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?  

fleschler

@djones51

"The disservice this forum has for newbies is the mindset price determines ability which hasn’t been true for decades in this niche hobby. If there is one overall piece of advice I would take from ASR is test for yourself, don’t assume you’re immune from human bias and the biggest factor that determines what you hear is your speakers/room."

+ 100%

It’s funny on this forum that people would complain about ASR when many members here seem to believe that higher price means better listening experience, which most certainly has not been my experience over the years... I’d trust ASR over price any day of the week, particularly when it comes to items like cables, dacs, and even to some extent amps.

That said, you still gotta test things for yourself and I do not always concur with ASR’s conclusions especially when it comes to speakers since those are so personal and ear- and room- dependent, as djones51 points out.

and it occurs to me... as long as we’re talking measurements...

It might be fun, and informative, to go to a high-end audiologist and get ears measured before spending money on anything else.

I’d wager most people think they can hear more objectively than they can... and many of us would benefit from the best of the new hearing aids, myself included. I spent the best money I’ve spent in the past two decades on hi-fi gear when I got high-end hearing aids to help correct for my high-frequency perception loss: measurements showed me what I needed, and it was addressable by custom eq-ing the aids, kinda like room correction for the ears. Suddenly all my gear sounds much better now, go figure, and as a bonus my burning need to "upgrade" stereo gear has considerably faded... although my enjoyment of different speakers has increased! Indeed, my entire experience of LIFE sounds much better now! And high-end hearing aids (think Widex Moment, or Phonak Audeo Paradise) that actually make a big difference both to hi-fi enjoyment AND to life outside hi-fi is a smarter spend than a new expensive amp that would make a smaller difference and also be restricted to the hi-fi realm without addressing the actual issue...

I mean, as long as we’re talking about measurements... set ego aside and make an audiologist appointment: do you dare to do it?

I agree with you, just as the listening room is very important so is our hearing capability.   I always used earplugs at loud live concerts and using noisy power tools.  I don't listen above 100db to anything.   I'm 66 and have been tested.   I can still hear 16Khz tones.   For everyone else, such as my wife who heard maybe 50 to 75 live rock concerts without hearing protection, she suffers from high frequency hearing loss (she says it hurts listening to such things as piccolos, flutes, coloratura sopranos).   Having clean ears is an obvious benefit. 

Your post begs the question, why do you give a flying f$@* about what is going on on some audio site???? I would hope you have more important things to worry about.