Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

Amir has changed my mind about some things, I like that he's taking on the high end of the hobby and offering a system of checks and balances.  Remember that his site has no advertising, so take that as you may.  But he's influenced me on the subject of DACs.  I used to yearn for some expensive R2R DAC, Denafrips or Holo, or even DCS or MSB, but I've since abandoned that kind of coveting.  DACs are a solved problem now and the goal is transparency devoid of color.  My DAC is extremely cheap by audiophile standards yet I find that it sounds fantastic, and its purchase was definitely influenced by ASR measurements.

I also once yearned for boat anchor amps to power my inefficient speakers.  That is no more, as I have discovered high end Class D.  My ears and my back and my wallet are all thankful for that.  But I'm no sheep in the herd as I'm a vinylphile and I have to defend its honor on the ASR forum.  And I love my old Maggies despite the small sweet spot and the need for a sub.  With the addition of Magna Riser stands they've overtaken my Vandersteens as top dogs in my system, despite the price difference.  I feel no need to upgrade, not even to the LRS+, never mind expensive Revels, the ASR favorites.

I've been very subjective in the past, used to depend on salesman for taste, but that's changed.  My system is affordable but I think it sounds incredible, can't stop listening and I get lost in the music, which is what it's all about.  To bring this level of sound quality to the masses is something admirable in my book.

"So you needed measurements to tell you which pair of interconnects you keep? Blue pill vs. red pill. You couldn’t hear a difference by…. listening to them? Yeah, I know, shocking!"

Yeah this is an interesting one.  They may indeed sound the same but it's obvious that the conductivity of the plugs is better on the one.  The other reaches the same low impedance if I push and rub the meter leads onto the plug.  So it may be that most of the time the connection is strong enough to overcome this.  But much depends on the actual plug mechanical connection.  How tight it is.  The other interconnect plugs are made of actual gold.   I think the bad measuring ones are probably brass.  They are less likely to hold a good connection.

So here is a case where putting a meter on it and measuring is very instructive.  I'm not going to take a chance on the brass connectors that measure badly even though they may sound fine.  It's possible that they may not stay that way.

And I realize that I bought some crappy cables.  They looked sort of gold in the pics.  Fools gold.  

I am curious, what cables were those two? Brand & model?

I don't mind reading reviews based on measurements but I would never rely on them exclusively.

However, I don't like the superior snobbish attitude on that particular site.

"And the same measurements are just as good as Mola Mola Tambaqui on other, way cheaper, DACs, like various Topping. Have you seen the point ranking system he has? So why in the world would you be happy spending $16,000+ in a DAC, when you can get the same measurements and points, and even more points, with a DAC costing a few hundred bucks, a small fraction of your Mola Mola"

Yes, the measurements are the same, BUT the Mola Mola 1) sounds a lot better 2) has far better build quality and is not likely to fail in a short period of time like on particular piece of Chinese crap touted by the minion master. (Does he get a cut?)