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Has anyone bought a product because of a recommendation on ASR?

ASR-Fi is a fairly interesting site - enjoy reading some of the articles and longer posts from members who seem to know what they are talking about. It provides a nice balance to my subjective instincts. I have come close to buying a few items based on the reviews/feedback from users on the forum but never went ahead. I am not sure about the race to the bottom (or top) of the measurement hierarchy though; it all seems a bit meaningless these days but if someone wants to buy a new DAC that measures 0.001% below last year's DAC then all good.
 
Kirk said:
ASR-Fi is a fairly interesting site - enjoy reading some of the articles and longer posts from members who seem to know what they are talking about. It provides a nice balance to my subjective instincts. I have come close to buying a few items based on the reviews/feedback from users on the forum but never went ahead. I am not sure about the race to the bottom (or top) of the measurement hierarchy though; it all seems a bit meaningless these days but if someone wants to buy a new DAC that measures 0.001% below last year's DAC then all good.
Click to expand...
Each to their own. The process I follow when choosing HiFi generally goes through a long gestation of initial interest, reading views and then listening to the product. The A&R tuner, the Yamaha and the Maggies were all bits of gear that I was constantly attracted to before I bought them. Once I tried them in my system it was as if they’d come home to roost. I love it when gear just fits in snuggly and you love it. I knew the Magnepans were different but I also yearned for transparency. I assumed that Yamaha, A&R and Magnepan knew what they were doing as they had longevity and reputation as companies .I didn’t really feel the need to interrogate measurements too much. The Yamaha measures best in its Pure Audio Mode but that’s how I use it. It is very good in its digital mode. The LRSs provided what I want from speakers; a sense of liveness, immediacy, intimacy and that beguiling transparency that I’ve never had from boxes. So my takeaway is buy what beguiles you the most, regardless of measurements. Choose something that gets you emotionally closer to the music you love. Don’t fall into measurement neurosis that potentially distracts you from the main source of pleasure. I don’t want to sit through George Szell’s Mahler Sixth or Argerich’s Rach 3 distracted by uncertainty or neuroses. I want to be absorbed by the flow and passion of the performance. Life is too short to miss the music we all love. It is the main event after all.
 
In-room noise floor typically increases as frequency decreases so noise levels should be measured with Z- or C-weighted SPL meter. An A-weighted meter starts rolling off below 1kHz IIRC.
 
I’ve never spent any time on the ASR site, my experience is limited to the odd post coming up on Google.

Just out of interest….what is supposed to be the outcome of ASR’s tests?

Does Amir suggest that Dac A will sound better in every system as it measures better than Dac B?
Or are they simply saying Dac A is better engineered, so they would recommend you buy that one?

Or something different….
 
Didn't realise I was going to spark a load of LRS discussion when I mentioned them in Amir's ranking table. So I thought I had better actually read the reivew:
www.audiosciencereview.com

Magnepan LRS Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Magnepan LRS (Little Ribbon Speaker). It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $650. NOTE: as you will see later, this is a special review with far more detail than I usually show in a speaker test. I thought it would be "fun" to see...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com

I struggled to understand this review, seems to be a collection of charts that look like something is wrong. His EQ seems to be wrong, if he wants to "flatten" the graphs - why has he added a dip at 5KHz, when the measured peak is about 3.2KHz?

The Stereophile explanation of the measurements is rather more coherent and Fig 7 tells me more than the pretty colours that ASR has generated:
 
Del monaco said:
Each to their own. The process I follow when choosing HiFi generally goes through a long gestation of initial interest, reading views and then listening to the product. The A&R tuner, the Yamaha and the Maggies were all bits of gear that I was constantly attracted to before I bought them. Once I tried them in my system it was as if they’d come home to roost. I love it when gear just fits in snuggly and you love it. I knew the Magnepans were different but I also yearned for transparency. I assumed that Yamaha, A&R and Magnepan knew what they were doing as they had longevity and reputation as companies .I didn’t really feel the need to interrogate measurements too much. The Yamaha measures best in its Pure Audio Mode but that’s how I use it. It is very good in its digital mode. The LRSs provided what I want from speakers; a sense of liveness, immediacy, intimacy and that beguiling transparency that I’ve never had from boxes. So my takeaway is buy what beguiles you the most, regardless of measurements. Choose something that gets you emotionally closer to the music you love. Don’t fall into measurement neurosis that potentially distracts you from the main source of pleasure. I don’t want to sit through George Szell’s Mahler Sixth or Argerich’s Rach 3 distracted by uncertainty or neuroses. I want to be absorbed by the flow and passion of the performance. Life is too short to miss the music we all love. It is the main event after all.
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Absolutely right, at least for me, and the hifi system that has me engrossed in the music, free from distraction, is doubtless different to another music lover.

In the last analysis, imho, the point of hifi is getting me closest to the music, both as written and as performed. Do ASR reviews give me the information necessary to find hifi that does this? Sadly no!
 
There's some smart guys on there. Pavel, Si.Y and P.Kane are standouts. J. Neutron used to post. There's some right tools too.
 
Octavian said:
And they do it intentionally in order to do well in ASR tests? That was the gist of Del Monaco’s claim.
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They certainly appear to, given member and manufacturer comments, and appearance is important, I guess. The cry from ASR members is changing now though to “we now take sinad for granted, give us extra like EQ’. It’ll be interesting to see what Topping et al do next. I suspect I’ll be quoting myself in a matter of months.
 
I dip into ASR quite regularly as I'm quite interested in the tech reviews but the clientele leave a lot to desired with quite a high dogma-nutter count imho. Which is a shameI. I did try the WiiM Pro and though initially impressive it got on my auditory nerves after a few days.
 
Sloop John B said:
if this is to be believed

9to5mac.com

How accurate is Apple Watch noise level detection for hearing health? - 9to5Mac

Apple Watch now doubles as a hearing health monitor thanks to new noise level detection features in watchOS 6. After...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com

the Apple Watch is quite accurate and I get 33-34 when the heats pipes aren’t coughing.






.sjb
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off topic: Since wearing an Apple watch I’ve been quite concerned at the number of times the watch has alerted me to surrounding sound level being over 90dB. Power tools were to be expected but an overexcited person sitting next to me playing a board game…
 
Tony L said:
That’s remarkably low for an untreated room, what are you using as a measurement device?
Click to expand...
Decibel X. I’m sure you’ll tell me it’s useless. Either way, it’s showing 26 average right now. My room is partially treated.
 
camverton said:
off topic: Since wearing an Apple watch I’ve been quite concerned at the number of times the watch has alerted me to surrounding sound level being over 90dB. Power tools were to be expected but an overexcited person sitting next to me playing a board game…
Click to expand...

Standard reaction. No need to worry….
 
Thetiminator said:
I’ve never spent any time on the ASR site, my experience is limited to the odd post coming up on Google.

Just out of interest….what is supposed to be the outcome of ASR’s tests?

Does Amir suggest that Dac A will sound better in every system as it measures better than Dac B?
Or are they simply saying Dac A is better engineered, so they would recommend you buy that one?

Or something different….
Click to expand...
Broadly the latter, although looks and features sometimes come into it.
 
adamdea said:
Broadly the latter, although looks and features sometimes come into it.
Click to expand...
Cheers Adam
So it’s not really so much of a commentary on how x or y will sound, more of a ‘buy a Honda they’re the best made cars on the market’ sort of idea?
 
I bought a Wiim pro plus partly on asr suggestions and it's very good.

however they hate my ATC scm40s- and i think they sound great.


Sloop John B said:
Has anyone bought a product because of a recommendation on ASR ?

What product?

Did it meet your expectations (from its review)?

Did it replace and outperform a more expensive item?

I’m interested in some real word experience, from people who put their money down.

.sjb
Click to expand...
 
The Pro Plus is nice and I do like it’s Dac in preference to my other Sabre based Dac. I also like that it emulates my previous Squeezebox.
 
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