Interesting ASR review of small GR Research speaker kit


I bounce between various kinds of analysis — more subjective listening reports, more quantitative measurement analyses and, my favorite, those that combine both strategies to tell a useful story about audio products.

Amir of ASR has just done a very powerful takedown of a fairly inexpensive kit being sold by Danny at GR Research. Not only does he prove his point about the speakers, he also makes (to my mind) a very convincing case that Danny put his finger on the scale in how he reported his own measurements. 

I'm not in any camp — Danny's or Amir's or anyone else's. What I appreciate is thoroughness and meticulousness in exposition. Danny does that in his own videos. (Again -- to me. I'm really still learning and cannot easily spot gaps in argument in this subject matter.)

I know people with some of GR's best kits — and I've heard one of them. They sounded incredible. I've watched a bunch of Danny's videos where he criticizes other companies; I've come away thinking, "Wow, he really revealed some of the grift embedded in that product." 

But here, the tables are turned, it seems, on Danny. I hope he responds, both to defend his reputation and methods, but also because it will set in relief where some of the distance may be between these two dominant online figures' methods in assessing what makes for a good speaker.

https://youtu.be/IikqAg38FPs

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These days when I google reviews for an audio product and links come back for ASR, I just ignore them. I’ve read enough ASR reviews to know how little they correlate to the actual sound of audio gear....and music itself.

Reviewers like that spew graphs and numbers but rarely even try to articulate what they hear when they listen to the item under review. IMO the worst is when they promote measurements & stats as a complete replacement for the subjective listening experience. Human hearing just doesn’t work that way.

Then there’s the fact that several ASR reviews have been rather thoroughly debunked, establishing a pattern of bias and incompetence by their reviewer.

I don’t like it when people pose as audio gurus whose statements explain everything and must be believed in toto. I don’t drink that koolaid...

spouted out his typical BS for his audiophile hating audience to consume as gospel. 

Yup. You nailed it! Will just one phrase. 

Testing any desktop speaker with a full range tone at 96dB is frankly insane.