My response to "Boycott the sub-forum"

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1 hour ago, Shimei said:

Kinda ironic subject matter, no? I mean objectivist believe truth exists outside themselves and subjectivist believe no truth exists outside themselves.

Nice writing. I don't ascribe to either camp. The objectivist is ?rationalist and the subjectivist ?empiricist in which case Quine's "The Two Dogma's of Empiricism" applies. 

 

Let me add that the rationalist/empiricist dichotomy is regarding two (old) camps of scientific thought. Here "objectivist" seems to be associated with "scientific" and "subjectivist" with non-scientific ... hmmm

 

To wit, the reason that "1+1 = 2" is because math is useful, and using math allows us to make useful predictions about the world, for example I can get on a plane, and believe that I will arrive in Europe unscathed  

 

The thread regarding which measurements predict good sound is apropo.

 

That said, this is a hobby and ultimately I want the best sound, and no I don't use DBTs to decide which products to purchase ... I use my ears ... that said, I also use rational thought to decide which products not to bother with because life is short and I know that my fiberoptic ethernet cable blocks 100% of common mode noise so why would I bother with an "audiophile" ethernet cable? Now amplifier or speakers ... you can read impressions but ultimately you need to just listen!

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39 minutes ago, tmtomh said:

Seriously, though, for me it's not a matter of trusting or not trusting Amir's listening reports. I just don't care about them because they are of little value to me. He finds DACs that measure well - and even DACs that measure mediocrely - sound pretty much transparent.

This is the issue: measurements are only useful if they predict sound quality.

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10 hours ago, Archimago said:

 

They generally do for many devices including contentious stuff like cables! And many measurements already go far beyond the limits of human hearing.

 

This is the issue: some people don't want to or cannot believe this 😉.

The flip side of this is that you cant expect that every aspect of SQ in every setting is predicted by a single set of measurements in a single setup. 
 

There are interactions between components and a measurement in one configuration may fail to predict the behavior of another configuration. 
 

For example, the speaker forms part of the electronic circuit with the amplifier. Measuring an unloaded amplifier is not accurate. 
 

Since we aren’t looking for new hadrons here, we settle for “good enough” measurements. The problem is that if you are trying to prove that all DACs sound the same, that’s not good enough. 
 

I do wholeheartedly agree that the possible measurements go well beyond the limits of human hearing.