Have Audiophiles and the Audiophile Press Become Irrelevant?

[Feanor]

Your statement, "
Sorry but what the Golden Ear dinosaurs don't want to hear is that measurements and blind testing have revealed is that a $2000 amplifier can perform as well or better than a $100,000 amp, or that a $200 DAC can perform on the level of a $20,000 DAC.", is just false in the inth degree, uber hyperbole

You owned a Pass amp if you say you couldn't hear any difference between that and your Hypex then you really have no business in this discussion at all. I don't care about your preference, that's your own bad taste but you certainly had to hear a difference.

Indeed I did hear a difference between the Pass X150.5 and my VTV Purifi 1ET400A amp. It seems to me, (subjectively afterall), that the Purifi amp was superior in all critical aspects, at least to my taste. The Purifi was more detail, transparent, and its bass was more articulate; the Pass' presentation was slightly warmer but not but sweeter sounding of the top end, (as one might expect).

I'll remind everyone that I'm NOT one of those that maintain that "All amps sound the same" -- they don't.

 

[Feanor]

Agreed. It wasn't measurements and blind testing that revealed a $2000 amplifier can perform as well or better than a $100,000 amp. That's only news for people who care about reading measurements and not actually listening to music.

Any subjective and honest listening confirms price has no bearing on which someone may prefer.

Let's not beat the issue to death. I'll reiterate that people are entitled to their own preferences. For me the $1500 sounded better than the $5500 amp that preceded it. Granted my particular music preference made it so.

Indeed I agree that price OUGHT to have no bearing on preference. But often, IMHO, beautiful industrial design or bragging rights are factors in addition to sound.

 

[Michaels HiFi]

Let's not beat the issue to death. I'll reiterate that people are entitled to their own preferences. For me the $1500 sounded better than the $5500 amp that preceded it. Granted my particular music preference made it so.

Indeed I agree that price OUGHT to have no bearing on preference. But often, IMHO, beautiful industrial design or bragging rights are factors in addition to sound.

I'm not beating anything to death. I'm simply responding to your posts about measurements and I share my thoughts - just as you do.

 

[Feanor]

I'm not beating anything to death. I'm simply responding to your posts about measurements and I share my thoughts - just as you do.

I suggest that one is more likely to find a correlation between measurements and sound that there is between price and sound. That is, regardless of one's sound preferences. So for example, if one likes a smooth/fuller/warmer sound one ought to look at the components harmonic spectrum to find high 2nd order harmonic distortion.