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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
jtgofish
490 posts
 

Yes true.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

With ASR they are based on science

Is this the same science that brought us Covid lockdowns and climate change extinction?  On the Internet and mass media, science is whatever those in power say it is.

Start with double blind auditioning of equipment and then find a set of test parameters that explain the auditioning results.  After this, you might have some basis for testing the same class of equipment.

kuribo
524 posts
 

@mattw73


Bravo! Excellent post.

I had to laugh at the irony of the title of this thread. Anyone that spends any time at all at ASR would know that ASR has nothing to say about the "sound" of equipment- they are all about objective performance.

djones51
4,947 posts
 

had to laugh at the irony of the title of this thread. Anyone that spends any time at all at ASR would know that ASR has nothing to say about the "sound" of equipment- they are all about objective performance.

This is true to an extent. If a component like a DAC, amplifier,  cable etc.. excluding speakers has  a " sound" then it's not high fidelity or was purpose built.

kuribo
524 posts
 

@djones51 


Indeed... High fidelty is signal in x gain = signal out. "Sound" is what happens between one's ears and brain. We each have our own interpretation of our perceptions. It's idiocy to argue about how things sound, which whatever sounds better, etc., all of which are based on our own, personal perceptions. There are no "right" opinions, only different. It literally is "all in one's head"...The only basis on which one can logically, rationally, universally, compare audio components is on the basis of their subjective performance, subject to the simple equation above, yet think about the wasted time and energy devoted to arguing opinion on this and other audio boards...it's insane. If you don't care how well your audio components perform objectively and want to use solely your own ears to make your decisions, great! Have at it! If you find value in knowing your components are as accurate as possible to the recording, great! Have at it! If you want to use the info from measurements as an aid in selecting components and then use your ears as the final arbiter, great! Have at it! Whatever makes you happy, have at it! We should all have the freedom to choose without the incessant and idiotic arguing.
 

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