Sure we have. AVC-A1HD may be found in Hi Fi News August 2008 with a full suite of measurements linked at
Miller Audio's site. Onkyo 886 March 2009 and, of course, many other pieces of gear with independent measurements made by one of the most respected companies in the business.
No TUC products, though...
Yup, I signed-up to Miller Audio Research years ago, and have been trying to digest it ever since. I was the person who compiled the jitter list, taken from those tests, which circulated round the forums for a while. Paul Miller is one of the few reviewers I pay attention to, as he actively tries to find what measurements actually correlate with sound quality, and he doesn’t seem too afraid of making critical comments.
However even he, like Gene, seems to have fallen down the Denon trap. Although he was somewhat critical of the 2500BT in that review, he joined the crowd by heaping praise on the AVP-A1, which is my real beef, and one that I haven’t explained very well. I describe these as not being proper assessments because they’re not discriminating.
When was the last time you saw a review of a pre-pro that wasn’t complimentary, certainly not an expensive one? They’re usually tested in isolation, without a competing product to compare against. They’re also difficult and time-consuming to set-up properly so that you can make fair comparisons. They all work differently, and the reviewer spends hours trying to get a peep out of it, does lots of tweeking and eventually gets some sort of sound that he’s happy with, and writes it to prove he’s done some work. .
I believe that even paid reviewers are falling down the trap of thinking that because something is expensive and measures well (and pays for lots of advertising) that it must sound good as well. Emperor’s clothes syndrome – but people tend to be comfortable writing and reading what everyone wants to hear. I think everyone fell down that particular trap when the AVC-A1 came out (including me).
In the cold light of day that was never very good, and with the AVP-A1HD, history seems to be repeating itself. That doesn’t sound very good either, certainly not good enough to justify its price, but how would you know that without listening to it? And if you could get a modified prepro that sounded better, how would you know that it sounded better? The existing review resources aren’t discriminating enough to tell us what’s wrong with stock products.
Nick