I don't want to beat a dead horse but I'm bugged.

Tube equipment won’t spec as well as transistor.

It seems Amir does not make any concessions to design type, where as Stereophile makes comparisons to similar designs, not chalk and cheese. If the piece under test doesn’t measure as well as an A/B Solid State amp with some solid feedback, it fails and doesn’t even deserve a listen. The vast number of high-end tube equipment on the market must suggest that many like the way tube gear sounds in no compromise systems.

How about the concept of reserving the term audiophile for those interested in sound and music, while coining a new term such as

Audiospecophiles for those interested in the measurements of gear?!?

I have already coined Audiokarens. That’s for audiohiles who tie their self worth to their equipment purchaes and get bent out of shape when measurements show it’s not as perfect as they told everyone or it is of questionable benefit.

Over this fight between " gear tasting fetichists" and "measuring obsessed zealots", all of them are anyway mesmerized by the gear importance, focused on a brand name to listen to it or to measure it anew ... Why not?

I use the term "Acoustic Analphabet" to describe the two warring groups...

Only acoustic and psycho acoustic can explain sound experience and make us able to not only control all his factors with ANY system at ANY price but also learn each of these OBJECTIVE factors with SUBJECTIVE listening experiments and integrating them in our body/room with the right devices and measures in acoustic balanced treatment but especially in acoustic optimal mechanical control...

We can operate and control a room/speakers relation at will or not...

If not,we can imagine that the peak of the audiophile experience will be changing an amplifier for another costly amplifier... 😁😊

The fact that one measure better than the other means little if you locate the system in a bad room...And all uncontrolled room are relatively "bad" unbeknonwst to the owner who will vouch for this acoustically unverified claim that his room is good... The difference between a room controlled and uncontrolled exceed almost any upgrade in improvement power... Save upgrading a 100 bucks amplifier for a 100,000 bucks one...Or a really bad one for a really great one...No normal usual upgrade can compare to acoustic mastery...

This upgrading obsession is the first symptom of acoustical analphabetism....

By the way the basic vocabulary of music is not the basic vocabulary of audiophile, and the basic vocabulary of audiophile is not the basic vocabulary of acoustic...

Then we must learn to translate one vocabulary into the other...

The rosetta stone is the relation between speakers A and B and ear A and B ...

A stereo system sound optimal when we feel like there is almost 4 speakers in the room sometimes, relatively to the recording....Is it not incredible? No it is not quadraphonic, only stereo well done...In some recording we are on the stage and the musicians are around us...There is an acoustical way to mechanically create these sound impressions...

How many experience that?

This is acoustic power...

After that upgrading is preposterous in most case if the system is relatively already well chosen for sure...And well chosen is not related here to price tag....

My post goal is to motivate people to think before throwing money...Especially nowadays...

My post goal is to motivate people to think before throwing money...Especially nowadays...

That brings me to another point about the products reviewed by ASR and their ilk. Why the obsession with what other people spend on gear and their insistence that anything over $1500 is just wasted money?