Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

cd318,Indeed that might have been the point of ASR.And that is fine.The theory is fine.The idea is fine.But like any idealistic concept the enforcement can become toxic and counter-productive.Just like communism and religion.

@tonywinga  I've mentioned in other forums that I built listening rooms in my prior home in 1993 and spent $150,000 in a high end design room built from scratch in 2019 in my current home (my last).  Everyone who hears my system now revels in the music and sound despite not having ultra high end equipment.  I do have lower cost high end equipment to complement the room.  I suspect that high end Von Schweikert speakers would have eliminated the need for such a great listening room but building in bass traps in the walls based on an activated carbon filter system in the walls didn't hurt.  

@cd318 "There are still many fine people who work selflessly for the common good."

No doubt.  And Marx was hoping that such was inherent human nature, and massaged and frankly made up "historical facts" to support the hope and turn hope into theory which then ran into reality.  Ironically, Marx never really was much of a "worker" himself, treated his own employees terribly, loved spa vacations, and was supported by the money of his buddy Engels' dad (a wealthy factory-owning industrial capitalist)... 

But sure, many fine people work for the "common good," which however is usually open to interpretation and therein lies the rub.  It is possible that the founders of ASR believe themselves to be working for the common good in one small niche by applying science, or their version of it, with the aim of dispelling vaporous myths and questionable claims in the notoriously misty world of audio... a world that is built upon the premise of the possibility of creating illusions, after all. 

That said, I happen to like the illusions created by some speakers that ASR did not like.  It's fine they didn't like them, but I'm with most of you in that I didn't like the tone they took with me when I said so, that I like the speakers in spite of, or perhaps because of, what they deemed to be imperfections... and when they start veering away from science and start to tell me why I'm wrong and even silly or stupid to like something that I do, then they have stepped out of the scientific role and right into the subjective and thus betray the very ideals they purport to support.

That said, I do think they offer a good service, an alternative perspective to consider, as long as they stick to their measurements and leave it at that.

Kokakolia:

"iiWi Reviews on YouTube is one of the few places where those Chinese amps are reviewed subjectively. The reviewer got me very interested in the Sabaj A10A which seems to be working well with his KEF LS50 Meta. His reference amp is a Hegel H190 (which is a perfect match for the KEF). iiWi Reviews was very happy with the Sabaj A10A, stating that the amp disappeared and he was just enjoying the music."

A number of Chinese brands are of very high quality. Opera Consonance for example gets excellent reviews in German Hi Fi magazines. AM makes brilliant amplifiers and they are not cheap but they are heavily over engineered and weigh a lot. The sound quality is excellent and is among the best of all tube amps you can buy.

Where people get annoyed with ASR is when some say "I will not listen to this because it measures badly". Similarly when they claim that "All Dacs sound the same", I know this is a nonsense. I have been to dealers where different Dacs were used on the same system and the dealer said nothing about cost so the argument that if it is more expensive you think it sounds better is absolute rubbish.  There is often a big difference in the quality of sound. I dislike the sound of Dacs using ESS chips as I find many of them have a mid range glare which is not conducive to female voices. When I mentioned this I was informed I like distortion and I was thrown off the site and I am not the first or the last. I was told that I am not willing to be educated and learn.

It is also the arrogance in the site that is nauseating. "Stick around here and we will teach you". That together with the worship of Amir as if he is some sort of spiritual guru is enough to put off anyone.