Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

I'm just happy I came across that article demonstrating the fallacy of believing static measurements is all there is to know, and needed. 

Three things:

1. The stimulus is not static. A sine wave is time varying.  A multitone is time varying and complex.  Jitter signal (J-test) is also complex and time varying.  Only DC signals are static which we don't use for audio testing.

2. For the most part, audio gear is state and memory less. The system performance doesn't change or rely on what came 1 second before current time.  In that regard, "static" testing of this sort is quite appropriate.

When testing systems that do have memory such as lossy audio compression (e.g. MP3), we cannot use this type of testing because they do have memory and adapt to signal to being encoded.  There, we rely on controlled/blind listening tests.

3. I also using music files for such things as null tests of power cables and such.  This is more done to do away with objections like yours more than being a need.

@fleschler

Have any of audiogon (or any other reasonable audio forum site) posters encountered this horrible group of miscreants?  

 

No, I just got here.  😁

Someone claimed that on ASR the more you donate, the higher your status. No such thing exists.  Members can donate any amount of money they like.  They will all get the same title. This is on purpose as to make sure you can't buy your way into have more privileges.

Unlike other forums, donating to ASR doesn't get you anything extra *. You don't get exclusive or early access to content.  Everyone sees the same information regardless of whether they have donated or not. Donations are entirely voluntary.

* The only exception to above is that forum donors get to have longer edit time to their threads. This is because we trust them to not be destructive.  It is not done to give them a benefit.

@thyname Thank you for your concern. I haven’t spent much time on this forum and my metal well-being isn’t being threatened. I am a very stable 66 year old music lover. I’ve been a member since 2001.

However, your warning that ASR militia can be possibly dangerous, does that mean physically violent? That means that this bear (ASR) is a radical leftist or rightist group who political affiliation is measurement audiophilia uber alles? Wow!

Now I remember that one member had claimed in another ASR forum that he wanted to go next door and burn his neighbor.   I assumed that burning one's neighbor is a violent act.   He is a well known member.

I also just noticed that someone just signed up to audiogon posting as amir_asr. Could that be the owner of ASR? That is scary!

@fleschler

"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! 

By now I hope everyone fully understands that OP got me confused with another youtuber (John Darko). He is the one that produced the video with that clickbait title, I did NOT.

As to the rest, price has no impact on whether something "sounds good" or not. As the risk of stating the obvious, I can make a speaker out of gold and charge a million dollars for it.  It doesn't mean it will sound better. So the example of $5000 speaker vs $10,000 is without meaning in audio.  Products in that price range start to get into luxury range and are often priced to what the market will accept, not what it costs to produce, etc.

A speaker will sound better than another if in controlled testing it shows that advantage, i.e. when you don't know the brand, make, history, looks, etc.  Just the sound.  Failing that, we can use measurements to rule out broken designs and praise the well engineered ones based on latest science of sound reproduction in rooms.

As a general statement though, a speaker that goes lower and plays louder will be more expensive.  So all else being equal, a $10,000 will be better than a $5,000 speaker in this regard.  This is why  I own a pair of speakers that cost $23,000.  It plays extremely low and dynamic in addition to being excellent in other respects.

The example of amps is also dead wrong. An amplifier can sound horrible if it runs out of power.  Or have audible hiss that is annoying.  Sadly you can get a $5,000 amp that is very low power and hence clips. And or have audible artifacts.  Or it can be superb with all the power you need.  The only way you know is again, using controlled listening tests or measurements.  Random opinion by Joe poster online or youtuber may not apply I am afraid.