Yes, Amir has definitely changed my opinion on some gear. Take his work for the value it adds to our hobby, nothing more. His work is only one part of the equation however. You can still listen to the equipment, you can judge the quality of the build or the components, or you can simply like the looks. All of these matter. Why attack the guy who provides objective proof of certain factors based on solid electrical and physical principles? His measurements can clearly show in many cases that the piece of equipment cannot be capable of what the manufacturer or the hype says. There is far too much snake oil and fallacy in the audio hobby, and it's good to have something objective for at least one part of evaluating electronic gear. Yes, a piece of equipment can sound good and not measure well, those are not exclusive of each other in audio. Nobody is saying that you can measure how something sounds but it's absolute fact that some measurements can show capabilities of the electronics to do certain things. That is all it is.
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.