Audio Science Review of Expert 200.

[ssfas]

@David A - This is why I think sites like ASR would be a lot more interesting if there was a greater mix of the objective with the subjective, to try to improve understanding of how they correlate.  Meanwhile, just stating amp A crushes amp B because it has a better SINAD number is a little misleading.  OK – ASR measure a lot more than this, and some ASR posters appear to be very knowledgeable.  Unfortunately, one or two ASR posters seam to fail to realise the full complexity of the subject, or at least do not wish to debate the subtleties, and this combined with an apparent joy for arguing and trashing the reputation of anything expensive, it can get a little ugly, and this shuts down the more nuanced debate.  I think with a slight change of attitude and moderation, ASR could be excellent.  However, this does not look likely, so we are left with the ASR we have, it is what it is.

I popped in to ASR the other day - no reports on Devialet returning the Expert unit that they blew up.

The site seems to be dominated by a few people who are measurement fundamentalists and within a few posts, if not one post, the quite pointed view is basically that everyone should have an RME DAC, Benchmark amplifier and Genelec or Neumann speakers. 

My view is that measurements are the beginning, not the end. There are enough products around to ignore the ones that measure bad and choose from the ones that measure well. It doesn't mean we should only buy that which measures best. We buy audio because we like to listen to music and if we like how something sounds subjectively, it is the height of arrogance for anyone else to say otherwise - which goes on a lot at ASR - in fact take that attitude and you will quickly get banned. They don't take much provoking. 

There is also the touchy issue of money. OK, pro audio is very price competitive. It's a hard-nosed global business. Consumer spending is far more discretionary and if I or anyone else wants to spend a chunk of money on home audio no one else can tell me not to, or deny that may give me pleasure. The ASR view seems to be that most consumer audio is over-priced. Well, fine for them, they don't have to buy it.

Finally, the Benchmark AHB2 that they rhapsodise over is not cheap - £3,500 in the UK - and provides 100w into 8 ohms, barely enough for my speakers to perform at their best. The Devialet 140 is slightly more powerful and contains a huge amount of additional electronics (streamer, DAC, phono etc.). It costs £4,500 - so in my book is far better value for money.