Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

@amir_asr ​​​​@prof 

Your confusion of what is snake oil and what we are at ASR are your problem. You seem to think anything expensive must be snake oil. Do you go around saying that about a BMW?

ASR routinely labels anything "expensive" as snake oil when there is a cheap ASR endorsed option, regardless of real or perceived performance difference.  Individuals that opt to spend hundreds or thousands on an item they find pleasing for whatever reason, ASR also routinely ridicules as audio-fools. 

Interesting you bring up a car analogy, ridiculed many times on ASR.  Again the irony and hypocrisy is staggering.  

@somethingsomethingaudio 

Sure, I'm aware there are all sorts of places where room treatment will be touted.  Amir is going against the grain of what many people think, including likely some at gearspace.  I don't know if he's right. But he does reference technical arguments and studies in support of his argument, so if someone wants to argue the other point, hopefully they can marshal stronger evidence.  Rather than just "Amir is a meanie" type stuff.

@prof I am not referencing all sorts of places. I am referencing pretty much any recording studio, mastering desk, mixing rooms. They all use treatment. These are the people who edit, produce and fine tune all the audio, vocals and sound effects you’re playing through your system. They arent prone to the same flash of high end stuff. Running commercial cable snakes and generic power cords. They do use room eq in addition to treatment. What youre saying is based on one guy, who has no experience in any of those fields knows better and they are misinformed?

I am trying to find a link but The Disney Concert Hall is a great example of this. They designed the seats to mimic the human body's density so that when the seats are empty it still sounds consistent with a full house. A lot of effort went into the project with materials and wood so that it was acoustically great. I guess you better go tell them with Amir that they made a big mistake. 

@texbychoice 

ASR routinely labels anything "expensive" as snake oil when there is a cheap ASR endorsed option, regardless of real or perceived performance difference. 

That's not true.  Sure many at ASR roll their eyes at the extreme high end gear prices.   But generally the term "snake oil" is used on ASR to refer to products that don't do what they claim to do, not "just because it's expensive."  I think you are mixing up the fact someone may occasionally use the term "snake oil" while talking about very expensive gear.  But it's not "because it's an expensive system."  It's when people are paying lots of money on the belief that is getting them the "better sound" promised by a product.  For instance someone referenced the million dollar Estelon based system at Axpona and used the term "snake oil" but that was in pointing out things like the $330,000 cost of the cabling!  It's not "snake oil just because it's expensive."  It's snake oil "because they are charging people huge prices on the basis of claiming audibly superior performance" over cheaper cable, and many at ASR are technically proficient enough to explain why the claims are nonsense (and point out how they are virtually never actually demonstrated in any rigorous manner, either by measurements or controlled listening tests...it's all about the usual audiophile anecdotes).

@prof They absolutely do dismiss expensive stuff. Here is one. Amir shows it does the same thing as the less expensive versions, and therefore doesnt recommend it. Explain to me how that is not exactly what youre saying???