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

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. 

For those on a limited budget (most people),  ASR is a good source among others, whereas this place can be a total financial disaster, if not very careful.

People discredit sites like ASR yet pine about more people not joining the hifi club.  Makes no sense.  Like so much in people’s lives these days,   things that used to be affordable for most are no longer.

I’m sure if people were less financially strapped these days value would not matter as much.  But they are and it does.   Boutique products with bling are for fewer and fewer these days.  That’s progress?  Would seem so in that affordable items that perform well are abundant these days.  Good thing too.  That’s why more people than ever are getting better sound quality than ever before these days AT ALL PRICE POINTS!  That's good news for all.

My first system cost $200 in 1972, a Sanyo all in one with very poor sound quality.  THese days most people have a streaming device called a cell phone and can buy a decent pair of headphones for $200, maybe even a very good pair of powered speakers for just a little more.

Its a golden age for sure.  Better sound for more!   THank you to all who made that possible.

not about dollars, it's about head space. which then leads to dollar's spent since no justification for higher perceived performance so just get the cheapest gear that checks the box.

imagine that (1) you never believed what you heard. that listening was not a way to decide about system building. and (2) your opinion was that mostly all gear sounds pretty much the same.

nothing wrong with that. but you would fit in with ASR.

the ASR group-think simply have a different head space than audiophiles, who do want to optimize their music reproduction as best as they can according to their taste and preferences. and believe that subjective listening is far more significant than objective data.

since the basis for approaching music reproduction choices are at polar opposites, we just agree to disagree and move on. 

My issue with ASR primarily is that many of the people who post there are hypocrites.  They quibble over THD or SNR of -100 db vs 120 db, yet they say that tests "prove" people can't tell the difference between -60 SINAD vs -100.  So they quibble about "state of the art" while essentially proving the "science" part of their argument wrong, considering that we humans can't hear a difference, or so the logic goes.

The moment I realized how wrong their methodology in determining worthwhile equipment when I tested a lower performing by numbers amplifier against one of their latest and greatest hypex units from VTV amplifiers.  It sounded so brittle and harsh next to amplifiers from Parasound and Primare.  There was no question what I was hearing in my system was unequivocally better to anyone with halfway decent listening skills.

I think it largely has to do with group think bias where people believe that the measurements are all there is, so anyone who disagrees must be wrong.  And they believe that anything Amir says must be right because he is like their religious figure saving them from the masses of "idiots" that spend money on expensive gear.  Give me a break.

The measurements are the only good part about ASR.  I like a flatter frequency response in my speakers.  The flatter the better typically.  So that portion does have some merit.  Low and behold though, the best performing models are not cheap when it comes to response and distortion.  Which for some reason they give smaller kefs and genelecs a pass when it comes to distortion, but other companies they destroy over a small perturbation in the frequncy response.

Stay away from the religion of ASR and use them for their measurements ONLY which should not be your only determinant in choosing gear IMHO

Here it goes again. Never ending. Did we gain anything from having this kind of confrontational, non-constructive discussion? Is it even worth bringing up this figure for any meaningful conversation? If you want to stay away, then stay away for good.