I so enjoy this forum. This one is a tough one for me. People write and read subjective reviews all the time of all sorts of things; food, wine, cars; are they useful? I'd say in many cases they are entertaining at least. Audio gear is such a different entity and seems to draw an emotional line in defense of ones personal perspective. Maybe I'm a wuss but I try to walk the line in the middle. I'm not trained and I don't claim to have golden ears, but my experience would say not all speakers, amps and DACs sound the same. If they did as long as something was decently screwed together one could buy it and never need to consider another purchase. I personally don't know anyone that falls in that category.
I do believe subjective reviews are largely opinions and while I am no reviewer (or journalist) when someone asked my opinion, I provide it based on my experience which is all subjective as I have no way of doing in-depth measurements. Measurements seem to provide a glimpse into if a product is well engineered and built (still, per taste? Amir hates the slow roll off of the SR 8015 DAC, but is it intentional?) and may be a good barometer as to the transparency of a product or how to place a speaker based on its on and off axis response, but to me that is only part of the story. Even Amir listens to speakers and provides a subjective perspective, I guess he is of the opinion that electronics all sound the same so he doesn't with AVR/AVPs, amps, etc etc.
I appreciate that in many cases here Gene and AH staff use and listen to products, that is super helpful to me, not only to provide an opinion on sound, but the functionality/UI too.
So can subjective and objective reviews co-exist? Sure. Are some people going to plant themselves firmly in one camp or another? Sure, and who cares? My believe is the killer to all things human is the direction we are headed where absolutes exist and folks don't open themselves up to maybe there is another way, another perspective to consider or heaven forbid, maybe I am just wrong on this (generic term) topic.
We have lost our ability to dialog with one another. It s easy to hide behind keyboard and say ridiculous things to perfect strangers, I know because I have done it. I turn 50 this coming Tuesday and I think I may be close to finally growing up in some areas and this is one of them.
I enjoy our hobby, its not my job, but it consumes a lot of my time and money. So if I feel my C298 sounds different than my A52+, so be it, what makes me wrong for feeling so? Anyway, I have no idea how I ended up here in this thread response..... But I wouldn't spend the money Starke wants for these amps based on the measured results. But I did buy the NAD based on results I've seen from Purifi modules and a few subjective reviews I watched/read based on its sound characteristics, so I am the one that drives some of you mad.
And thanks for having me. Haha.
