Let me address the larger point here.
The beef some of you have with me is misplaced. What you see is not me, it is me and literally tens of thousands of your fellow audiophiles working together to bring more transparency to audio gear. They send me equipment, I test and publish them. We then collectively discuss the findings. Certain truths pop out of this process. That truth resonates with so many audiophiles who are desperate for reliable facts about audio gear. This is the appeal. This is the reason ASR has grown so much and so fast. It certainly is not because I am good looking or know how to write a sentence without a typo! 😁
Nothing about this stops you from doing what you want to do. If you are able to get that NAD or Genelec amp/speaker I post about first to evaluate, go right ahead. But if you can't, then where are you? We live in a world where everything is going remote and online.
Some of you falsely claim that we are all different. If that is the case, then you better not believe anyone's opinion here about any gear then. Ditto for any reviewer out there. The alternative you offer then is not knowing anything.
I know some like to make themselves feel good by making stuff up:
1. Better measurements mean better sound. This is sometimes the case, sometimes not. This is how we look at measurements, not what you claim. A low noise amplifier will have less chance of hiss. That is a fact. A low distortion amplifier may sound the same as a high distortion amp if you are not able to hear such non-linearities.
What good measurements show is that you can push impairments so low such that they fall below threshold of hearing -- something determined with listening tests. We are fortunately enough that many DACs, some pre-amps and amplifiers now fall in this category. And get there at very reasonable costs. This, we need to celebrate. Not have angst over. I replaced my expensive, many thousand dollar Mark Levinson DAC with a few hundred dollar DAC. The latter is better in every way and costs a lot less due to economy of scale. Great win for us!
2. We don't listen. I listen to a ton. Every speaker, headphone and headphone amplifier for example gets a listening test. This adds up to hundreds of listening tests a year. I listen to these classes of products because they do indeed perform differently from each other. I even listen to stuff that doesn't make a difference as to cover that base as well but obviously don't want to waste time doing it all the time.
3. I must have commercial interest. Well, I don't. I don't need the money. I don't make my living from this effort. I enjoy it as a good hobby that has massively positive reward.
4. I must hate this and that. I can't afford that. But if i did, measurements can be repeated by anyone so can't be gamed that way.
5. We rely on measurements alone. That is just wrong. Measurements are only one aspect of product evaluation. We use engineering, audio science research and understanding of how products work in our total analysis. And I say "we" as there are many technical experts on ASR Forum. It is the totality of this kind of evaluation that damns certain products, not just pure measurements.
6. That we don't value listening tests. We absolutely do. We just want them without bias. This is why you saying this and that sounds better has no value. You have to run a controlled test as we know without it, any outcome can be had.
Bottom line, use ASR as an additional source of information. No harm comes out of that. Fighting us as if we are your enemy makes no sense unless you are selling overpriced, non-performant gear.
