Amir and Blind Testing

Amir is the high priest of the ASR cult.

Years ago, they were militantly claiming that changes to the power supply of dvd/blu-ray players could not possibly have any effect on the video output, because bits are bits and the power supply does not effect the bits.

It was a theoretical argument, which was easily disproven by doing any changes from SMPS to LPS, which on the meter would measure visible changes in brightness levels, let alone color measurement differences and detail improvements.

Amir and co were also proclaiming Bybee devices would have no effect whatsoever on audio. Then one of them actually measured them, and the Bybee devices were reducing distortion. So did they admit they were wrong? Of course not, Amir just immediately moved the goalposts to saying the measured reduction could not possibly be audible, and then demanded double blind tests as proof the Bybee did anything. Then they got embarrassed and quickly locked the thread on their forums so it would move off the 1st page.

That’s who Amir and ASR are, they are measurement cultists, but with an utter arrogance regarding things they know nothing about but pretend to understand.

If I want my TV ISF calibrated, sure Amir or someone like him is the first person I would ask, but for everything else in this hobby be very wary about their proclaimed expertise.

Amir is the high priest 

He is also a French-Israeli singer and songwriter.  A man of many talents.

The psychology of hearing is a huge subject, upon which many books have been written.

It may help audiophiles to deploy passive listening techniques when auditioning new gear. With the new component in my system, I play a recording at the normal volume for my taste, then go into the next door room and read a book about a completely different topic to audio or music. If my attention is diverted from the reading, to the music, by something that my brain has not identified before, then the new component may be contributing something interesting.

I deployed this technique when I purchased my last DAC five years ago. I auditioned 6 DAC's and only one lifted my head from the book I was reading. I still have that DAC in my system today.

Happy auditioning!

I believe that when Amir places an audio device on his test bench, he goes into "lab tech" mode, where sound only exists to confirm the perfection of his measurements.

Seriously, improvement is a hard thing to quantify.  If everybody agrees A > B, life is easy.  But what if you're the only one who thinks so?

In theory, this is a great advantage for the objectivist.  Instead of days of pain-staking listening, they spend a few hours running a battery of tests.  But, wait - how do you evaluate the results of each test?  How do the tests correlate to the SQ characteristics most important to you?

Some people need that kind of assurance, so ASR definitely serves a purpose.  However, if you're trying to decide if you'll like the SQ of a specific component in your particular setup playing your kind of music, I doubt that ASR will be much help.

But, wait - how do you evaluate the results of each test? How do the tests correlate to the SQ characteristics most important to you?

There are some tutorials available (both written and video) to help understand what the tests mean and therefore how they may be evaluated.

Understanding that might also answer your second question - there are things to watch out for, and are displayed on colorful pictures. I like pictures.

I also know that my preferences do not align well with many who contribute to ASR.

This is no cause to be disrespectful of the combined knowledge of the contributors, many of whom are electrical engineers, scientists and PhDs, and have contributed in some manner to design and building of audio and associated gears..

As with many things in life, it is valuable to learn the ability to pick and choose that which is useful to you.