I am a member at ASR, as well as many other, along with numerous YouTube "Hi-Fi" subscriptions. All of them have their fanboys that will defend their favorite forum or YouTuber as if it is the greatest. ASR is mainly an engineering forum in my eyes, discussions of build quality and measurements. If a product measures with lots of distortion they are going to have words about it, even if the distortion is inaudible..which they will normally make the reader aware of this distinction. Most of their types of reviews are about taking a signal from the beginning of a product to the end and focusing if the signal stayed transparent or degraded along the way. How it sounds is not their main focus, that’s for you to determine is how I take it.
If you want to talk about how buttery your midrange sounds it’s not the place...but there are a hundred other forums that would love to hear about it...so go there when you want to share that type of information. I don’t post very often at ASR but I have learned a lot there and I’m glad a website like that exists. Do I make all my purchases because of high SINAD rating? No, but it helps as a starting point for certain types of gear I may be looking for. I have my own brain and I’m able to make my own decision on what sounds good to me without asking a hundred different people about what they thought about something I purchased.
I think people are wrong for trying to pigeonhole any members of ASR or any forum. With ASR they are based on science, and if you don’t agree with how they do things or their findings you will have to prove it by their standards or you won’t change many minds. If you don’t have the wits to do that then don’t bother..and I’d say don’t worry about it.
Take these measurement sites for what they are, there is much to be learned from them for the average Joe with no technical background. If a product you own measured poorly yet sounds good to you then so be it..no need to get upset about it. To me great measurements don’t always equate to great sound, but measurements do have meaning and can tell you a lot about what you are or are not hearing..although perception is a whole other can of worms.
Anyway, I just didn’t like the bashing of anyone that is a member of ASR..with that mindset you are no better than the people there or anywhere that do the same thing. I think if you were a regular at ASR and see some of the things discussed on a daily basis you might have a better understanding of what they are about, doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything, but if you want to speak up about it you should be prepared to prove it..and I think that is fair.