Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy
"Audiophiles are Snobs" Youtube features an idiot! He states, with no equivocation, that $5,000 and $10,000 speakers sound equally good and a $500 and $5,000 integrated amp sound equally good. He is either deaf or a liar or both!
There is a site filled with posters like him called Audio Science Review. If a reasonable person posts, they immediately tear him down, using selected words and/or sentences from the reasonable poster as100% proof that the audiophile is dumb and stupid with his money. They also occasionally state that the high end audio equipment/cable/tweak sellers are criminals who commit fraud on the public. They often state that if something scientifically measures better, then it sounds better. They give no credence to unmeasurable sound factors like PRAT and Ambiance. Some of the posters music choices range from rap to hip hop and anything pop oriented created in the past from 1995.
Have any of audiogon (or any other reasonable audio forum site) posters encountered this horrible group of miscreants?
That's especially true because ASR doesn't bother to listen to everything it measures. Without correlation to what we hear, the measurements don't have much value. |
Audio Science Review. Is interesting but measurements are just that. Several amps might have similar specs but one could sound bright, another less bright but bass strong, the next might have a great Soundstage but lack midrange. I heard the difference. I will never forget the Mark Levenson monos system I heard in the 1980s using a Lynn Sondeck, wow! I don’t remember the model. I think they said it was 10wph? Unbelievable. Really thumped low and sounded perfect to me. |
I find this fascinating. It seems folks want a universal evaluation system that ranks audio equipment on an irrefutable, absolute scale. Hint - it ain’t never gonna happen! ASR performs testing and reports results of common parameters such as noise and distortion, frequency response, dynamic range, jitter, S/N ratio, and other comparisons using their own test equipment. This is simply objective information. In some cases, their test results do not align with manufacturer’s claims. Again, simply information. The issues here seem to be that Amir’s subjective opinions about the gear tested often do not align with the opinions of many here. In addition, the mental route Amir takes to reach his subjective conclusions does not align with many here who put a much greater emphasis on listening, while they believe Amir puts a greater emphasis on test results. Big deal. Read the test results for what they are, and form your own opinions on the items tested based on your own listening. As some have pointed out, systems, rooms, and listener’s preferences are all different so it is no shocker that people come to different conclusions on what sounds good to them. It is Amir’s site, so he can state his opinion and how he arrives at it. Nobody (including Amir) is making anybody agree with Amir. If you disagree with Amir’s subjective opinions, the objective test results, and the pink panther, then why are you even reading the site? Or, is it a case where everybody who owns an audio system has to think alike? It really is ok to disagree, and the absence of consensus is more expected than surprising. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that universal evaluation system. |
My preference for a reviewer is J. Gordon Holt. The equipment he found to be musically pleasing is still musically pleasing. I have noted that it was not Amir who wrote scathing opinions about my equipment and myself but the followers of Amir. @mitch2 I agree. Who knows if and when there will be test equipment for currently untestable aspects of sound? For now, there are those parameters which can be and those which cannot be tested for. Hence, listening (with various people having divergent preferences) is required to evaluate in a subjective manner the sound reproduction which is most pleasant to least pleasant. |
