Stereophile, no more bench tests????!!!!

The measurements are still there, IIRC, and I think John/Stereophile now possibly owns the audio precision test bed? Whereas he had it on extended loan originally, from reading his earliest comments on such...

George, you are leaping to conclusions that don’t exist, looking for strawmen to prop up so you can punch them out.

For those who wish to continue to rail, or take a flaming jog/slow run down imaginary rant road to some imaginary finish line, where you get high fives from all the crowd as you head toward the finish line..... try to understand that in reality, in the complex subject of moving reality, 97% of the population is wrong..and that the design of the brain is to not work -to not think.

The human brain’s purpose is to think as little as is required and then go back to not thinking. This keeps the taxation of the brain upon the body’s resources to as low a level as possible. That’s the design spec. Rise up, come to conclusion quickly, then shut down. That’s it. To go back to unconscious autopilot on as much as possible when the moment of thought is concluded. If you pay attention, you can catch yourself doing it just about as often as you breathe.

Which is why 97% of the population is always wrong. As the first answer or initial conclusion is invariably way off. Especially since it is tied to prior conclusions and projections of the unconscious as it filters and informs the conscious mind. We truly are a square peg being pounded into a round hole, and mostly unaware of it.

Go outside, look out the window, walk down the street, and look for this. It’s right there. Everywhere.

Only 3% of the population are truly the drivers of society, if the cow 97 can be convinced in the given scenario (in whatever way). But that is all a complex mess that takes many hours and book length lectures to flesh out.

Imagine wearing a t-shirt that  says "got cow 97?". Try explaining that to the people who ask....might meet the odd interesting individual. As, at 3% ...it is going to be individuals. And they'll be tough to find. Wear the shirt, give them a sonar ping.

A domino of thought conclusion, a nugget of a new position/view on reality... can be found in my prior post,

ie...this is why there is such a high level of correlation between pathological religious adherence, and the dogged demands for overt scientism we tend to see on audio forums.

The dark ages mid-level religious clerk unconscious mindset did not go anywhere in the past 1000 years.

They’re still here.... and devoted to ’science’ and ’engineering’. Scenarios, backdrops, and circumstance change.... but the people and their wiring have not gone anywhere.

FYI...that’s not religion and ..FYI, that’s not science. Bigtime bassackward.

Read the T-shirt. It says, "Got Cow 97?"

Reading a recent article by Mr. Fremer on ypsilon momo blocks running around $90K it was noted how well Mr. Fremer enjoyed the sound, yet JA concluded with his measurements saying something akin to: “… its too bad amplifiers costing this much do not measure better.”

So now what does one do with conflicting info from two reputed authorities on the same merchandise?

The same thing anyone does who is shopping ? for gear with that kind of money in their pocket. Look. Listen. Buy them or move on.

Isn’t it always this way with anything audio related?

Having compiled systems from both perspectives, strickly off spec sheets, and entirely from auditions, I’ll opt for the latter from now on. This is factual given one caveat, the amp in question MUST be capable, commensurate and synergistic to the loudspeakers they will push.

Many here thru the years have vehemently debunked reviews and some reviewers as being inconsequential in the end for mixing and matching up equipment, saying ONLY first hand auditions and personal observations are the true key to conjuring . a high performing audio rig.

In fact the slogan in years past around here was to muddle along with the Audiogon shuffle’. Buy, try, flip, repeat until its right or until you’re tired of the treadmill.

In another article, on YG upper tier speaker model, an exceptionally well reknown tube amp with plenty of guts was simply not suited for the speakers. They performed better in the opinion of the writer with a far less lauded solid state amp with somewhat less power output. VTL 450 vs Halo JC Is? Dunno off the top of my head but it sounds pretty close. Essentially.

JA did find anomalies in the YG models arithmetic yet still felt it was overall a very good measuring loudspeaker that simply worked better with SS power.

As for JA general measurements, the thing I looked for was if the maker said one thing and JA discovered another thereby showing the maker to be either a bit too proud of their kit, or quite conservative with its ratings. Simply seeing his notes that it tested well was and is not the Holy Grail for me. In truth, I’m not so sure if I’ve ever used his tests in advance as a deal maker or breaker on gear so far. Once or twice I believe it came out coincidentally that something I bought was later found to have tested very well. It may have been the BC DAC 3 if I’m not mistaken.

It’s the sound that butters your bread, and the bread you can spread that makes up the overwhelming majority of purchases anyhow. It likely always will.

Specs and measurements are useful mainly as guidelines to determine what components are most likely to perform best together. Performance enables good sound but does not fully determine it. You still have to listen once you have decided what to listen to together.

Nowadays, integrated amplifiers with DAC and phonos already integrated even can largely solve that problem. Then it’s just speaker integration that specs can still help with.

At least that’s how I’ve managed to efficiently assemble multiple good sounding systems in recent years using specifications and measurements.  Measurements provided in Stereophile proved to be very helpful with my buying decisions.