I don't want to beat a dead horse but I'm bugged.
I just can't clear my head of this. I don't want to start a measurements vs listening war and I'd appreciate it if you guys don't, but I bought a Rogue Sphinx V3 as some of you may remember and have been enjoying it quite a bit. So, I head over to AVS and read Amir's review and he just rips it apart. But that's OK, measurements are measurements, that is not what bugs me. I learned in the early 70s that distortion numbers, etc, may not be that important to me. Then I read that he didn't even bother listening to the darn thing. That is what really bugs me. If something measures so poorly, wouldn't you want to correlate the measurements with what you hear? Do people still buy gear on measurements alone? I learned that can be a big mistake. I just don't get it, never have. Can anybody provide some insight to why some people are stuck on audio measurements? Help me package that so I can at least understand what they are thinking without dismissing them completely as a bunch of mislead sheep.
Many great thoughtful comments above most of which I completely agree with. I will say that I have enjoyed several of the ASR vids. No, not a fanboy and his overall opinions on sound quality are to be taken with a grain of salt. I don't care what he is measuring I just find it interesting in the sense of a procedural exercise. Regards, barts |
Back in the day amps strived for THD of .001. You can achieve that number by adding negative feedback, sometimes lots of negative feedback. But it turns out that amps sound better if negative feedback is reduced or eliminated. Just one example of a measurement that hurts sonic performance. |
@atmasphere was kind enough to talk about this in detail in another topic. Paraphrasing, if the distortion is low at high frequency, then the issue you have described is not an issue. It seems many amplifiers have lots of negative feedback and they have low distortion at 20Khz. I don't think it is back in the day any more. There are lots of amplifiers on Stereophile and ASR that have very low distortion at 20Khz. Lower than this Rogue at almost any frequency. @onhwy61 people are emotionally attached to their purchases. I work in batteries. Look at how emotional people get in defense of internal combustion. I had tube amps in the past. They are neither good nor bad. They just are. I have no doubt it was less accurate but I still enjoyed it at the time.
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Interesting conclusion. Why would one want to move away "regardless of how it sounds " . For example if an audio product sounds truly superb yet measured poorly why on earth would one be motivated to move on to something else? The mere fact that it sounds superb renders the "poor measurements " irrelevant. It would seem logical that the poor measurements have zero bearing on the superb sound quality outcome. So I don't see why subpar measurements have any meaningful consideration if the audio product sounds fantastic. Perhaps it's just me but I don't follow the "move on" rationale. product A measures well and sounds well. Product B measures poorly and sounds well. Same listening outcome. What is the inherent advantage of the better measurements if they don't yield superior sound? Charles |
