First off I have great admiration for Amir and this site as he tests so much more that SINAD and I have learned so much. As the OP my intent wasn't to start a ASR vs AH debate or conflict. Prior to knowing about ASR; AH (via measurements) introduced me to some good value brands such as Emotiva, Outlaw, and Monolith that I still have in my systems today.
Thru ASR (via measurements) I learn about good value brands such as Topping, SLSH, and Schiit that I also have in my systems today. I also learned that the Denons AVR that I really like for a number or reasons as a pre-amp, measures good and that their sister company Marantz, who’s AVR that I was thinking about switching to as pre-amp because of XLR in/out (that would help with the signal distance between my pre-amp, amps and subs due to AC power balancing distribution) - measures poorer and is to be avoided with the higher costs.
Amir, John Atkinson, and Gene have all discovered expense gear that didn't measure well and all have exposed high price snake oil hiding in plain sight. I’ve also seen examples of how individually, ASR and AH have gotten manufactures to improve their products by posting their poor measurements. So I never got from the video that measurements are not important, in fact just the opposite.
It also has a good overview of how SINAD is the same as % THD+N and how they correlate, which I don't think most newcomers understand. It also states that he thinks most consumers understand the concept of % THD+N better but he gives both % THD+N and SINAD so people can compare directly 'apples to apples' with ASR measurements.
In addition, it states that past a certain point of SINAD he believes that other things come into play like power, features, warranty, returns, customer service, design etc. - vs getting even lower SINAD.
Case in point, I was looking for a phono pre-amp with a rumble filter that wouldn't add any extra noise/distortion, had a good RIAA curve, and was cheaper than the Fluance turntable I had given them.
After reading Amir's reviews I pick a phono preamp that meet all those requirements but it wasn't one of the highest SINAD scores, as some of those had worst RIAA curves. I later saw someone ask Amir "what was the highest SINAD phono preamp under $100" and below is his response:
SINAD is not very instructive for these amps since it is dominated by noise, not distortion. I say best measurement to look at is the frequency response. That determines coloration it may add to everything.
Which I totally agree with and how I made my prior selection. Though, phono pre-amps are ranked and color coded by SINAD, this is not a criticism as I believe this is for overall website constancy and is easier than RIAA curve accuracy ranking - though a newbie might not know or fully understand that, hence the question above.
I also posted in my OP “Best reply in AH's comment section is this one: "In a recent video Amir talks about how SINAD isn't the end all be all but a good single indicator of quality engineering and thus good amp perform (correlation between the two not causation)." Which I believe AH also stated in his video.
So I think there’s a fair bit in common between ASR and AH and don’t think it’s an ASR vs AH. It's just a reminder to newcomers to look at the overall picture when evaluating equipment and reviews - and that info is at ASR, AH, and at other places on the net.