Audiogon thread critical of ASR

[sam_adams]

The Red Pill is large and uncomfortable... and a suppository.

It's always butt stuff . . .

 

[coonmanx]

I think that the real question is if Scroedinger's cat is inside the speaker wire... will it then go to the woofer or the tweeter...

Or can it go to both at the same time...

 

[DMill]

The problem with Audiogon is they started out as the eBay for audio gear. Problem is we already have eBay. Theres probably a few good deals to be had but for the most part everyone there overvalues their gear. It gets to the root of why they don’t like this site. It’s hard to hear your 20 year old B&Ws and $4000 DAC pretty much sucks or at least has been bettered by modern offerings at a fraction of the price. I read through 5 minutes of their post, seems like about 1/2 appreciate ASRs views so they aren’t all bad. A lot of Amir cult BS. I have no problem thanking Amir for a review in a thread or anyone else testing a piece of gear. The guy took the time to measure something without getting paid. That’s not a cult. It’s just being a decent person to say thanks for letting me be a little smarter.

 

[fpitas]

Depend how it is constructed. Silver wire is cleaner sound than copper with similar build. It leave very little sound tail. My cables are all silver coated, shielded, thin teflon insulation.

Came here for this stuff. Not disappointed.

 

[Astrozombie]

It was only a matter of time

 

[syn08]

I’m late at this party, but can‘t stop wondering: who gives a flying fcuck? Do we really need to scour the internet and get defensive each time (an) idiot(s) (native, or with an agenda) feel(s) an urge to showcase his (their) ignorance? Is this community that insecure?

 

[fpitas]

I’m late at this party, but can‘t stop wondering: who gives a flying fcuck? Do we really need to scour the internet and get defensive each time (an) idiot(s) (native, or with an agenda) feel(s) an urge to showcase his (their) ignorance? Is this community that insecure?

But they called us miscreants. Miscreants! I'm mortified...

 

[DMill]

If you see something for sale under DMill on Audiogon it’s probably me. Should read something like, “Box of high end various cables, both speaker and interconnects, mostly Audioquest but am sure there is a 6 ft pair of Kimber 4 biwired in there, too. And something with silver on it, I think it was Transparent but I forget the brand. At least 4 or 5 pairs of interconnects of various lengths. At least one is guaranteed to be genuine Monster Cable for all you old school audiophiles. An AudioQuest Dragonfly and Beetle. Plus 90 HDMI cords I thought weren’t good enough. I paid at least a few thousand for the bin. They are worth their price at a scrap yard, but can be yours for $2k. (Pics will cost you and extra $500, I’m very busy.) The veils will be lifted.

 

[DonR]

It's always butt stuff . . .

yes... yes it is.

 

[mhardy6647]

I don't know about you but I simply hate sound tail.

According to the Audiogon OP, ASR consists of a “horrible group of miscreants,” so HGM might work as a new name.

I mean... we could bring back basket of deplorables.
(is it too soon?)

But they called us miscreants. Miscreants! I'm mortified...

 

[Dunring]

I went there a few times and it took my breath away how much stuff costs. They had a turntable that costs more than my SUV. I think snobs who overpay for things are just lashing out at anyone who measures things in the real world. I'm listening to a Topping D10b and Topping A90 amplifier (spent $380 total with shipping for both) and would put it up against most of what they have there in a blind listening test. The Hifiman Arya sounds amazing, also the Beyerdynamic T90 is really sounding good on it too, might keep that for a daily driver. The point is, those are people who grossly overpaid for technology that hasn't aged gracefully when it comes to measurements.

 

[HorizonsEdge]

Why is anyone surprised by the vitriol?
Anti-science is gaining ground. Bizarre belief systems are becoming more wide spread. The art of constructive debate has been eroding for years.
It is depressing!

 

[MattHooper]

I'm an audiogon forum member. There is a usual cadre of anti-measurement/golden ears there who will mock "objectivists." Then of course a span of folks less vituperative who just don't pay too much attention to ASR or who admire some of what ASR does. Then there's a handful of us who dare to challenge the usual audiophile tropes/tweaks etc...and we get called names a lot by the golden ears Good to have a thick skin.

 

[JSmith]

JSmith

 

[RayDunzl]

We really need member T-shirts with 'A Horrible Group Of Miscreants' or some other tagline

You can order some of these if you like...

 

[Killingbeans]

Anti-science is gaining ground. Bizarre belief systems are becoming more wide spread. The art of constructive debate has been eroding for years.
It is depressing!

It is depressing. But it's also a part of the human condition. Crap like that has been hitting us in waves throughout the entire history of critical thinking.

I think I saw someone in the thread saying that ASR doesn't "respect alternative facts". I don't really know how to unwrap that one.

If you jump from a plane with no parachute because you believe in "alternative gravity", it probably isn't going to end well for you.

The difference with this hobby being that the placebo effect is a huge net ready to catch you at the ground.

If that's your thing, fine by me. Just don't come and try to convince me that the net can be classified as a parachute, or that it circumvents gravity.

 

[Axo1989]

If you jump from a plane with no parachute because you believe in "alternative gravity", it probably isn't going to end well for you.

This metastudy never gets old:

Results: We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

Conclusions: As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.

 

[DSJR]

Someone posted in a forum here with some nonsense about shaving CDs, destat'ing CDs, and the magical properties of certain well known and thoroughly discredited cable manufacturers, and then got called out on his nonsense by some of the membership here who don't suffer fools lightly. The posts got deleted. The user got banned.

The user then sought to vent their spleen on another forum where like-minded individual's comments act as a soothing balm to their bruised ego. They now feel better—or not. They continue to harbor feelings of ill will towards an entire group of individuals whose reality doesn't align with their's and cultivate their misguided views with others who share the same perceptions.

Do we have to defend what's said and done here? I think not. Reality is sometimes a tough pill to swallow and is obviously not for everyone.

Happened with a UK based bod with an M-Scaler, plus a couple of other tweaks he swears improved his sound at home.


Here, I have a Marantz based CD player tweaked and re-styled by Micro Seiki at great weight and expense in the late 80's and then costing £2800 in the UK. it came as something of an epiphany when used via the transformer coupled balanced outputs M-S added, but I now realise that this could be added bass distortion as well as a beneficial post 20kHz filtering possibly as the audiophile-desired TDA1541 and filter chip could be a little 'dirty over 50k..... I'm quite happy to accept an E30 dac would clearly out-perform it in d-a terms, but I do like the hewn-from-solid build of these old late 80's players and shall continue to use it as long as I can (not that I get much chance to play CD's these days)!

 

[SKBubba]

"nothing different from the communist countries."

OK, then.

 

[BDWoody]

"nothing different from the communist countries."

OK, then.

Back to our regularly scheduled pogrom.