Paul McGowan throws in the towel (Not really but it’s movement in the right direction)

[Gorgonzola]

In my observation on certain, longstanding audiophile sites, equipment that measures well is gaining increasing traction. There is an admission that Purifi and Hypex amps, (for instance), are delivering more clarity, transparency, and crisper dynamics that those users have heard from much more expensive, amps of audiophile mystique -- and they are enjoyed more than the latter on that account.

It may be indictive of a gradual move away from audiophile users' preference for "euphonic" above "accurate" performance. However I can assure you there are plenty of holdouts for "euphonics".

 

[Tell]

Gah as always I get cancer from reading the comment section on Pauls videos! "Measurements sucks because you can't listen to graphs! I use my EARS to listen to music!", which means "I'm stupid so I don't understand measurements therefor they suck!".
Do these people think the same in every aspect of science? They don't understand the maths behind a globe earth, therefor the earth MUST be flat!

 

[Timcognito]

How many people come to ASR to analyze measurements and how many just for a thumbs up or down from Amir? One can measure, display them and say something is good when its not. There is a magazine that does that occasionally. Personally, I like the way that Soundstage does it with a table of the published next to retested specs that way one can see if they are high or low or even close, as well as the usual specs published or not.

 

[AdamG]

Title updated to be a little less clickbait…

 

[diddley]

ouch that must hurt

 

[kemmler3D]

If they're doing this, it's because they think it will help sales in some way. In the words of Dizzee Rascal, businesses "only move when the money's calling". Whether they're right or not, this seems like a sign that the pendulum is swinging back toward objectivity, at least a bit. Hard to imagine ASR isn't part of that. Congrats @amirm on giving that pendulum a good push!

 

[perceptionist]

Only partially. He only mentioned AP which links to only the equipments. I'll accept his unconditional surrender only if he publish speaker measurements as well.

 

[Martin]

Another win for ASR and objective measurements.

Martin

 

[Ron Texas]

Expensive electronics are a waste of money when relatively inexpensive stuff you can get today performs so well. As for measurements, how good does it have to be? A higher SINAD is evidence of better engineering, but it usually will not sound any different from something that measures 10 dB lower.

 

[JayGilb]

Whether they're right or not, this seems like a sign that the pendulum is swinging back toward objectivity, at least a bit.

Maybe lsb in a 64 bit word, but it's a start.

 

[voodooless]

A higher SINAD is evidence of better engineering, but it usually will not sound any different from something that measures 10 dB lower.

Paul said something similar, but obviously meant quite the opposite

 

[kemmler3D]

Maybe lsb in a 64 bit word, but it's a start.

If we take the pendulum analogy literally, the start implies the whole trajectory. A micrometer of movement is enough to know which way it's going.

Obviously real life isn't like that, but sticking to the facts seems to be increasingly popular, which is nice to see.

 

[akamatsu]

As far as I can tell, PS Audio doesn't appear to have any engineers employed. I'm not expecting much from these "tests." I don't expect the tests to be described well enough to be repeatable. Therefore, meaningless.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

As far as I can tell, PS Audio doesn't appear to have any engineers employed. I'm not expecting much from these "tests." I don't expect the tests to be described well enough to be repeatable. Therefore, meaningless.

They definitely employ engineers.

 

[akamatsu]

They definitely employ engineers.

Can you name one? I looked up one of their engineers and he isn't one. As an engineer, I wouldn't work for a company where a former retail sales rep qualifies as an engineer. Paul Mc. himself claims to be an engineer. He isn't one.

 

[kemmler3D]

Can you name one? I looked up one of their engineers and he isn't one. As an engineer, I wouldn't work for a company where a former retail sales rep qualifies as an engineer. Paul Mc. himself claims to be an engineer. He isn't one.

Even if they don't have engineers listed on LinkedIn or on staff at all, a lot of audio brands will work with contract engineers or even whole firms on a product-by-product basis. Employing skilled audio-focused EEs is expensive if you don't have a full product development pipeline 365 days a year. So even if you don't see any engineers on staff, it's still very likely that competent engineers touched their products at some point.

 

[ahofer]

If promises were dollar bills...

I suspect the released measurements will be reverse-engineered tests designed to show something on the instrument screen, whether it is or isn't relevant to the sound. Call me cynical.

I'm keeping this for future use:

 

[akamatsu]

Even if they don't have engineers listed on LinkedIn or on staff at all, a lot of audio brands will work with contract engineers or even whole firms on a product-by-product basis. Employing skilled audio-focused EEs is expensive if you don't have a full product development pipeline 365 days a year. So even if you don't see any engineers on staff, it's still very likely that competent engineers touched their products at some point.

As I said, I looked up one of their "engineers," and he isn't one. How many more of their "engineers" aren't engineers? So far, they are zero for two. That is two claimed engineers, zero real engineers. Paul Mc. once told me they employ about twenty engineers. I wonder if he was including the two fake engineers.

 

[ahofer]

As I said, I looked up one of their "engineers," and he isn't one. How many more of their "engineers" aren't engineers? So far, they are zero for two. That is two claimed engineers, zero real engineers. Paul Mc. once told me they employ about twenty engineers. I wonder if he was including the two fake engineers.

Isn't the speaker designer who participates on here an engineer? @Chris Brunhaver ?

 

[Doodski]

Paul is apparently sure to brag when it suits him and not brag when it doesn't suit him. So having a Audio Precision on hand will simply give him more talking points.