Has the ASR review/hatchet job on the Musetec MH-DA005 Changed Anyone's Mind?

I agree 100% regarding ASR getting too much airtime, it’s lack of usefulness, and the awkward cultish pile on by its forum guests.

ASR’s refusal to listen to gear while making an “objective” approval or disapproval of a unit is absurdity.

I don’t have a lot of strong opinions in this gloriously fun and rich hobby. But I do as to ASR—If anyone is system building and on a journey please be extra careful in following ASR’s recommendations. While I don’t doubt that some of the gear it recommends probably sounds good too, yet we will miss out on so much the hobby has to offer if we make wholesale rejection of the products based on its alleged objective reviews

 

thespeakerdude

76 posts

12-11-2022 at 02:43pm 

Never heard it so can't comment on if it has a sound or not. @audio-satisficer , only looked at the review. They show a potential problem running at full volume. May be useful information. The rest of the review makes me wonder if how it behaves is intentional, a bad unit, or bad design. No idea without another one. I can think of no reason for the jitter being bad as an intentional choice. Maybe we just get too hung up on DAC specs and most things are not audible?

This is extremely funny Cin!! Tell me please, what DAC do you currently own? Why do I have a feeling you will never say? Prove me wrong and I will eat crows 

I had not read the test results on this unit, but did go to ASR after reading your post.

It seems most equipment in the several kilobuck range and higher is treated more critically on ASR, since the expectation for quality or excellence is higher at these price points. IIRC, the Chord Dave didn’t do so well over there either, despite having a loyal following and many positive reviews.

Like me, you seem to be in the “how’s it sound camp” vs the “how’s it measure camp”, so why let your enjoyment be minimized by it’s measured performance? The DA005  appears to be well appointed and with high build quality and is rated as excellent in the review. Not really what I would call a hatchet job, or an attack on a brand, like those lobbied here on a daily basis (McIntosh, Carver, Raven, Tekton or most products built in China).

If Musetec (LKS?) is really concerned about, (or dispute) measurements in posted over there, they could always post their own findings, or provide a unit for testing if ASRs results is wildly differ from their production units. 

Front page of the ASR website actually states this:

"This is the forum where we try to impress each other with how much we know about audio. Heavy use of technical jargon is required for participation." 

jar·gon¹, /ˈjärɡən/ definition:

"special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand"

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No, not all that difficult to understand. Just not very interesting or entertaining. 

definition:

"special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand"

For some reason (purely subjective) I envision a group of 20-30s old fat white males still writing code in mom’s basement who never got laid. Sorry if I offended someone by saying “fat”. Hereby defined as those who cannot see their junk looking down due to big belly