Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?


It’s easy to make snide remarks like “yes- I do the opposite of what he says.”  And in some respects I agree, but if you do that, this is just going to be taken down. So I’m asking a serious question. Has ASR actually changed your opinion on anything?  For me, I would say 2 things. I am a conservatory-trained musician and I do trust my ears. But ASR has reminded me to double check my opinions on a piece of gear to make sure I’m not imagining improvements. Not to get into double blind testing, but just to keep in mind that the brain can be fooled and make doubly sure that I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing. The second is power conditioning. I went from an expensive box back to my wiremold and I really don’t think I can hear a difference. I think that now that I understand the engineering behind AC use in an audio component, I am not convinced that power conditioning affects the component output. I think. 
So please resist the urge to pile on. I think this could be a worthwhile discussion if that’s possible anymore. I hope it is. 

chayro

I think that Amir, in a round about way, reminds us of how powerful our biases are. My friend’s 28 year old daughter loves sneakers.  She will see someone wearing a certain pair and salivate over them because she knows the back story. I don’t know the back story, so i just I just see an another pair of sneakers.  It just reminds me of how much our brain affects what we believe is important. I don’t know if it’s possible to separate them. 

Audio Science Review is entertaining to read at times. Some of their advice and analysis is interesting, yet at the end of the day, one either finds a piece of audio equipment desirable or undesirable.

@chayro "I think that Amir, in a round about way, reminds us of how powerful our biases are."

This is true. The notion that subjective listening is not without serious problems is something that ASR may take too self-righteously, but it is part of science to realize that careful analysis requires self-scrutiny and scrutiny of others "tastes." Not baseless suspicion but a critical attitude.

@jasonbourne71 We agree that there is something of value in the enormous amount of work that Amir has put into his site.

@charles1dad I have found many, many things of value there. Descriptions of products, tests, measurements, photos, and other information.Some have decided that because they don’t agree with his product conclusions or his disposition toward measurement and against listening tests (as too subjective) there is nothing at all there. This is the kind of partisanship that drives people apart and -- perhaps more important -- keeps us from learning from the valuable parts of what others turn up.

FYI, I posted my review of the Ascend speakers at ASR and some dismissed it because there were no measurements. Very discriminatory against my approach. But others on the site jumped in to defend me, even though it was not measurement based. So, there are a variety of people at ASR, I found.

"I think he’s doing a disservice to the finer art of audio by teaching that measurements are gospel. Basic measurements are a convenience and are a good starting point, but are not the entire answer."

The above represents my point of view.


Did he change my mind about anything? He certainly did. I used to think he was serious and had a reasonable point of view. His posts on ASR and on here convinced me of the opposite.

He has an agenda, and that is to promote his site. I also think he is somewhat unethical. He promotes products that are poorly built just because they measure well.. Look at the number of people on his site who complain of Topping products failing or not working as they should, yet Amir claims it is not his responsibility to look at the quality, just the measurement. I regard this as unethical; if you

praise or recommend a piece of equipment as a reviewer you should look at all aspects, not just measurements that may or may not have value.

His site is funny though, especially when some of the minions get wound up.

My answer is no.

While some equipment gets high marks, it can sound really bad and some equipment sounds really good, but has so so marks. When it come to buying equipment, basically I look at watts, impedance and price.  After that my ears tell me everything else.