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

@kota1 Your previous 4 posts would have earned you a permanent ban on ASR forums. I had a similar attitude to yours on the ASR forums earlier this year. I got permanently banned without warning. 

I found the ASR thread mentioning this Audiogon thread. As expected ASR view themselves as the gatekeepers of truth. And they view Audiogon as delusional snobs with expensive cables. I don't think that either side will change their stances and find compromises.

I question why Amir chose to interact with this thread. He could just stay quiet and preserve his moral high-ground on ASR. If anything, Amir is "lowering himself to Audiogon's level". He is god (on ASR forums). 

My dream is that someday ASR will bring an impressive and affordable system to Audiogon for people to enjoy. I just think that members on Audiogon want to be impressed with good sound, not schooled with "measurements and facts". Our ears cannot interpret an image of a graph and generate music that way. Ultimately, Audiogon members live in the physical realm. ASR members live in the theoretical realm. The two realms can converge on a venn diagram. Let's make that happen.

I mentionned this idea to ASR members on the ASR forum. I was basically laughed at. The ASR reference system is 100% theoretical. Picture target frequency response curves. Hey, I'm of the opinion that a pair of speakers is better than no speakers. But I'm delusional according to ASR. 

"My hi-fi system is so great, it's out of this world. No really, it doesn't exist. You cannot listen to it." 

@fleschler

@amir_asr No, you don't use terms like snake oil and fraud, your minions do. 

Minions? How is right for you to use such derogatory term about ASR members yet you are outraged when they term a product those names? 

You creating animosity for no good reason. How does this advance understanding of audio technology and performance?  Why can't you say your "members" speak that way? Is it too hard to be professional?

And what you would you like them to say when I test a S/PDIF cable for $1,500 and does nothing more than a $20 video cable I use? They are supposed to smile and say, "good for them?" You get to be outraged about people on a forum but they should not about such high cost for a commodity performance cable?

@fleschler

Sure you’re professional to a point. Your testing isn’t up to par for many products including speakers and DACs you have reviewed. If you read all this forum’s posts you would know of other review sites with much more extensive testing and testing parameters. I want more data, not less.

Oh yes, there are people who push a button on batch script in the audio analyzer and produce 100 graphs. I call them measurebators: measuring for the sake of measuring. Measurements that don’t provide additional insight into the performance of a product are of no value to me. I much rather test 100 speakers than to test 10 and produce 10 times more graphs just to impress folks like you.

I test some 150 speakers a year. Full anechoic response together with distortion and listening tests. The data is state of the art and verified for accuracy by a number of major companies. If this is not good enough for you, no problem. Just know that without me doing this work, you wouldn’t have any data on most of them.

Finally, what is your reference? Both Soundstage and Stereophile produce a subset of my tests. Their speakers tests are much less accurate and non-standard compliant to boot.

@kota1

@amir_asr the militia is not nonsense, ASR is not what I call a forum, non conformrity is flamed, shamed, and banned, it is a firing squad. I think you allow it because if the people paying your bills get good information from other sources it won’t be profitable for you, what do you have to say?

Non-comformity is in play every minute on ASR Forum. As I mentioned, look at every review I do and see the volume of complaints about my review. Heck we have entire threads dedicated to people just complaining about us:

As for my "bills," they don't need paying. I retired after 40 years in technology and can pay for my own bills thank you very much. I do this work because I enjoy it and gives me something rewarding to do.  Members donate money because they like the enormous amount of data and information they get on the site. Unlikely many other youtubers, I am not reliant on any incoming.  This is why there are no ads, or sponsorships on ASR forum or audio science review youtube channel.

People get themselves banned because they jump into a thread and claim to know this and that is true without an ounce of back up. "Oh my ears tell me this." Great.  Keep them to yourself. If you want to convince us, you better come with some understanding of how your ears and perception work. Then folks will listen.

And oh, don't get insulting and personal and make false accusations like what I am responding to. This, will earn a temporary or permanent ban.

@kota1

@amir_asr, welcome to the forum, will you reciprocate and allow members here to post on your forum without instant bans because we have a wide range of opinions that may not be popular on asr as long as we are respectful?

You know, your members simply lose it if anyone likes a component that they have 0 personal experience with, but is simply popular to bash. Is this a dialogue that goes two ways or did you just come here to tell us that you are right and we are all wrong?

The idea objective analysis of the performance of a product is that it no longer requires personal touch. An amplifier producing 10 watts vs 200 watts that another produces is a fact. You don't need to be present, own the amp, run it, etc. to know if that is a fact or not.  You look at measurements and see the data.  So the notion that only people who can have an opinion about a product are those that own or used one is no sequitur. 

You seem to be used to people making up imaginary characteristics for audio which only they can experience by playing with such gear.  To the extent the facts like this cannot be verified or depended on, then there is no there there. 

BTW, the above attitude did not seem to matter to you signed up into ASR to say that the Audioquest Go-4 cable is too old to sound good even though you had not heard it.  And the fact that the cable was introduced 7 years ago.

You went on to say that there has been amazing advancements on cable technology as to make that obsolete.  And that I and others should abuse return privileges from dealers to keep borrowing cables and returning them. I responded to you that none of this made sense and that it would violate my ethical standard to borrow cables like this.

You then kept posting and posting with nary a single back up research, engineering, etc.  Folks eventually got tired of wasting time and ban came.  You are welcome to show up and lecture us but make sure you are sharing reliable knowledge and not just claims and chatter. 

Finally, if getting banned is a loss to you, then I suggest next time not jumping into a review thread and lecturing how the world turns when it comes to cables.  And keep at it for 22 posts straight.  If it is no big deal, then move along.  We are not shedding a tear and neither should you.