The Audio Science Review (ASR) approach to reviewing wines.


Imagine doing a wine review as follows - samples of wines are assessed by a reviewer who measures multiple variables including light transmission, specific gravity, residual sugar, salinity, boiling point etc.  These tests are repeated while playing test tones through the samples at different frequencies.

The results are compiled and the winner selected based on those measurements and the reviewer concludes that the other wines can't possibly be as good based on their measured results.  

At no point does the reviewer assess the bouquet of the wine nor taste it.  He relies on the science of measured results and not the decidedly unscientific subjective experience of smell and taste.

That is the ASR approach to audio - drinking Kool Aid, not wine.

toronto416

@chenry 

Thanks for your response, but I'm aware that he's using Spinorama.  My question isn't HOW he produces the pretty pictures, it's how he decides what is important.

Forgive me if I'm incorrect in assuming your response is out of ignorance, but all of the speakers you listed are boxes.  I'd say traditional, but Klipsch (horns, founded 1946), Magnepan (planars, original design 1969), and MartinLogan (electrostats, founded 1979) are all US companies with very high profiles in the audiophile community for 46-79 years, long enough to considered traditional in their own right.

There are also newer designs, many using the sort of drivers you would recognize, that are configured to produce dipolar or bipolar radiation patterns.  There are even omnidirectional speakers on the market now.  All of these designs have advantages & disadvantages, proponents & detractors, and will measure very different "on paper".  It may well be that Amir avoids all of these issues by sticking to domes & cones in a box, though.

I did find a thread on ASR entitled "Dipole vs Box speakers" - 5 pages long, nothing from Amir, some skeptics, some converts.  I'm not suggesting any one design concept is superior, but if this is all new to you, you might want to explore listening "out of the box".  It could change your life (or at least, sound system)!

I say what I said above because I see too many people equate

ASR = Data & Science & Facts.

Sinad and THD do not represent the entirety of science nor audio.

ASR most praised products do not sound good.

I can tell you exactly why the Topping D90SE is a mediocre product. Clearly distinguishable in a blind test.

Keep in mind the D90SE is the best measurement DAC of all time. There’s a clear disconnect here.

While on the topic of the best measured dac ever. Benchmark designer made the Benchmark Dac 1 and for years he insisted it's the best dac. It cannot be improved further.

But people did not like the Dac 1. Some years later, the Dac 2 was released.

While on the topic of the best measured dac ever. Benchmark designer made the Benchmark Dac 1 and for years he insisted it’s the best dac. It cannot be improved further.

But people did not like the Dac 1. Some years later, the Dac 2 was released.

 

Been there, done that. Had DAC3B. One of the least engaging DACs I’ve owned. My prior two dacs and subsequent two dacs after the Benchmark DAC3B all measured worse, and they all sounded more engaging, more fun to listen to. What’s being measured and what is being suppressed and filtered out does not always correlate for me in translation to good sound,