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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
cd318
2,636 posts
 

@rlj 

Amir has posted a presentation explaining speaker measurements..

"Understanding Speaker Measurements"

https://youtu.be/1lW_QcIlZjY

which I found to be pretty much "matter of fact" presentation, without any obvious bias.  

Twenty three minutes into his presentation he explains his Klippel Near Field Scanner.

https://youtu.be/1lW_QcIlZjY?t=1431

 

Good link. I'd like to think everyone chiming in here has seen that particular video in full.

I'm glad Amir put it out because without it, it can be difficult for some of us to make full sense of his reviews.

The level of complexity of such reviews was what put me off ASR initially. I'm always willing to learn new things but my rate of learning is no longer what it was once was.

As we know, learning is a little different from remembering.

 

@mahgister 

Also, "sounds communicate to the brain far more quickly than sights.

Light travels faster than sound, but its pathway to the conscious brain is much slower.

“While vision maxes out at 15 to 25 events per second, hearing is based on events that occur thousands of times per second.”

 

Fascinating stuff.

I learned a long time ago that I could understand a lot more about someone by carefully listening to their voice than by looking at them.

There is a certain directness about sound and especially the human voice that can speak volumes.

 

As Amir and the likes of Floyd Toole readily accept, the science of psycho acoustics, just like the study of the human mind, whilst being fairly accomplished, is still far from being a closed book.

desktopguy
363 posts
 

Amir/ASR never changed my mind about anything because my mind is still open to unexpected audio experiences & observations (or as open as I can make it). That's the opposite of the mindset required by devotees of that website.

Audio is a big tent, a lifelong journey. Equipment/gear is obviously a big part of it; but maybe the biggest part of it are all my experiences hearing music performed in the real world (those experiences are rocket fuel for audio, at least in my case). So for me, open-ended audio discussions are catnip. I enjoy and participate in them.

But discussions on ASR are anything but open-ended. The regulars drank the Kool Aid long ago and punish anyone who hasn't or won't.

Kinda like spirituality. While I'm entirely without religion, I can enjoy and participate in respectful discussions of spirituality. But that's a very different experience than being in a cult where one leader's beliefs are spoon fed to me. I'll do the former sometimes, but the latter--never.

fittebd
101 posts
 

The only thing Amir changed my mind on is to never visit the site again.  Not because I do not believe in measurements the site is pure hate.  If you don’t like what we say its attack and even take posts down.  That is not vey open.  I do not want to visit nor give it any clicks towards money.  Period

 

laoman's avatar
laoman
434 posts
 

@tosch "

Did ASR change my opinions?

It changed my opinion on DACs. There is very little difference. I did some prikitive blind-testing at home and can't hear differences."
Wow, really? I have read a number of times on ASR that "Dacs are settled". "If they measure well they all sound the same."
Now I read a similar comment from you. For me they sound very different. When  was searching for a DAC I listened to about 5 different ones  at a dealer through the same equipment, There were big differences in noise levels and sound quality, and no, the most expensive was not necessarily the best. 
At a friend's house I listened to a few more, again on the same recordings - mainly opera. Those based on ESS chips sound grating to me and I found it hard to listen to them for any length of time. One Chinese brand in particular does very poorly with female voices. I ended up buying a mid range one, but the one that sounded second best to me. (I could not the one that sounded best.)

mikhailf
6 posts
 

Amir provides data (measurements) that anyone can use. He implemented scoring and his "can recommend" or "can't recommend" verdict. When I am looking for a piece of equipment, I'll review data available online (including ASR), look at what is important to me and note what is good, bad and don't care. Real life makes corrections: sales are tempting ;-) when someone on forums is selling their few months old piece for 40-50% of the new, it is hard to pass.

 

Several amps were measured fair (average and slightly below). - oh well, they sound well to me and I would put them ahead of several other "well measured" lifeless amps.

as others posted, your ears in your space with your setup during extended listening sessions and various material is a way better denominator than "best of the year" or "best measured".

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