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

@tonywinga 

That is because Danny listens to the products.  He also understands and explains what the measurements mean and how it affects the sound.  At least on the videos that I watched.  And his upgrade kits make sense.  Plenty of DIY'ers do the same things.

Once more, he does NOT listen to any speaker he upgrades.  Ever!  He says this in videos from time to time.  Even if he does not, watch one of his upgrade videos.  All he shows are crude before and after frequency response measurements and that is it.  You are supposed to trust him that the sound got better.

As to his upgrades making sense, they do most of the time from technical point of view.  But not remotely on cost basis.  He also detests EQ which can do the same thing for free.  As member said, follow the money.  EQ doesn't make him money so he doesn't like it.  What proof he provides?  He just knows that it doesn't.

@amir_asr , I think Danny gets lots of customers who post a lot of good reviews, is a fair businessman, and a good communicator. Are you still upset with him over that falling out you two had? I saw him very sincerely reach out to you on his channel, can't you let it go by now?

@tonywinga 

Measurements by themselves mean nothing. 

That's right.  This is the reason we follow extensive research into what measurements to use and invest incredible amount of money and time to get them.  The research into speaker design is very authoritative.  But if you have not read and understand them, then you wind up being dismissive.  Membership in ASR will get you that knowledge.  Without it, you are lost forever, throwing random darts at the wall.

Note that I listen to every speaker I review.  Measurements are the foundation but I test them by listening. And equalization.

I also listen to every headphone and every headphone amplifier.  These constitute about half of what I review.

I perform more listening tests in a month than others do in a year or even lifetime!

So the notion that we only measure on ASR is completely wrong. It is a false notion to justify having one's head in the sand regarding authoritative work that we on ASR.  

 

 

@russ69 

"Long term listening is still the gold standard of audio evaluation. Short term evaluations often lead to errors but it's much harder to hold an inaccurate evaluation over the course of many listening sessions and sometimes it takes many hours to find the faults of the playback system. 

That is a myth unfortunately.  Your long term memory is quite "lossy" as the brain can't possibly remember everything the hearing system captures.  This has been proven through controlled listening tests: 

 

"The results were that the Long Island group [Audiophile/Take Home Group] was unable to identify the distortion in either of their tests. SMWTMS's listeners also failed the "take home" test scoring 11 correct out of 18 which fails to be significant at the 5% confidence level. However, using the A/B/X test, the SMWTMS not only proved audibility of the distortion within 45 minutes, but they went on to correctly identify a lower amount. The A/B/X test was proven to be more sensitive than long-term listening for this task."

 

See how we behave on ASR?  you say something but provide no proof.  I say it and not only provide proof, but also fundamentals of how our hearing works.

I find it funny that this thread instigated an owner of another site to come here and defend himself and his site.

But how convenient to leave topics he has no idea about and only reply to those which are close to his heart. Never discussed about my last post here on why everyone hears the same sound differently.

Also, what's the point of measuring so many electronics? I don't think he runs a charity. Everyone has got a reason. I don't believe he is doing community service, cause I have seen after every measurement he asks for charity.

And this same poster says that Audiogon members are "biased". But the he measures the equipment and claims to listen to them. How does bias not set in at that point? After all he is a ordinary human being and bias is in human nature.