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

@ghasley 

Thinly veiled disciples of a cult “subjectively” preaching to a crowd of those who know better…then when the preaching doesn’t work they continue to sermonize with neither an invitation nor a rational purpose for continuing.

Please clarify, which side is the “cult”?   
With both sides playing a zero-sum game, there is no room for compromise or understanding.  

@axo1989 

I can see your point of view regarding ASR. 

I don't know if you have been a member long enough to have seen some of my skirmishes with Amir and crew.   One got a bit crazy.  But for me it's always water-under-the-bridge.

@moto_man I suggest a good start would be to compare like with like, and at the most basic this would mean the same AWG. Same length, same connectors.

Anything else is meaningless because you may be comparing things that are not alike in their physical characteristics. 

If stock is 20 AWG, and the $$$ ones are say 12 or 14 AWG and are a few metres shorter, yes, you will hear a difference.  They will measure differently.

@crymeanaudioriver 

 

You do know that these measurements came about from observation first, the measurements didn't come before observation. The science will never further if the measurements stay in stagnation, the ear/brain is more complex than the standard measurements we use for audio.

@tantejuut

 

The problem I have is people telling me what I can not hear.

 

Again: do you have a problem with scientists who study human biology telling you what is or isn’t possible? The reason, for instance, scientists have sent up the Web telescope is to see things that they KNOW can not be seen from earth with the naked eye. Wouldn’t it be strange for someone to say "they don’t have to do that! They can’t tell ME what I can see or not!"

???

Therefore: Why are you not open to a suitable expert on a subject (in which you are not expert) explaining what you may, or may not, be able to hear? This stuff really has been studied! Just as the limits of human hearing in regards to frequency response has been studied, so have thresholds for distortion levels, dynamic range etc.

 

And that really does have consequences when we are talking about what type of distortions are likely in cables and how audible they are likely to be or not.

 

If I hear differences in cables, I want to learn what is happening. If other people tell me that it is impossible and I am delusional, I find that not the right attitude for investigating the parameters for what is causing that effect. (geometry, dielectrics, purity, etc...).

 

But then you really DON’T want to learn what is happening. That is:you are blocking off any answer you don’t like, especially one that would conclude you are wrong in what you thought you heard.

There are people who have good knowledge of electronics - what type of distortions are plausible or not, how to measure it, and also have good knowledge of the thresholds of audible distortion. Amir is one of them, but there are numerous others.

If you REALLY care about "learning what is going on" it may indeed entail that real audible differences are occurring in your cables. But it also MAY be the case no audible differences are occurring, for very well known technical reasons, and you REALLY MIGHT be mistaken in your perception. If you don’t allow for the latter possibility - one VERY well documented in science - then you really aren’t approaching this with an open mind keen to learn the truth.