Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

Narcissists empowered by the internet and media in general is a big problem these days. Perhaps one of the biggest. The impact on hifi choices is insignificant on the grand scale of things.

given the history and the current state of the industry, rife with snake oil, pushing manufacturers to back up their claims is 100% a good thing.

That’s the bottom line. Bingo! More people need to do that if they care enough rather than fuss about it. Amir’s act shouldn’t be too hard to follow for someone who is qualified and has the resources needed. I suspect this is the motivation behind a lot of the darts thrown.  Just follow the money. 

It’s a fair question to ask Amir what he has learned of value from this thread?

@fredrik222 

Thanks for your message - in truth, I did not make a statement that Amir says he knows everything, only that as an imperfect human being like the rest of us, that it is not possible for him to know everything about electromagnetism - something that he will never acknowledge in staking claim to his measurements. He says electrical testing yields every result we need to know whether a sound difference can be heard in equipment comparisons. That is the equivalent of saying that he knows everything about how electromagnetism affects the quality of sound waves arrive at our ears, just based on the electrical tests he conducts. It would be actually funny, if not for the increasing numbers of people who believe it to be true. 

Then again, it is also true that narcissists, by virtue of their addictive, if misleading confidence, inspire the most followers.

You are absolutely correct that manufacturers should not be allowed to falsify specifications or get away with ambiguous claims. But in all fairness, neither can acoustic performance be claimed based on tests only on the electrical half of everything electromagnetism is. It would be hypocritical otherwise. 

And I am not referring to basic magnetic flux here, but the profound complexity that a constantly changing electromagnetic field is, since the signal is carried as much in the magnetic field, as it is in the electrical current. We have not yet learned how to measure this, let alone understand its impact on sound quality.

There is so much we do not know about the relationship between electromagnetism and the nuance of sound reproduction. To ignore, let alone belittle this fact belies deep ignorance that runs counter to everything science truly is. Science concerns the investigation of experiences and questions we have yet to find answers for. Not the bureaucratic repetition of tests on things we already have proof of answers for.

Yes indeed, listening skill can be very subjective - those blind tests ever so referred to are as subjective as the best, because two variables exists in such tests - something that has not yet been acknowledged by those who champion it.

It was the reason why I suggested a listening test with just one variable, the listener. The sound files had two precisely determined resolutions, which the listener had to identify and tell apart. Direct and simple. Amir did not think much of the test because he could not hear the differences, and he accused those who might have done well as having benefitted from guesswork, despite the accuracy of a six for six correct answers falling well within his own threshold of acceptability. No answer from him when challenged. 

I am a mere hobbyist and the technical knowledge Amir has in electrical matters far exceeds anything I could ever aspire to. But I can say that the observation of electromagnetic nature I am not yet able to explain, and the passionate questions and hypotheses that follow engage science to a far more profound degree than a performance testers  tedious refrain that if it measures the same, it sounds the same.

Yes fredrik, there are indeed two sides to this amazing coin of electromagnetism - how divisive that Amir only fixates on the electrical half, the half his machines only read. Performance testing is not science. It is repetition of the known.

@kevn if you know a better approach maybe there is big bucks and satisfaction similarly in it for you if you were to take it to market and offer it as a competing or complementary service, if you have not already done so. I personally am  all ears when someone can help me make better informed buying decisions.