Is ASR for real, or is it only for those sub $1k or even sub $2K?

@andy2 I like ASR for unmasking much of the audio-BS going around. I don't know what most ASR posters have in terms of equipment and price points, but you can look at my virtual system and make your own conclusions. I only remember Amir liking his Dan Clark Ether cans, and they are in the $2K range.

For those who claim ASR is not listening to gear, you have not looked at any of Amir's reviews. He typically includes a listening experience portion, including comparisons. If anybody wants to fault a forum for being narrow-minded, it is AG. No measurements to be found anywhere. 

I agree with @kerrybh 's balanced assessment, particularly the schizophrenic mindset at AG that measurements are no good, but blind AB test are also shunned. 

"Not nice" begets "not nice".  I suspect that much of the perceived animosity for ASR stems from the harsh criticism someone will get if they post a subjective opinion.  I’m sure it’s a two-way street, but I certainly remember how critical they were of my subjective input before I realized how married they are to the specs, and how little emphasis they put on subjective listening.  It was quite unpleasant, and I thought unnecessary.  It seems it’s always the extremists who give a bad name to the moderates with a slight slant one way or the other.  

I also suspect that the polarized controversy appeals to his segment of the market, which makes money for him, so there may be a fair amount of posturing for the sake of promoting his stance.

No one has the monopoly on being thin skinned. 

"Consult reviewers that base their recommendations on listening to the gear. Have a look at Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, and HiFi+."

I agree with this comment made early in this thread. I am a fairly regular reader of these although much of the equipment is out of my budget. TAS steered me in the right direction on a pair of Polk Legend 600 speakers. I read a few reviews on them elsewhere but when TAS wrote a glowing review I decided to buy a pair w/o auditioning them (nobody near me carried them). I don't regret the purchase at all and never looked  much at the specs on them and I don't think ASR ever "tested" them. 

By our standards here, you could generalize the ASR crew as cheapskates and measurement fetishists. Their gold-standard 1-number SINAD ensures tube gear and analog sources will be positioned in the very bottom cellar of any gear lists. They don’t value listening results...at all. I remember reading one "review" ending with: "Listening tests were not performed because we had company arrive". Typical. In ASR land, more money for a component can only be justified by a better SINAD, and only so much. 

Superficially we're both into "audio gear", but they’re doing a very different hobby than we do. IMO it’s ridiculous to try and have discourse & debate between these two disparate groups. The SINAD results can be interesting to check up once in a while, but it’s a limited tool (when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail) and end of day what I care about is listening results in my system.