that thread who tested it used it with a couple of different speakers/preamps. I like hearing about people do that.
Some old British roadsters test poorly but are a joy to drive! Same can be true with hifi. Sorry if I’m not great at making such points. Not trying to litigate this just explaining what I meant.
