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

@prof 

Having done various blind tests over the years, it's a very powerful lesson.  It's too bad many audiophiles haven't experienced their 'sighted' impressions dissolving away when they can't use their knowledge of which piece of gear is actually playing.   There's nothing that sinks in like an actual experience.

Yup, I've experienced my sighted impressions "dissolving away." It's both a  humbling and amazing experience. I've done it both with cables and testing a burned in amp against an identical model that hadn't been burned in. I can't express how obvious the difference in sound quality seemed to me during the sighted listening, so having the effect completely vanish just because I couldn't see which device I was listening to was like experiencing magic. In the end it taught me how malleable my perception of sound quality is to both conscious and unconscious expectations. My ear transduces the sound and then my brain interprets the resulting signal in the light of other sensory information.

@fleschler, you and I have similar experiences.  I had an uncle into hifi in the 60s and 70s that caught my attention.  He had a Dual turntable and a Pioneer receiver.  Then I got myself a Kenwood receiver in the mid 70s just before my sophomore year.  I bought more upscale Kenwood gear once graduating college but my hifi experience began when I went to a co worker's house in 1988 and heard his highly modified Quad ESLs driven by a Quicksilver Amp, modified ARC SP-8 preamp and a Sota Star with the ET-II tonearm on a Billybags stand.  It was the most magical musical moment of my life.  Since then I have always had an ARC tube preamp but I shied away from tube amps.  First, having two little boys back then I was afraid for their lives and now that they are grown and gone I often think of getting some tube amps if not for the recurring costs.  Any tube amp with output greater than 100 W/ch gets expensive to re-tube, it seems.  It's not that I can't afford it.  It's my mid-western upbringing I would say, because no one else I grew up with would ever spend a fortune on stereo gear like I have done.  That night alone with Suzanne Vega and those Quad ESL's infected me badly.

You should post some pics of your system.  Would love to see it.  I've gone from Planars through the 90s to Thiels to Wilson speakers.  I built a dedicated room in the early 90s for the Planars but then moved from that house.  That was the best sound I had until now with the Wilsons.  I had double walls, sound treatment in the corners and dedicated power.  I did the ceiling in 1/2" drywall with thick, rough paint for  diffusion.  Now I have that sound with the addition of much more powerful and clear bass.

@axo1989 , one minute you are an expert in engineering, one minute you are an expert in accounting. That is quite the skill set.

@crymeanaudioriver I thought I was replying to @cd318 so my mistake. I’m not so interested in your aggressive communication style so don’t expect an extended discussion. I’ve given you enough to go on, you can figure out what material interest means and how it may apply in this context perhaps, if you are sufficiently curious. The number and scope of gifts to ASR certainly crosses the usual thresholds for declaration in the regulatory sector that I have experience in.

If ASR / Amir were to start selling the devices, than you could claim it was a gift. The same would be true if the devices started being used as entertainment devices within his home and others. It is almost a given the suppliers are providing these units as non-commercial samples for evaluation, not intended for resales. Companies provide samples for evaluation to other companies all the time. The company sending marked as an expense, the receiving company does not mark as a gift. As ASR sells nothing, markets nothing, it would be a hard stretch to consider the units sent as "input" to their end product. It could even be argued that what Amir is doing is a "stress" test and hence the units are unusable after.  

Of course at the end of the day, like most of what you have wrote, there is a lot of conjecture with a goal of discrediting.

My style is not aggressive, it is accurate. If someone is making claims that are false, or not supported by available information, then I am raising that as an issue. If someone is doing that with the goal of discrediting another individual, then they should not expect soft treatment. Would you prefer I used the wording potentially libelous?

Indifference comes to mind. Most of the discussion on this thread has involved discussing the finer points of a wine no one here wishes to drink.

Yup, I've experienced my sighted impressions "dissolving away." It's both a  humbling and amazing experience. I've done it both with cables and testing a burned in amp against an identical model that hadn't been burned in. I can't express how obvious the difference in sound quality seemed to me during the sighted listening, so having the effect completely vanish just because I couldn't see which device I was listening to was like experiencing magic. In the end it taught me how malleable my perception of sound quality is to both conscious and unconscious expectations. My ear transduces the sound and then my brain interprets the resulting signal in the light of other sensory information.

I don't know why, in this day, it is still so controversial @asctim .  It should be obvious to everyone that we use multiple senses all the time. For food, both taste and smell, but we are also influences by site. The visual input you are receiving of your environment influences what you think you are hearing. If there are two sets of speakers in front of you, and one is very large, and one is small, you will assume that a deep bass note is from the large speaker. It could be from either or a sub you don't even see. We intentionally have control groups and placebos in medical research because humans are so influenced by their present environment and condition that it is the only way to collect accurate data. Audio is not any different.