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what you think makes Audiosciencereview (ASR) great

sprellemannen

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ASR deserves in my opinion a lot of praise.
This thread is made for us to praise great things with this forum.

ASR's focus is in my opinion what makes it amazing: Science.

Asbjørn, who holds a PhD from MIT and has amazing audio skills, wrote it in the following way (in another forum):
"In my world it is great with reviewers like ASR who tells it as it is, regardless of advertising money or golden ears prestige, rather than to time and again use new 'flower language' to tell about experiences which probably not are reproducable for another listener with another stereo setup and another room. That some small kings and aristocrates tend to be looking rather undressed after an ASR-review is also refreshing"

Amir manages to write a LOT of well-written reviews filled with measurements.
The pink panther (what a smart and funny idea!) easily tells the conclusion in most cases.
I am sure the reviews have been helpful for a lot of people. Furthermore, his reviews are a contribution to making the audio industry better.

Amir and Thomas Savage do a great job as moderators: The forum seems to often "be on track".
They have managed to get people with lots of knowledge as contributing members (Floyd Toole and John Siau, for instance).

The other audio forums I know of are not even close to the quality of ASR.

Amir and Thomas Savage both deserve a huge salute :)
 
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Doodski

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I like ASR because it is scientific and made me up my maturity levels via the leading by example that I see from many peeps here.
 

Dan R

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Agree with everything posted so far. I'd add that the general tone around here is pretty great, with the vast majority of posters trying to learn and help others. That's not the case on a lot of audio sites.

The JBL 305P Mkii review, which is also a tutorial on how to read and interpret speaker measurements, and a summary of important concepts in Dr Toole's book, is the best introduction to audio that I've ever read and something I refer back to regularly.
 

BDWoody

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ASR deserves in my opinion a lot of praise.
This thread is made for us to praise great things with this forum.

ASR's focus is in my opinion what makes it amazing: Science.

Asbjørn, who holds a PhD from MIT and has amazing audio skills, wrote it in the following way (in another forum):
"In my world it is great with reviewers like ASR who tells it as it is, regardless of advertising money or golden ears prestige, rather than to time and again use new 'flower language' to tell about experiences which probably not are reproducable for another listener with another stereo setup and another room. That some small kings and aristocrates tend to be looking rather undressed after an ASR-review is also refreshing"

Amir manages to write a LOT of well-written reviews filled with measurements.
The pink panther (what a smart and funny idea!) easily tells the conclusion in most cases.
I am sure the reviews have been helpful for a lot of people. Furthermore, his reviews are a contribution to making the audio industry better.

Amir and Thomas Savage do a great job as moderators: The forum seems to often "be on track".
They have managed to get people with lots of knowledge as contributing members (Floyd Toole and John Siau, for instance).

The other audio forums I know of are not even close to the quality of ASR.

Amir and Thomas Savage both deserve a huge salute :)

In addition to the world class technical 'audio knowledge' available, there are just a lot of very smart, very well educated, very well spoken, interesting people who are regulars. That makes for really high level discussion about almost any subject imaginable.

I came for the reviews, I stayed because of the people.
 

rodtor

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The reviews are invaluable. But, for me, the most incredible thing has been having the chance to learn so much about audio. So, as others have stated above, the remarkable technical knowledge of many members has been key for me, along with Amir's selfless dedication.
 

Tom C

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Agree with all of the above.
I think that for the charter members of the forum, and the industry professionals, what makes an audio system great (or not so great), and what to expect from a system are well understood. But for the average Joe consumer like me, the answers aren’t always obvious, and no one out there in the wild is looking out for the buyer. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I am still on the low, steep part of the learning curve, and ASR is without a doubt the very best source of information available.
 

frogmeat69

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I stumbled across ASR from a post by @Jimster480 about the Topping D30 on another forum, you can guess which one. Been coming here ever since, the reviews are the best, most straight forward you can find anywhere.

Lots of the stuff folks talk about here goes right over my head, but I have learned a lot since finding this place, and am grateful for all you have taught me, and look forward to keep learning.
 

garbulky

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1. I can ask for more advice about more obscure stuff and get good information. @DonH56 @solderdude @Frank Dernie among others are founts of knowledge!
2. The measurements (duh!)
3. @amirm is good at responding to people when they ask him a question. A lot of times the head of the forum doesn't have time or is unwilling to actually engage with the user base.
4. Athough, he's not perfect, he's relatively tolerant to people with a completely opposite way of looking at measurements than he does. (Case in point: me.) Some forums will immediately ban a person that doesn't subscribe to the groupthink. Although I've experienced rude, negative responses for being different, Amir has refrained from that behavior.
 

cjfrbw

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Mar 5, 2018
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ASR turned my golden ears to tarnished tin. Thanks, Amir, for the buzz kill.
 

quorzar

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Dec 27, 2018
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1. The measurements
2. The summary/conclusion at the end of the measurements and the comments inside and beneath the graphics (very important in my opinion)
3. The community with its realistic/knowledge based/non snakeoil members
4. The 95% answers that are useful independently of the question, doesnt matter how stupid or basic
5. Members that collect useful information from inside the forum and more. For example: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-i-learned-on-asr-today.7281/

Thank you for that!
 

North_Sky

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The measurements Amir shares...definitely, and his positive attitude; that's the winning down-to-earth combination attracting affordable audio electronics people from all venues and social status. The rest is team work ...
 

Tks

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Meh like most communities, I think the people collectively make it what it is. Some really intelligent people have left their imprint on even the content of the metrics in the reviews(you can thank me for being one of the people annoying the bossman to get a white background on product images :cool:). Also their detailed talks are really enlightening to listen to and learn from.

You also have great down-time here sometimes with some REALLY funny people too. That's always a sticking point no matter the community.
 

TimF

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Dec 15, 2019
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It takes, it seems, effort to unlearn. Over a lot of years I have taken in a lot of disinformation and hard marketing about audio equipment and much of that hard marketing was in the guise of audio product reviews. I think, and you may disagree, that the audio magazines and much of the on-line reviews of products have not served us well. In fact, a stronger statement that that is in order and justified. The language of audio reviews is gobbly goop. This website is developing an alternative language that is specific (specification, thresholds of perception, materiality, significant as in statistically and scientifically significant) in opposition to the subjective gobbly goop, standards of product performance, and measurement standards and techniques. We all too often have been buying audio products as if they were beauty aids or jewelry. Time to get real.
 

KR500

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Lots, especially Amir's noting of issues regarding safety , QC , Certification, and ergonomics along with the measurements , reviews and forums .
 

renaudrenaud

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Apr 20, 2019
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Frankly speaking, I have to find my words in english to explain what ASR has done for me.

The main point is I am now totally relaxed with the high end audio: this is most of the time pure bullshit.

I am in the audiophile stream since 40 years but was not too much interested by cables and others things, and for my friends I was in lack fo real passion.

Now we have all the data to confirm this is bs. For example, the Audio Research big amp tested here few moths ago was at home but I never used it, except to confirm I did not like it. With the tests results from ASR, I sold it with no regrets.

1 - Do not care of High End audio anyway
I've sold a lot of things accumulated since years, because: 1/ no interst for me in term of usage, 2/ some people are very happy with what they bought, 3/ I have some cash now!

2 - Use low cost equipment
I started to try TPA3116 many years ago in France and for the cost it was surprising (15€) and enough for a micro system in the bedroom. Then we went in China for 2 years, where I was without all my gear... In China it was easy to buy some TPA3116 and then I started a system dematerialized with DIY speakers built with local drivers... And it was not so bad and enough to listen to music with pleasure (the most important point).
Back in France, I bought a Texas TPA3255 to test the new component from Texas and then I let all the others amps accumulated over the years in their dust. I exhumed an old pair of speakers I have here and it is sufficient for my pleasure. Reading ASR I bought a SMSL SU8 and was verry happy with it, but I bought a Sabaj D5 to be able to use headphones. And then bought another Sabaj for the bedroom (and rediscovered all my headphones AKG K240, 260, 280, Q701 QJ, K702...).

3 - Side effects
I don't care to much my gear because it is now build on low cost units. If something is no more working, it's not the end of the universe, I can replace at low cost. Also, I do not read reviews since at least 20 years (pure bullshit) but I am not no more curious about expensive gear. Also, I have confirmation I can continue to build things with Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Atomic Pi at low cost because there is no loss in audio performance.

All in all I am very happy to come here, read tests and read the forum where everybody can read a lot of high interesting comments... But the discussion with audiophile friends is much harder now.
 

Karu

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Dec 23, 2019
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Content is king. Both the reviews but also the members’ input/experience.

And nobody likes to be ripped off in our quest to get every bit of enjoyment out of our music, which the audio industry often is exploiting - this site is invaluable in helping avoid that buy/sell cycle for me.
 
D

Deleted member 9286

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I love this place because no one has screamed at me that their glass optical cable is silky smooth while their plastic optical cable renders their system unlistenable......it’s the little things.
 
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