Audio Science Review Review

I think one would have to be pretty naive, that is too trusting in the altruism of others, to disregard any idea of collusion between Amir & Topping/SMSL or Amir & Harman

 

I believe that ASR would be the worst possible starting point for new "audiophiles" , because their approach is almost like antithesis of the focus on attentive listening.
I was interested in the best possible experience in sound, and I could not find any evidence on ASR that Amir, and his disciples, spend any significant time listening to the shit they measure. You may be an objectivist and still have interest how things actually sound (Archimago for example) , the folks on ASR could not care less.

Almost irrespective of how high in terms of kHz you can hear, attentive listening is a skill you can only develop if you are really interested in experiencing sound, if, for example, spending hours trying to compare two digital filters gives you some pleasure. Amir is moving from one piece of gear to another almost as fast as he can reconnect cables.
"Evaluating" speakers imaging using just one speaker, with some BS explanation, is the best example how little they care about the sound.

When people start in this hobby they are looking for some kind of authority, no way I could just read a good stuff on SBAF for two years before buying my first headphones.
Frankly it is much better to follow Z than Amir. I said it before but the very first video I watched was Z reviewing HD600 and HE500. And he said buy any of these two and you will be happy. I did, it was not that bad

 

For me personally, it’s game, set and match when it comes to ASR and Topping. It got to the point where the manufacturer is publicly attacking me and others for pointing out obvious bs in Amir’s faux reviews without anyone even batting an eye. The fact that they are speaking up rather than the author himself is further proof of uncomfortably close association between the two.

There are some good intelligent people on ASR and more and more are increasingly questioning things which is a good sign. All I hope is that other manufacturers are going to stop playing this pointless measurebation game and focus on improving the way their products sound. Hyperfocusing on measurements is such a red herring and a distraction from the things that actually matter.

Products are more than sum of their measurements and parts and reviewing audio products requires having an ability to listen critically and accurately describe your subjective experience. Any evaluation of an audio product which does not predominantly focus on how a product actually sounds is a farce and absurd. It is like something out of Monty Python.

 

It's unavoidable. The principle that "you can have a system for 200 bucks that beats many, thousands of dollars, systems", as a bait, it's almost impossible to resist.
The truth is that the masses can't, or are not willing to, spend 4 figures in audio gear so that premise is super appealing for many.

Z used that same premise but he used subjectivity/own opinion to justify gear purchases but ASR goes much further using "substance", or numbers, to justify their opinion and people will hold on to that train of thought like a raccoon with a bottle of peanut butter.

 

I actually have a similar problem with Amir and Z reviews ironically enough, they both are convincing people to spend huge amounts of money on things that don't offer as good a experience as other products on the market that frequently cost less. I tend to put them in the same category mentally because of this.

In the case of Amir he is effectively telling people to do things like drop 500 bucks on a Topping A90 to get THE OBJECTIVE BEST EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE when according to his ideology the $99 Schiit Magni (3+ or the Heresy!, 3+ measures "good enough" and wont offer a significantly different experience (assuming you dont need xlr to eliminate ground loops and are not using something like a HE6 which requires stupid levels of power).

I realize he is not directly telling people to buy a Topping A90 etc, but they top his charts and you know people are going to go for the things that top the charts because people want the best for their money and that is what his charts (and his reviews) say. If he spent his time arguing that you should just buy a Magni/Modi and be happy forever I really wouldnt have as many complaints as I can really truly appreciate that perspective and that is consistent with the ideas he propagates. It also is the advice I give to my friends who want better sound but arent really interested in getting deep into this hobby, of course I tell them there is better out there but its a lot more money and they arent interested in spending that much.

Z Reviews on the other hand keeps pushing products that simply arent going to offer most people as good of a experience as others because he reviews most everything in a vacuum.I can appreciate the desire to judge things on their own merits rather than comparing them to other things out there but that is just not reality. The reality is these products do not exist in a vacuum and many of them simply do not offer as good of an experience as others.

I could for instance write a review of a Voodoo 3 graphics card here in 2021 only using it to play Doom and rave about what a amazing experience I had and that this ran Doom so f'ing great, got this thing used for 10 dollars and its giving me the best Doom experience I ever had and everyone should go out and get one of these f'ing amazing Voodoo cards before they are all sold out! That would be a insane review to make, but that is what considering a product in a vacuum gets you.

The one that really get me is his hyping of the Linsoul products. The current hype train is the Gold Planar GL2000 and before that it was BLONs shit and the Thiel Audio Phantom. Most of them are not terrible products but they are overpriced for their performance and you can get better for less money from one of the big brands. Not only that because they are not established brands its a total crapshoot as to what you will actually get when you buy one. THe QC is questionable and nearly every thread on every forum related to Linsouls products is full of people getting different products than was advertised. Sometimes they get different earpads, sometimes different carrying cases (sometimes none when promised one), different cables including some with totally different kinds of connectors, its all over the place. Hyping their products without giving any kind of disclaimer is irresponsible of someone who is taking money from people to give them audio advice. The hype is so strong most of them seem okay with this but I would be pissed if I bought a product and was given something totally different.

Sorry to rant off topic, but I just think the state of audio reviews in general is absolute shit, youtube is full of overly hypey reviews, ASR dominates reddit now and amazon is full of useless and probably paid for reviews. This is why I spend most of my time here on SBAF now as it is sort of a last bastion of (mostly) sanity.

 

It's so mind boggling stupid that those YouTube people follow each and every (Zeos) hype train. Like they're more in it as a following and for their entertainment, to circle-jerk and pat each other's back; than to actually listen to the gear.

 

There is no comparison between Z and Amir. What Z is recommending and whether we agree with his "method" of reviewing the gear, is beside the point. Z is not pretending. Anyone can see that Z is running a profitable Youtube channel and people can judge for themselves. If they cannot that's their problem. I am sick and tired of innocents "harmed" by this or that incompetent review. They should try to be less innocent.

But Amir is pretending to use a "scientific" method to potentially distort the audio experience of many people, irrespective if they follow his specific recommendations. He is telling them they do not need to bother listening to different gear if it measures the same. Listening generally is time consuming useless activity in the evaluation and enjoyment of audio.
Amir's claims to science are fraud, as he unable to correlate his graphs with reality, which is listening and hearing, because he denies that reality has any significance.
And In this age of ignorance, anyone who can output some graphs from an oscilloscope is doing "science". By that criteria a guy who is using a measuring tape to check if his ladder is long enough to reach the second floor is a scientist.

Example of how reliable is ASR "methodology": years ago I read his review of I think Topping E30, and how wonderful it measured and in the discussion someone mentioned Bryston BDA-2 measurements that essentially looked the same. And they concluded, collectively, that this $150DAC would be a good replacement in any system for BDA-2.
I had both of them at home, I bought E30 in the US for my friend so when he visited we spent 15 mins checking some basics.
With no music playing my Totem speakers where entirely silent with BDA-2 in the chain, with E30 there was significant background noise. Then we compared soundstage and instrument separation listening to not very complex string quartet. That's it. E30 blurry image versus BDA-2 pinpoint accuracy. The differences were obvious to both of us.
But ASR disciples, they could not figure it out, they simply did not think it matters. That's how screwed up they are.
Can we call them ASRals?

 

I suggest "Little Johns" since they are Robin Hood's sidekicks.

All joking aside, he originally positioned himself as a modern day Robin Hood that is "stealing" from the rich by exposing their audio conspiracy, and giving to the poor by enabling them to experience audio ecstasy for $99.

The whole house of cards should have fallen when he started pimping out $500+ gear that measured marginally better than the $99 gear and, by his definition, sounded exactly the same. But the Little Johns have been groomed well and are not only willing to pay BUT are also viciously attacking anyone who dares to even question their beliefs. This small group within the ASR is starting to exhibit certain signs of cult-like behaviour.

Here are some features of a cult discussed in an excerpt that I borrowed from the Guardian:

" 1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

2. A process of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called "brainwashing"]. The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of the group and its leader.

3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie."

 

Lol, so true! As is the rest of your post.

 

Terminology quibble. When doing science, it is important to communicate with a consistent, shared, and properly documented jargon so that other practitioners who might want to replicate the work can understand precisely the phenomena being described. What you meant by the words in bold should be expressed in the terms used by the science people:



Please be more careful and rigorous in future.

 

The answer is for someone with a bit of knowledge in electrical engineering and audio applications, as well as copious free time, to buy an APx555 analyzer and get to work on reproducing ASR results. Reproducibility of experiments is the heart of scientific endeavor. And, for example, hiss from a device with “perfect” measurements suggests something wrong in the experimental procedure.

 

That the biggest joke about it, Did they ever test the HD600 before saying you need 5 ~ 12db bass boost?. Or it another example of there test subjects assuming more distortion as added warmth?.

 

I actually don't mind ASR.

I see them as kind of the Anti-Headfi.

Headfi fraudulently shills everything, ASR fraudulently trashes nearly everything.

Headfi worships at the altar of Price. $1000 DAC = good. $5000 DAC = better. $25,000 DAC with tubes = God-tier. This is the kind of shit that is ruining the hobby in my opinion.

As if music has infinite detail which can be slowly revealed as you sacrifice more and more money.

ASR is kind of the opposite. Get your $150 Topping and you are set for life

I find Amir's headphone reviews more useful that most headphone reviews on Headfi.

So I think the ASR dislike here is overdone. Amir despite all his faults is a breath of fresh air compared to the decade long shill fest that's been going on at Head-Fi.

 

pick a flavor - bull shit or horse shit

 

There's no fresh air there at all - he's doing the same as the 'objectivists' in the rec.audio.* Usenet newsgroups did 25-30 years ago, just with a higher-precision instrument.

Dunno if people remember those times, but it was all about how if FR and distortion were the same within audible limits (half a dB or so), there was no way that amplifiers, let alone CD players, could sound different - and all purported audible differences had to be proven by blind ABX testing.

 

Even if disregarding what Biodegraded says, one wrong does not fix the other. This is like calling r/headphones impartial because they have measurement obsessives and "I've heard one headphone and it is the best" me-toos.

 

You had me at the first part but lost me near the middle. Topping set for life; that's a good thing?

 

I just still keep coming back to the idea that if ASR followed its own set of rules about transparency in audio and everything sounding exactly the same, they ought to just cease their activities and say: "Well, that's it for us...an audiophile can get absolute transparency and all the power required for any headphones in a $199 set of devices. Thank you for all of your attention over the last few years and enjoy your music."

 

No both are wrong but ASR is the lesser evil imho.