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I stopped buying any more phono equipment and will either put it all in storage or liquidate it over the coming months. I'm not exaggerating when I say that getting away from the phono rabbit hole will save me many thousands in coming years. I also stopped looking at Schiit's DAC offerings beyond the Modi 3. Before I stumbled onto ASR, I would have merrily bought into the multibit, multi-hundreds ($$) goofballery.
I don't think it's stopped me from purchasing anything per se. I've purchased everything already I think I'll want for quite a while.
But Amir's DAC reviews does re-enforce my attitude of not fussing over DACs - that in audible terms it's essentially a "solved" problem quite long ago and you really have to screw up to make a DAC audibly less accurate.
I was seriously considering buying an older used Vtl st-85 power amplifier that someone locally was selling around the time I found this site. I'm not sure why - I've never been one to argue that tubes are better than solid state - but, I've always wanted a high power tube amplifier. Numerous posting on the merits of dsp here led me away from the idea.
I also came close to purchasing an older pair of JB Labs(Focal) Utopia's that were listed on CAM. Research on ASR was one of the reasons I didn't buy them. Though, consideration for my wife's likely reaction to findingb 140lbs floorstanders in the family room certainly played a part. At the time I thought it was low risk move, as I could have easily sold them for as much, or more, than they were listed. I'm glad I didn't, as the economic effect of covid-19 would have seriously impacted the potential market for them.
I don’t think I'll ever buy anything from NAD again, unless I see it reviewed here. The NAD C 368 review was really a shocker. Shamefully bad performance.
There wasn't any particular thing that I was dissuaded from buying. Generally, this site made me realize that upgrading for upgrade sake is pointless. If I have something that is good enough for my needs, there's no point upgrading. Not for "more air and soundstage" and not for another 10 db of SINAD.
I stopped buying any more phono equipment and will either put it all in storage or liquidate it over the coming months. I'm not exaggerating when I say that getting away from the phono rabbit hole will save me many thousands in coming years.
Hmm...if you already have the stuff, how is getting rid of it going to save you $$$ My advice FWIW is to put everything in a box and store it. You never know when you want to unbox it and 'relive that ol' black magic!'
I haven't NOT bought anything from reading the reviews here. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them. But it could happen.
Sometimes I have a delayed reaction to reviews. Sometimes a review takes a while to bubble up through my subconscious. For instance, in 1977 Peter Aczel reviewed the Dual 721 and proclaimed it as 'Best for the money if you MUST have an automatic." I thought about it over the past 43 years and to test his advice recently bought/refurbished a Dual 704, the 721s little brother. Less cart that came with it, my expense was about $200.00 and some time it took to get rid of a ground hum. Now that it's working I can whole heartedly state, to paraphrase Peter, that it's best for the money if you MUST have a semi-automatic!'
Any Studio Monitor bookshelf speakers with badly engineered class-D implementation on the tweeter. Hissing in nearfield environment is a huge deal breaker to me, and as speaker reviews have shown, the monitors with Class A/B implementation on the tweeter have minimal to inaudible self hiss
I don’t think I'll ever buy anything from NAD again, unless I see it reviewed here. The NAD C 368 review was really a shocker. Shamefully bad performance.
Shame about that assertion about NAD. I have no experience of the C368 but the 325BEE amplifier sounds superb - it's not expensive - and has incredible vice like bass grip (hi-end bass if you like).
Generally speaking I take all things with a pinch of salt. I will combine dealer recommendations with forum reviews and ASR to make an informed decision overall - then ask for a home trial. Measurements alone will not be my ultimate guide (but will nevetheless be a useful reference if things look really bad) simply because my personal experience is to listen.
I have probably the worse measuring setup - A Croft 7 pre / power (I mean my God this amp has valves in it!!) - and really enjoy my old Arcam Black Box 1 as a source (which houses a TDA1541). This sounds really 'musical' to my ears - but I bet it measures abysmally.
My ears probably like distortion - who knows - it's whatever rocks my boat.
An ASR review stopped me from purchasing an NAD T 777 V3 (or 758) AVR. I may consider buying an NAD T 778 at some point in the future. If I do it'll get drop shipped to Amir. Reviews also stopped me from even considering anything made by Emotiva.
Not gonna lie, I would have probably bought one of those inexpensive usb 'purifiers' like Jitterbug or some of the iFi products. They were getting good press and while I thought they most likely wouldn't make a difference it seemed like worth a try because of the low cost. But after seeing the measurements.. pass
ASR probably saved me from buying a Chord Hugo 2 or a Qutest. But it was mainly the lack of balanced outputs. Bought a tone board instead. Haven't felt any need to upgrade from that so far.