At last ASR recommends a PS Audio product. Some of the measurements do look good, especially the noise figures.
Goodness, ASR likes the S300? What a reasonable and intelligent publication this must be.
So funny, an article critiquing the SGCD generates 130+ Heated responses, including from Paul, and has to be locked. An article praising a PSA product and no one replies even though its the same website and same methodology.
Weāv had enough of asrā¦hence the silence. No offense to op,but please close this topic too before it gets worse. 
We have been through their measurements alreadyā¦
I would say anything related to asr needs a shutdown on Ps Audio forums. If interested,go to asr and post there.
A recommendation without any listening impression. Enough said.
Of all the amps we make the S300 is the one he chooses to measure and he likes it. Thatās fine but hereās what is going to happen. Our best sounding amplifier its the BHK. Guess what. BHK measures worse than the S300. Go figure.
Thatās why no one cares what this guy thinks or does. Itās meaningless. I closed the topic because it was getting out of hand and serving no one.
People didnāt respond here becauseāI am assuming hereāno one cares.
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If I may play the part of the skeptic here, he picks something to praise in order to ālegitimizeā his earlier criticisms. āSee how impartial I am? Iām praising something, so my criticisms were impartial alsoā.
Sorry bub, i donāt buy it.
I couldnāt agree more. Whenās the last time you ever heard anyone say or tout āman, enjoyed that measurement session!ā How could anyone in this magnificent hobby post or publish any genuine review without actually listening to the product. Whatās the point?
Iām going to go fire up my laptop, associated equipment, go measure my gear, and not listen to any music. Itāll be so much fun. Not only that I canāt wait to tell you what I think about it but not how it actually Sounds. Ahem, wait, thatās the ENTIRE POINT OF THIS HOBBY. How does it SOUND.
Itās akin to judging a car without ever driving it, a meal without ever tasting it, the appearance of a person without ever knowing themā¦
Should every ASR related topic opened by just recently registered members be closed automatically? (donāt take it too serious!)
- yes
- no
0 voters
Hey, my first poll, where was @bootzilla 
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As annoying as they are, we support freedom of speech. They are only unwelcome if they break our forum rules.
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You Subjectivists - youāll all the same. How many times do we have to tell you. if you think one piece of equipment sounds different then another itās just the placebo effect - thatās how you want it to sound. When will you people understand and accept this? As to why weāre involved in this hobby weāre not really sure. We donāt really listen to music we just like to measure things. Weāre āScientistsā after allā¦
I own the S300 and love it. Iāve not heard the M700ās, much less the BHK, so in my world, the S300 is the best amp Iāve ever heard. Setting aside any personal feelings about ASR, how do you suggest I interpret their findings on the S300?
- Are the good measurements an indication of the S300ās inferiority to the BHK?
- Do measurements matter at all?
- If they do matter, to what extent?
- Is it possible to have great sounding gear that also measures well?
Thanks.
From all Iāve seen, essentially their bias is towards CHIP based components, Class D, and digital in a box solutions that were designed to measure well but not necessarily sound great. I have YET to hear a Class D amp I liked, including PS Audio (no offence intended), yet they LOVE EM ALL as they measure nicely!
I actually read a lot of their reviews since last SGCD post, as that was alarming. What I took away, they LITERALLY rely on the bench for EVERYTHING, which is very one dimensional. If they did both measurement and listening, like Stereophile, theyād have much more credibility. I still think measurements are important in the following situations:
- If spec doesnāt match measurements
- If measurements are extremely poor
So, it maybe able to predict which product is poor, but NOT which product is good, better, best! At least thatās my take!
I wanted to make a comment that I would have added to the ASR-related thread if it had remained open. First, I do not believe the challenge from ASR to do a ālisten-offā was being made in good faith and Paul was right to dismiss it. However, I am afraid that Paulās response may be interpreted by some as a lack of faith in PS Audio gear rather than as an understandable lack of trust in ASRās methods and agenda.
ASR wants to put PS Audio on the defensive when, in fact, it is ASR that needs to provide some objective evidence to defend its stance that its measurements matter and are actually correlated with the sound of reproduced music as heard by human beings. Any further comments from ASR believers should be dismissed unless ASR is able to demonstrate, using reasonably rigorous methods, that its measurements - good or bad - have a relation to how music sounds through the gear under review. ASR could start its validation studies with their SINAD graph ranking of DACs and attempt to validate the connection to actual listening. Even if they could accomplish this goal (which seems highly unlikely), there would still be questions about their honesty and agendas, but at least this would be a start if they want to be taken seriously.
For the present, I find absolutely no reason to recommend that anyone read the ASR forum, unless they are fans of fantasy fiction.
Amen
āTrust your ears, dummy!ā-- my audiophile mentor 33 years ago.
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