What an odd posting on Massdrop..
First off, made by someone who you would think did his research, but makes a massive blunder about Amir's credentials when they're all bare for anyone to take a look at.
Second, the link he gives to SABF.. is possibly the worst place on the planet in terms of audioclowns. Even me with a rudimentary understanding of most of this stuff, I've managed to find these retards slipping about. They remind me of some pseudo SJW's (as opposed to actual social justice warriors that do work in fields like human/civil rights). They want to call bs on some measurements, when if that were the case, the company in question would be going after Amir instantly for slandering potentially. So just like idiots today who feel offended on behalf of Jews(when for example a vegan says what the animal agriculture is engaged in today is a literal Holocaust) because their ancestors suffered the Holocaust, these people want to suffer something for Schiit, when Schiit themselves see no error.
Also, this place is riddled with mentally deranged people who think good performance metrics can be faked. The same sort of people who think the THX 789 and Atom are pointless and sterile devices.
So just going by natural human bias (in the same way you would think of people who you might observe to eat shit daily, safe to say you wouldn't want to have dinner with them), I tend to have a bias against listening to what people like the "purr1n" guy on SABF says. These people simply failed far too many litmus tests of rationality and sanity to ever be taken seriously (even if indeed they ever made good points in the future, there comes a time when you stop giving people chances especially if they don't rescind every single thing they've said in the past).
Third, Amir, like any other person has his quirks. He sometimes does stuff that doesn't make sense to me (sometimes because I have no idea of the technical nature because it's something that requires an actual education in the electrical field for example) and sometimes he just does, or says things that don't actually make sense due to typo's or not understanding the gist of something or the contexts around it.
The point being.. who cares? He could be a secret racist for all that matters to me, it has zero impact in the educational and revealing nature of the work he engages. I could think he's dumb for thinking a certain way or whatever, but what does that have anything to do with the content he's provided here (and the reviews + measurements of gear)?
See folks, this is my main problem with audiophool nonsense. And posts like the one on Massdrop (even though the second link leads to a dead-end link).. These people will hark on a person for supposedly starting a cult. A cult of what..? Objectivists? How is this bad exactly?
I see this same idiotic non-critical thinking nonsense in religious vs atheist circles. You tell religious folks you're just not convinced God exists, and you have science the ever progressing handed-down method of attempts at better understanding our world. NOPE, they say because you don't know the Big Bang's actual nature, while they do (that being God, which doesn't actually teach us anything, it only further compounds the issue by presenting us with a bigger problem of understanding a more complex thing like God).
So here's the kicker, so lets say we say fuck-off to doing things scientifically as we cultists here prefer. What's the alternative? Belief in non-evidenced based claims? Are these people LITERALLY retarded? How many times must it be demonstrated to these people that their way of doing things doesn't actually make sense from a critical thinking perspective? Then you'll get the apologetic reasoning "oh but we say just go by your ear, we're not telling you what to believe, just listen to your emotions" and wishy washy nonsense like that.. Except if you give them an inch, they take a mile by then having this sort of mentality leak into scientific deliberations, and before you know it, they'll be making claims like that one stupid fuck (I forget his name, but said he can hear down to -300 db or some such other nonsense, Amir would know his name if he reads this).
And no matter how many times you tell them: "it's okay, you believe whatever you want, that's fine, just don't bleed your nonsense into fields you have no place in, nor do you believe in the basic concepts that science has established, and even the products you use are now based on the total opposite behavior that you now engage in". That's when they get pissed, and start these sorts of threads about the "ASR cult" or whatever such idiotic declaratory statements.
So, in conclusion, even if Amir has some problems, or inconsistencies that random people on the internet might perceive (like ever other normal person on the planet who has their own quirks), why would that even matter? It's like saying "Because Newton actually (and he did) had more writings about religion, that we should disregard all of his scientific contributions". Absolutely ridiculous...
And also, the fact that they attempt to attack the person, and not the science itself (because the half-sensible among them know they get shot down constantly when they battle in that arena), is telling of desperate grasps at straws.
The ONLY portion of the linked Massdrop thread that makes sense was about "getting a second or third opinion" on things. Nothing inherently wrong about skepticism there. The only problem being.. the irony of the second or third opinion those folks would actually need from a neurologist, psychologist, and psychiatrist in all other matters.
(Sorry about the long post folks, I really get fired up when I see links like that, and all I think about is some noob who is emotionally swayed by it, who knows no better, and is led down another direction where voodoo runs rampant. I was almost there when I got into audio, and only stumbled by here accidentally, as I assumed audio was just like computers for example, where benchmarks and validation ran supreme, and not people 'feels').