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

"Audiophiles are Snobs"  Youtube features an idiot!  He states, with no equivocation,  that $5,000 and $10,000 speakers sound equally good and a $500 and $5,000 integrated amp sound equally good.  He is either deaf or a liar or both! 

There is a site filled with posters like him called Audio Science Review.  If a reasonable person posts, they immediately tear him down, using selected words and/or sentences from the reasonable poster as100% proof that the audiophile is dumb and stupid with his money. They also occasionally state that the high end audio equipment/cable/tweak sellers are criminals who commit fraud on the public.  They often state that if something scientifically measures better, then it sounds better.   They give no credence to unmeasurable sound factors like PRAT and Ambiance.   Some of the posters music choices range from rap to hip hop and anything pop oriented created in the past from 1995.  

Have any of audiogon (or any other reasonable audio forum site) posters encountered this horrible group of miscreants?  

fleschler

Showing 7 responses by vonhelmholtz

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

@djones51

My theory might be that I can measure electrical differences between cable ’A’ and cable ’B’ and if they measure the same then they must sound the same and if they measure sufficiently different, then they must sound different.

Don’t I then need to add carefully controlled double blind listening sessions?

 

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

If you prefer a $12000 DAC to a $300 DAC then by all means buy one, if you claim it's "better" on ASR then you need to be able to prove it.

That's right..listen for differences.

Science gives us weather forecasts and Covid dictates. It has its place, but one case of positive listening and negative electrical testing, or the reverse demonstrates to us that all properties are not being measured.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

Funny..so many of us are so anal about our research, but ultimately make a decision somewhat spontaneously/intuitively.  I plead guilty.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

With ASR they are based on science

Is this the same science that brought us Covid lockdowns and climate change extinction?  On the Internet and mass media, science is whatever those in power say it is.

Start with double blind auditioning of equipment and then find a set of test parameters that explain the auditioning results.  After this, you might have some basis for testing the same class of equipment.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

@curtdr

I didn’t intend on having a political argument, but yes there are multiple "scientific" analysis that come to differing conclusions on these topics. I’ll cite Sweden’s Covid response and the doomsday claims made in the 1970s and 80s that we were all in peril because of ( the scientific fact) of global cooling.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

@gosta 

As long as you are happy with your system,  it doesn't matter how you got to where you are at.  The whole point is to enjoy the music.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

Just so the government doesn’t dictate what we can buy and listen to, I can accept that some rely on measurement to select audio equipment and have their own taste in music. Now, to eject someone for preferring to select equipment through a listening regime seems a bit over the top, but there are many other online communities that don’t censor content.  Ok..there are still some websites that don't shape content.

 

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