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The Audio Science Review (ASR) approach to reviewing wines.

Imagine doing a wine review as follows - samples of wines are assessed by a reviewer who measures multiple variables including light transmission, specific gravity, residual sugar, salinity, boiling point etc.  These tests are repeated while playing test tones through the samples at different frequencies.

The results are compiled and the winner selected based on those measurements and the reviewer concludes that the other wines can't possibly be as good based on their measured results.  

At no point does the reviewer assess the bouquet of the wine nor taste it.  He relies on the science of measured results and not the decidedly unscientific subjective experience of smell and taste.

That is the ASR approach to audio - drinking Kool Aid, not wine.

toronto416

Showing 2 responses by toronto416

toronto416 OP
271 posts
 

 

This post was inspired by answering a question about power conditioners.

In reviewing the Puritan Audio PSM 156 on ASR, the author says "as always, we attempt to tease out the transfer function of the conditioner using normal audio level signals" and after many measurements with test signals concludes with "as you see, I have run a number of tests to give the PSM156 ample opportunity to show it can do something to improve audio but it can’t even move the dial one hair. There is no indication or logic that would tell us that it can make an audible improvement."

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/puritan-audio-psm156-review-ac-filter.26136/

It is important to note that at no point was it mentioned that music was played through a system with and without the PSM 156 in the circuit. I don’t spend my hours of relaxation listening to test signals - I listen to music.  The ASR review failed to assess the impact on music reproduction.

toronto416 OP
271 posts
 

This post was inspired by a question posed by @kjl1065 in a post in Tech Talk titled  'Seeking a Power Conditioner'.

In it the OP wrote:  "Read reviews on both Niagra 1200 & Puritan Audio PSM 156 power conditioners and the reviews were extremely positive. While reading I came accross a review of both products by Audio Science Review (ASR) who claims his reviews are objective with scientific data supplied and his reviews were not nearly as positive to say the least. Anybody have any thoughts on how I should proceed with the differing of opinions."

There was clearly an opportunity to voice an opinion about the ASR approach to audio reviews that in this case was based only on measurements but without any listening, and so the wine analogy was born and I thought it would be fun to expand on it here.

This was not meant just an exercise in ASR bashing, but as an exercise in educating those who might not be as familiar with ASR that they should be wary of their absolute opinions.

I believe that objective measurements are important, but so it the subjective listening experience.  Objective and subjective balance and complement each other as we see in the Stereophile approach to in-depth reviews.

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