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ASR Annual Awards

ex audiophile

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I think we need ASR annual awards. Not the typical "Best Amplifier" stuff you see in the mags but awards that are of actual use to folks looking to buy. For example, "Best UI in a Streamer", "Most Transformative Component" (I would lobby for the STR preamp), "Best Engineered DAC", "Most Promising New Technology", "Best Speakers for Small Spaces" etc. And of course fun stuff like "Most Outrageous Snake Oil Product". Membership would create categories and vote on candidates. Amir would of course have to oversee this feline roundup o_O. We could lobby for candidates and get into some good scraps I imagine. Oh, and how about "Most Obnoxious YouTube Video"! A couple thousand come to mind, lol.
 
OP
E

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Amir doesn't shy away from controversy, in fact he makes his own videos! ASR Annual Awards could be the first to be based on actual competence rather than manufacturers' contributions.
 

changster

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I think for audio stuff whether it be amps of speakers etc, you shouldn't use a 1 year product cycle to judge. It's too short of a cycle. It's not an iPhone where every year things can make great leaps. A running list of top gear/categories would be a much better fit.
 
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I think for audio stuff whether it be amps of speakers etc, you shouldn't use a 1 year product cycle to judge. It's too short of a cycle. It's not an iPhone where every year things can make great leaps. A running list of top gear/categories would be a much better fit.
Good point, I'm just thinking that an ASR award would rapidly become a sought after acknowledgement of excellence and might persuade more manufacturers to focus on engineering achievement rather than assume a rubber stamp award from magazine reviewers. For example in the field of AVRs which overall have disappointing performance, misleading specs etc.
I'm sure @amirm doesn't need any more projects but he could always assign an Awards Committee :)
 

Colonel7

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I used to think awards made sense a couple years ago but no longer. Not too difficult to imagine, but let's say the PA5 was given an award in January or Feb of this year for best of 2021 because it was reviewed at the end of November 2021. Would need an awful large towel to wipe the amount of egg on face from that one. Let members educate themselves on the measurements (or lack of) and discussions about design, reliability, etc
 
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Keened

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Or...we could just have a Wiki that has an embedded table of reviews for each category.

But if we do end up having a committee I will take on the burden of having people ship me the best of the best for subjective ranking :)
 

Katji

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"Best" "Best" "Best"
subjective, opinion.
Wrong direction.
We have long threads like that. Long lists of individual impressions and so on. I sometimes feel like asking the OP like "So are you going to count and average, or what?"
 

Loathecliff

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But if we do end up having a committee I will take on the burden of having people ship me the best of the best for subjective ranking :)
That's the dynamic thinking required.
You are the man to head the steering committee. (I love steering committees).
Could you handle having the veto?
I know it's a big ask... burden of office; weight of responsibility... Somebody has to do it.
Centralised control is vital...... Oh damn! My Oxometer has gone dead
 

clearnfc

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How do you even determined what is best in the first place?? No doubt its easy to pick something and call it best but thats an entirely subjectively evaluation based on what the person's opinions. For certain factors like price, it is impossible to determine what is consider cheap, good value or expensive objectively. Different pple have different perception of cheap or expensive and they are all correct .

Speakers themselves are even more difficult to determine since the audio characteristics do vary between brands (some call it house sound).

So the best thing to do (my own subjective opinion) is to jist have a ranking based on certain factors. Eg SINAD for amps. Readers would choose which one they prefer.
 

Katji

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:-s Another one today. Headphones as usual. "but I don't know which one to buy, the [x] or the [y] I have read in forums that..."
smfh
Fxck democracy, fxck voting. People should just be told, whatever.
 

JeffS7444

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Although simple rankings by SINAD can't tell you whether the features, ergonomics, price and appearance of a product are an ideal match for a particular situation, it avoids the cult of the Audio Guru.
 

JeffS7444

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I think we need ASR annual awards. Not the typical "Best Amplifier" stuff you see in the mags but awards that are of actual use to folks looking to buy. For example, "Best UI in a Streamer", "Most Transformative Component" (I would lobby for the STR preamp), "Best Engineered DAC", "Most Promising New Technology", "Best Speakers for Small Spaces" etc. And of course fun stuff like "Most Outrageous Snake Oil Product". Membership would create categories and vote on candidates. Amir would of course have to oversee this feline roundup o_O. We could lobby for candidates and get into some good scraps I imagine. Oh, and how about "Most Obnoxious YouTube Video"! A couple thousand come to mind, lol.
In other words, subjective reviews :p
 

Keened

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So the best thing to do (my own subjective opinion) is to jist have a ranking based on certain factors. Eg SINAD for amps. Readers would choose which one they prefer.

Top 5 <X> (IMD, Linearity, etc) at $10, $50, $100, $500, $1000, etc

But what we're really doing is merology here; so if we want broad cross-domain validity we need to understand how the domains relate to each other generally.

What are the things that technically define a component?
How do these things externally present or interface with the next temporal sequenced thing?
Then run the whole thing backwards for path optimization and test if there is measurable improvement relative to previous models/standards/methods.

How is digital or analog information encoded?
What does a source need to do to generate a digital/analog signal from digital/analog encoding?
What does a DAC need to do in translating digital encoded information into analog encoded information? (Digital clipping, etc)
What does a DAC or component source need to do to create and manage an analog signal?
etc.

Then you get into the ends of the chain with physio/psycho-acoustics, general user interface and design, part longevity/maintenance, aesthetics in function or form (which are heavily influenced by broad socio-economic trends and purely idiosyncratic situational needs), etc

The full scope of ASR is huuuuge. But we can get a good enough model for most people without having to go to that length (or at least offsetting some of the computation to the end user).

What do people mostly hear?
What mostly bothers people?
What mostly pleases people?
How can we find measurable targets the correspond to these?
How can we make what they hear mostly the latter and not the former?
What parts or designs lend themselves to generating the good and suppressing (or at least not exacerbating) the bad?
Which products use these designs and parts AND which products correspond to the measurable targets?
How much are they? What is their availability? What is it like to own and maintain one?

If we can answer those questions the top 5 for whatever category you choose should be sufficient for almost anyone. If you list the top 50 people should be able to figure it out for themselves if the data is accessible and sortable.
 

VMAT4

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Who should be awarding these awards? Isn't Amir busy enough? If not Amir, then who? We should have respect for the man that hosts us all.
 
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