Audio Research review by notorious JVS

[windansea]

Stereophile has a review of new Audio Research monoblocks. The company just got rescued out of bankruptcy after the previous owner apparently bought it with too much debt.
The review is by JVS, so it's full of glowing superlatives and parroting of whatever the company suggests to him. Of all the reviewers at Stereophile, JVS is the most uncritical one who most pushes me over to ASR. Stereophile assigns him the most expensive equipment and then JVS just gushes and gushes.

What caught my eye is that there are no user comments allowed anymore. No idea why. Maybe they got tired of policing the comments. But it always seemed like the JVS reviews got the most controversies, with readers finding fault with JVS. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Dustyc]

Well, they did test them.
Better than TAS "subjective" pablum.

 

[JSmith]

no user comments allowed anymore.

I think that happened a while back, earlier in the year.

JVS is the most uncritical one who most pushes me over to ASR. Stereophile assigns him the most expensive equipment and then JVS just gushes and gushes.

Yeah, I can't read that part... I skipped straight to the measurements by @John Atkinson, which are nothing stellar;

Audio Research Reference 330M monoblock power amplifier Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar Measurements I performed a complete set of measurements on one of the Audio Research Reference 330M amplifiers (serial number 056438) with my Audio Precision SYS2722. The amplifier preserved absolute polarity, ie, was noninverting, with the balanced input and the 8 ohm and 4 ohm output...

www.stereophile.com

JSmith

 

[Everett T]

I think that happened a while back, earlier in the year.

Yeah, I can't read that part... I skipped straight to the measurements by @John Atkinson, which are nothing stellar;

Audio Research Reference 330M monoblock power amplifier Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar Measurements I performed a complete set of measurements on one of the Audio Research Reference 330M amplifiers (serial number 056438) with my Audio Precision SYS2722. The amplifier preserved absolute polarity, ie, was noninverting, with the balanced input and the 8 ohm and 4 ohm output...

www.stereophile.com

JSmith

Yikes, for the money.

 

[kemmler3D]

Yikes, for the money.

Yeah... looks cool and performance could be worse, but for $45K/ch, I'd want actual measurements to back up JVS' assertions of:

Larger images, a mind-blowingly stronger/firmer bass foundation, greater color saturation and transparency, spot-on timbres (from an upfront perspective, where colors are at their most intense), and more clarity, air, and depth.

Certainly that's not coming out in the basic distortion plots. For that kind of money you could do a deep dive and back up the nuanced subjective stuff with numbers. Or not, cuz it's just a mid-tier 330w amp.

 

[Everett T]

Yeah... looks cool and performance could be worse, but for $45K/ch, I'd want actual measurements to back up JVS' assertions of:



Certainly that's not coming out in the basic distortion plots. For that kind of money you could do a deep dive and back up the nuanced subjective stuff with numbers. Or not, cuz it's just a mid-tier 330w amp.

I just wanna know if they're laughing when they type the nonsense

 

[Purité Audio]

They are ‘supporting’ the industry and themselves its a symbiotic or is it parasitic relationship.
It’s a comic, they just need cartoons.
Keith

 

[Bland_username42069]

Disappointing that Amir doesn’t measure “color saturation”

 

[TheKoC]

Disappointing that Amir doesn’t measure “color saturation”

Maybe they come with an 85 Inch Oled TV? At this price, they should

 

[jeffbook]

Selling this level of measured performance for that amount of money is highway robbery.....

 

[DSJR]

Disappointing that Amir doesn’t measure “color saturation”

It's eye-fi guv'nor, don't forget that

 

[windansea]

They are ‘supporting’ the industry and themselves its a symbiotic or is it parasitic relationship.
It’s a comic, they just need cartoons.
Keith

In this case in particular, I suspect that JVS was selected for the gushing hype since Audio Research is coming out of bankruptcy and Stereophile felt that the old stalwart needed a helping hand so it didn't die like Krell. Looks like MBL just went bankrupt and Shindo closed its doors so the economics at the "high end" are not adding up (or maybe it was never such a great business model to begin with-- although Pass Labs seems to be doing just fine with its "Porsche" approach). Ncore is to the amp world what Amazon is to the retail world.

If any of you remember Art Dudley, his reviews were fun to read even if they weren't tethered to reality. With JVS it's just one cliche after another:
The sound was so colorful, rich, and effortless—the images so convincing in size, weight, and timbre—that I felt my eyes open wide in amazement.
Whenever I heard the 330Ms playing "show tracks" I thought I knew inside out, I sat amazed at how much better and more involv-ing they sounded. Larger images, a mind-blowingly stronger/firmer bass foundation, greater color saturation and transparency, spot-on timbres (from an upfront perspective, where colors are at their most intense), and more clarity, air, and depth.
Time and time again, I left my music room so stunned by what I had heard that I kept consulting my schedule to figure out how soon I would be able to return to listen one more time. I could not get enough of the sound that these amps consistently and reliably delivered with ease.

LOL: "The 330M's wiring is a carefully chosen mix of different proprietary products, each of which sounds best in a different place."

LOL: "Again, every timbre was spot on, conveyed with attention-seizing clarity. I strive at all costs to avoid parroting a manufacturer's claims about their product. Yet there I was,..."

and in conclusion:
"You won't have to look hard to find other head-over-heels reviews of amplifiers that cost far less (or far more) than the Audio Research 330M. For all I know, some of those amplifiers may even measure better."

 

[Bland_username42069]

The think I liked about Art Dudley was that nothing ever quite compared to his Ken Shindo tube amp. Even when he was forced to concede that something was clearly better he still a found a back door such as lacking the “timbrel verisimilitude” of his Shindo.

 

[krabapple]

Serinus has long been the most ridiculous of that ridiculous crew.