How much can be measured -- and how much cannot?


There has been a lot of discussion over the years on Audiogon regarding the measurement of components and other audio products. Some people claim everything is either measurable now or will one day become measurable with more sophisticated measuring equipment. But others say there are things in high end audio that will never me measurable and that measurements are really not that important.

Here is a typical example -- a quote taken from the Stereophile forum regarding their review of the Playback Designs MPS-5:

"JA 2/17/10 Review Measurements of Playback Designs MPS-5
Posted: April 13, 2011 - 8:42am

John Atkinson's 2/17/10 review measurements of the Playback Designs MPS-5 revealed less than stellar technical performance even though Michael Fremer really liked the player. I've included JA's closing measurement remarks below followed by the manufacturer's comments.

To my knowledge there was never any followup in Stereophile regarding the manufacturers reply the MPS-5 could not be adequately measured with traditional measurement techniques.

I believe Stereophile should respond to this reply in the interests of its own measurements credibility.

Len"

How important do you think measurements are? Are the ears really the only true arbiter?
sabai

Showing 1 response by learsfool

For me, the ears must be the first guide, and are much more important than any spec or measurement. One must listen to many different types of equipment/systems and decide what one's priorities are sonically. Only then can one begin to use measurements and specs to help in a purchasing decision, by learning how and why the equipment types you like sound like they do. At least, this was my approach, since I was/am not very mechanically inclined at all, but I am blessed with very good ears, and as a professional musician I live the "absolute sound" literally almost every day. Very, very often in the world of audio reproduction, the equipment that measures "best" does not actually sound the best. So the actual measurements may not be very important, depending on one's priorities. What is more important, after one has determined one's priorities, is figuring out which measurements/specs are more important to you, and why, based on what you hear/want to hear. Hope this makes sense, I'm tired and probably shouldn't be posting right now. :)