I don't want to beat a dead horse but I'm bugged.

If it sounds good and measures bad, we must be measuring the wrong things.

We also used to think the sun was the center of the universe.

Why is it so hard to accept people like different things and even what they like changes? If you have become accustomed to a certain sound, that is what you may prefer even if it does not measure well. Someone else may have become accustomed to and like a different sound that measures well.

 Then I read that he didn't even bother listening to the darn thing.

Why would he bother with listening to this amplifier? 

 If something measures so poorly, wouldn't you want to correlate the measurements with what you hear?

Not particularly, this amp was given a not recommended not so much because it could be differentiated  from other amps if kept within it's limitations but because it wasn't considered a good buy and the engineering of the thing is a bit weird. 

Do people still buy gear on measurements alone?

Yes, I do. They can tell me enough to know what I want to consider. I've yet to listen to a component that measured well and sounded bad, but I only consider this with speakers as amps, Dacs, etc.. are commodities I can look at the numbers and know if I want it and they don't have to be that great since the speaker and room will swamp the electronics in terms of audible distortion.  

I don't understand the gripe with ASR, if you don't like their approach then don't pay attention to it. From my reading on their site they pretty much ignore this place try to do the same. 

@russ69 I didn't say the measurements have to be great, they can just be good.  Good is more than acceptable.

Amir is a good resource as an alternative viewpoint. His ‘truth’ is a series of measurements, that can tell a lot about how some components will perform. But he does miss some of the picture no doubt. A couple of his component reviews are way off the mark. Maybe a faulty product? Or his measuring system at fault? Who knows? Take Audio Science Review for entertainment value, and some worthwhile information.

The problem was not Amir himself but few of his zealots disciples...

Because the notion of a measured distortion in engineering design is not the same than in acoustic...

Why ? Because acoustician test a subjective response from a musician for example in a timbre experiment perception test...harmonics here means something very different than " harmonics" in engineering standard measures...

And the engineer read a dial and his "distortion" THD is a way more simplistic concept of what a distortion do to the subjective impressions and why....It is an engineering % about a relation between input and ouput...Not the way sound affect humans ears...

Electronic Engineering is SUBORDINATED to psycho-acoustic research or a tool for it not the reverse ... Save when the psycho-acoustic research is done and applied....

Timbre perception is not reducible to a simplistic concept of the spectrum for example....but the engineer most of the times work with this simplistic concept which is well enough for his design trade-off  practice anway ... There is exception but they are exceptional designer not a crowd of them ...All audio products are not ultra high end... 😁😊

Atmasphere has numerous posts about amplifier harmonic distortion and listener perception. Simply stated, vanishingly low harmonic distortion is not necessary. The harmonic spectrum and linearity of the distortion are more important. So whether THD is .001% or a hundred times greater is pretty irrelevant. Clearly measurements matter, it’s just that the most commonly cited amplifier measurements aren’t the most important regarding sound quality.

Exactly....Some designer like atmasphere know....

It seems many amplifiers have lots of negative feedback and they have low distortion at 20Khz.

I don't think it is back in the day any more. There are lots of amplifiers on Stereophile and ASR that have very low distortion at 20Khz. Lower than this Rogue at almost any frequency.

It needs to be more than just low distortion at 20KHz although that certainly does not hurt. What is important is four things; if these four things are met, the amp will be easy to listen to, regardless of its technology:

1) the distortion will be consistent at all frequencies- the same at 100Hz, 1KHz and 10KHz.

2) the distortion spectra at 1 Watt will be such that the higher ordered harmonics will not be audible- for whatever reason.

3) The distortion spectra at 6dB below full power will also prevent higher ordered harmonics being audible.

4) IMD is well controlled.

These things sound simple and easy but they can be quite tricky! Most amps fail them outright- and sound bright and harsh as a result, even though they 'measure well' otherwise. The real problem isn't that they measure well, its that the proper measurements aren't made at all!