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Why aren't there more honest and objective reviewers like ASR and Amir?

Jimbob54

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I'd like to spend a year not thinking of upgrading. I'd spend $500 on IPA and chocolate, my other cognitive enhancers are free. Maybe some Wicked Pies. I like this sound from this gear enough right now that I really want to get used to it.
No, I'm keeping the 500. Ipa and gin for me
 

Robin L

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Out of alignment indeed.

Well, if you insist on using Stevenson, you can't be my friend.

I only pal around with Baerwald or DIN users in my party.

Everybody else is Chaotic Neutral to me.
PS: When I was slinging vinyl, I was a Stevenson man, just so we understand, ok?
 

watchnerd

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Listen, I admire and respect brands like Topping and SMSL, but calling their aesthetic sensibilities amateurish is a too much of compliment. How many different tacky fonts are there on a tiny Topping DAC? I really don't understand why they have not put much effort on this front as their brand recognition and respect rise. They could certainly be charging a bit more now if they had.

I hate to say it, but Schiit does better fonts.
 

North_Sky

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Because audio manufacturers will not send or loan their equipment to an objective reviewer. Someone like Amir, or Archimago or Peter Aczel before him are rare because they will tell people that a piece of equipment is just junk. I remember the last time that happened someone at Stereophile panned a solid state piece of equipment made by Conrad Johnson (branded under another name) and CJ refused to send anything to a Stereophile reviewer for years after that, so bad reviews are a no go in formerly underground audiophile magazines like TAS and Stereophile because they depend on those manufacturers for equipment loans and advertising revenue--in short for their very existence.

By contrast the three reviewers I mentioned earlier take no advertising and their equipment loans come (or came in the case of Aczel for the most part) from the audiophiles themselves. This allows them to be objective and at times brutally honest in their critiques.

These are unique people, exceptional people, aiming straight and high above where the air is cleaner, the silence fresher, the vision undistorted.
 

watchnerd

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These are unique people, exceptional people, aiming straight and high above where the air is cleaner, the silence fresher, the vision undistorted.

I don't if it's moral superiority so much as lack of conflict of interest.

Everyone mentioned as being "good" doesn't rely on audio reviews for a paycheck.
 

Robin L

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I won't fault you for the ignorance of past eras.
The SME III was infinitely adjustable in all directions, none produced satisfaction.

 

CDMC

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I'd have been more worried about what the meatballs were made from rather than where. #mylovelyhorse

I love hot dogs, even the ones from 7-11. I won't touch the ones at Ikea, they are disgusting.
 
OP
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noiseangel

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So people ate all that horse for years (PS Audio) believing they were getting beef {Topping). No one knew because the label (Stereo***au, Stereophi**) said beef so that's what they thought they were eating because these peoples very existence relied on the fact that they continue to tell everyone that everything they tested was top quality beef. Then some smart ass does a DNA test on the meatballs (Amir) and holy crap batman the label should actually say "May contain traces of nuts seeds and horse." Now I want my money back, thats disgusting and totally dishonest. The horse meat peddler had his own DNA testing equipment but either failed to use it or recognised he was getting horse from Romania but said nothing.

So easily influenced people with too much money and huge egos (gullible removed) continue to buy horse, even after the DNA test says it's horse and attack the guy that did the test. These reviewers get to buy or get for free rooms full of horse meat for a year, sell it and then get more horse meat from the slaughterhouse (Harmon for example). The reviewers are so old their taste buds could not possibly discern the difference between horse and beef anyway.

Good example here is one of the horse meat manufacturers doing a YouTube video on fuses, varying grades of horse at different prices. People bought more horse meat from him.

It's all about lying to stay alive, much like politicians I guess. But we know politicians lie. Lucky for us the DNA testers are here. I don't think there is anything wrong with selling horse meat but for god sake be honest about it. Dont package it as beef and then get caught out and say you are tasting things in your beef never tasted before when in fact its still just tainted horse meat.

EDIT. I have removed the word gullible form the second paragraph out of respect to the gullible people and replaced it with the correct phrase
 
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Robin L

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watchnerd

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So gullible people continue to buy horse, even after the DNA test says it's horse and attack the guy that did the test. These reviewers get to buy or get for free rooms full of horse meat for a year, sell it and then get more horse meat from the slaughterhouse (Harmon for example)

I wouldn't say that all those buyers are gullible, per se.

They just weigh their subjective experience higher than data.

And given that placebo effects are genuine, I would expect this phenomenon to continue into the future, just as it does for other luxury goods, like wine.
 

orangejello

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... It is the same reason people purchase a Bentley, Rolex, Brioni suits, and Tiffany. They aren't interested in the best quality, they aren't interested in the best performance, they aren't interested in value, they are interested in the story and prestige and will rationalize a multitude of reasons for their purchase rather than admit the truth, i.e. I bought it because I like it, it makes me feel good, it impresses others.
Leave Italian suits out of this :). If you have to be in a suit 12 hours a day you may not know it, but you want to be in one of those. They feel like wearing pajamas all day except that you also look fabulous.
 

watchnerd

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Leave Italian suits out of this :). If you have to be in a suit 12 hours a day you may not know it, but you want to be in one of those. They feel like wearing pajamas all day except that you also look fabulous.

Meh....that's any well-tailored suit made of top drawer fabric.

It doesn't have to be Italian.

Saville Row does just fine, too.

My best suits don't have an off-the-rack brand tag anyone would recognize. They're custom made for me by my tailor from the ground up.
 

raif71

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Disclaimer - I have never heard any PS audio DAC.

I think the simple answer is PS audio dont build them to measure well and neither do their customers care.

Their whole schtick and therefore justification for price is the story about how they get to the end result and that measurements arent the full story.

Now, that would be all fair and good, not what many ASR folks would view as a good approach for building or buying a DAC, but all well and good . IF IT SOUNDED DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER DAC. I am not aware of any properly conducted test where anyone has been able to determine a difference between their DACs or any other properly functioning unit when level matched and blind.

So , their customers are happy because they believe it does its job exceptionally well (it must do, their music sounds great and they paid $000 for it) and their brains tell them its the DAC doing its magic. We take a bit of guilty pleasure in knowing they overpaid for what is viewed here as "poor" performance.

I'm also pretty sure PS audio know exactly how their DACs measure both during the design process and on release. Schiit are living proof that manufs that make terribly measuring DACs can also build very accurate ones when that is what they choose to do. PS audio have clearly not felt that need. I am sure they could- but that would be a little upsetting for their target market.

I like your view on all of this. I'm quite sure the majority of ps audio's customers do find that they are enjoying good music from whatever gear they get from ps audio. Not for us to decide whether it's good or bad for them or ps audio. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that ps audio do start with a sound system but perhaps along the way to production they tweaked it afterwards to have a certain sound hence compromised some measurements but hey if some people like it, who are we to judge ...
 
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