Amir caters to certain audience. Those who like someone else to do the thinking for them. They love to hear that his reference professional grade $99 Chinese DAC measures better than a $5500 DAC as voltage coming out of his $99 preamp outputs. Listening test are almost never mentioned. These people go on about their day feeling great that some sucker spent $5500 on a DAC when they bought a better performing product and saved $5400 in the process.
Amir isn’t the problem. He’s just an opportunist who exploits certain type of people with certain type of mentality. After all, I guess those who subscribe to his propaganda don’t deserve any better. Mr. @jasonbourne71 here is a case in point with that statement he made about the Chord M-Scaler he’s never heard, and can’t even afford to look at. If Amir said it, it must be true. It’s pointless to try to prove anything to the crowd of Amir’s minions. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?
It’s easy to make snide remarks like “yes- I do the opposite of what he says.” And in some respects I agree, but if you do that, this is just going to be taken down. So I’m asking a serious question. Has ASR actually changed your opinion on anything? For me, I would say 2 things. I am a conservatory-trained musician and I do trust my ears. But ASR has reminded me to double check my opinions on a piece of gear to make sure I’m not imagining improvements. Not to get into double blind testing, but just to keep in mind that the brain can be fooled and make doubly sure that I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing. The second is power conditioning. I went from an expensive box back to my wiremold and I really don’t think I can hear a difference. I think that now that I understand the engineering behind AC use in an audio component, I am not convinced that power conditioning affects the component output. I think.
So please resist the urge to pile on. I think this could be a worthwhile discussion if that’s possible anymore. I hope it is.
Showing 26 responses by audphile1
@amir_asr Amir…how about incorporating listening tests and publishing those results along with the measurements. As most reviewers do, list your reference system so that your subscribers can see in what context a component was reviewed and how it performed using your ears as a measurement tool. Don’t use a $99 dac to test a $1700 usb cable. That’s as far from a real world use case as you could possibly get. So do that for high end components that either are or pretend to be reference level (i.e. audioquest and nordost cables, chord dacs, marantz sacd player, etc) |
@ahofer My question was directed to Amir. And I appreciate his post answering my questions. But I don’t remember asking you a thing. |
@ the measurements is everything crowd…riddle me this… Your rich uncle dies. He had an awesome stereo with two dacs - a Topping D90SE that he used to stream from Tidal (MQA), and an Audio Research DAC-9 that he used for Qobuz. His widow calls you and says kid, in his will, your uncle had left you one DAC and you can only take one. Topping D90SE:
Audio Research DAC-9:
You’re walking out of that house with one DAC and one DAC only…which one and why?
P.S. @mahgister I actually wrote a long post…I know…hypocrite…but bare with me here for 💩 s and giggles… |
@thyname good one hahaha |
Hahaha. Love it. Thanks for the recommendation. |
Also just to add to my response
And you know this how? Let me guess…you measured transparency of these components? Or determined how transparent they are by the results of your measurements? Also, you heard no difference between Nordost and generic cables. Well there are two possible reasons as to why… 1. The said Topping audio chain is not as transparent as you thought it was 2. Your ability to detect differences between components and cables is impaired by either your measurements results based bias or your ears just don’t work as well as convince yourself they do. To my earlier point…. Your testing is flawed on many levels and like I said in one of my earlier posts, your listening tests are too far from a real life scenarios. No one in their right state of mind would be running Nordost Tyr 2 cables with Topping and that goes for the crowd on both sides of the fence. |
@prof measurements are important and that’s without a doubt. But alone, the measurements cant tell you how a component will sound or what sonic changes a cable can make. |
@amir_asr also just FYI…I watched your review on YouTube… Tyr 2 is the top of the Nordost Norse line. Cables in that line cary the names of gods in Old Norse (Germanic Mythology). Not an indicator of how the cables sound by any stretch of imagination. But a quick search prior to recording your review would have helped you learn something new that you can relay to your viewers and prevent you from appearing ignorant while poking fun at the names Nordost chose for their cables. It did make your attempt at sarcasm and humor fall flat on its face right out of the gate, at least to those familiar with the subject. |
@prof I am not here to prove you right or wrong. I’m expressing my point of view and my take on the review. |
speaking of which, @prof, I was curious about your system… |
@prof nice setup! I had Benchmark DAC 3 HGC it was nice but I liked the Bricasti M3 better. I’m just kidding…chillax…. |
@prof measurements together with proper listening tests - I have zero issues with that. But I won’t be beating a dead horse. |
That’s a hell of an investment. $100k on a measurement system as opposed to $100k on a system. Whatever boat you float…. |
