@mapman Measurements may or may not even matter in some cases.
What are the cases in which measurements don’t matter?
Atma-Sphere Class D… Amazing
Today I picked up my Atma-Sphere Class D Amps. These aren’t broken in yet. And they are simply amazing. I’ve listen to a lot of High End Class D. Some that cost many times what Atma-Sphere Class D costs. I wasn’t a fan of any of them. But these amps are amazing. I really expected to hate them. So my expectations were low. The Details are of what I’ve never heard from any other amps. They are extremely neutral. To say the realism is is extremely good is a gross understatement. They are so transparent it’s scary. These amps just grab you and suck you into the music. After I live with them some and get them broken in. And do some comparisons to some other high end Amps Solid State, Tubes and Class D’s, also in other systems I’ll do a more comprehensive review. But for now, these are simply amazing amps.. Congrats to Ralph and his team. You guys nailed on these.
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as @mapman says, all measurements, reviews, user comments, seller and dealer claims are neither here nor there they are all proxies, good bad or indifferent, for how any item will perform in your own system, whether it will please you, improve the sound of the music you hear want to really know? have to pony up, try it, listen intently, compare rigorously fairly, be honest with yourself nothing else matters, it is all to bait the hook, so to speak... arguing is just a waste of energy time and bandwidth different fish here snap at different bait... no one really cares what anyone else will bite at |
The ones that come to mind are:
1) the published measurements are not sufficient or accurate enough to be useful 2) The user does not know how to properly apply the measurements 3) The user simply does not care and prefers to rely on other means to make their decisions.
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It feels as if this whole issue of numbers and measurement is being extolled for the purpose of creating an argument. The product designer has the right to publish whatever numbers they choose. The customer has the right not to buy a product if numbers are important to them and there are no numbers to be found. We all know that numbers often don't tell the story of how something will sound...I really like this statement from Floyd Toole because I think it captures the essence of why arguing about the validity of a product because you don't have the measurements is missing the mark: "Audio is Art and there are aspects of the art for which we there are no scientific or technical measures yet we have little difficulty describing our reactions, positive and negative, when we hear....." It would be of great benefit if everyone, before they post a comment, lead with whether they have heard the product they are commenting on...either in a store, at a show or in their home system. I've heard the Atmasphere class d monos at a show and said good things about them.
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http://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-media-systems-ahb2-power-amplifier Anybody remember this review? Look at JA's measurements and his concluding comment, "Benchmark Media Systems' AHB2 is an extraordinary amplifier. Not only does its performance lie at the limits of what is possible for me to reliably test, it packs high power into a very small package, especially when used in bridged-mono mode. It is truly a high-resolution amplifier" And so I ask any of you, even in October of 2015 was this really an "extraordinary amplifier". In the literal sense of the word, not ordinary, maybe. In the intended sense of the word as something superlative in terms of measurements, maybe. A "high resolution amplifier"? BS. This is where JA gets caught up as an engineer in sound floors aka distortion masking. He falsely equates resolution with bits (in his flawed DAC reviews and measurement methodology) and distortion sound levels. But my recollection is that the unwilling innocent suckers who bought the amp back in 2015-2017 based in the superlative review were by and large not thrilled. KR never could formulate reliable subjective listening impressions imho. And KR's tin ear notwithstanding, humans can not assess amplifier performance the way they can assess transducer performance-it takes long periods of time before the attributes of an amp are reliably evident. I have no axe to grind. When I find out that there is a switching amp that thrills listeners whom I trust, I will be glad to audition one. History has shown that switching amps can ace measurement testing and bore the death out of the listener. No meat to the bones. No there there.
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