AFAIK, the 'perfectionism' you refer to really occurred with the advent of TAS's and Stereophile's promotion of the 'subjective' review in which they attached personal opinions to everything, in the guise of being objective, professional, and accurate.
IMHO, what they were really saying by calling it subjective was not so much that they were describing what they heard as a judgment made by using a different sense, that of hearing, not so much measuring. They probably thought that their conclusions were based on other 'objective data', their hearing was that accurate. :-)
Until that time we only had objective reiews rendered by engineers who were humble enought to keep their personal opinions of the sound to themselves and, consequently, their advertisers happy and their reviewers 'informed' but left to listen and form their own opinion about the sound. For example, as I recall Julian and Leonard thought, or at least published, that identically spec'd stuff sounded the same.
How lucky we have become. We now have audio review experts who can tell us everything we need to know. We don't even have to think. Just buy..........By the way I think this was also the birth of audiophile arrogance.
Times have changed. Or have they, really? :-) I think it really has its roots in our own genes. This perfectionism.
FWIW I just decided to brew the 'perfect cup' of coffee. I bought a bean roaster, a high end coffee maker that only heats water, a scale to measure, a couple of different types of bean grinders, and many different types of beans from around the world. What a blast! Talk about a steep learning curve. All for a cup of coffee. Starbucks will never pass my lips again. LOL!
IMHO, what they were really saying by calling it subjective was not so much that they were describing what they heard as a judgment made by using a different sense, that of hearing, not so much measuring. They probably thought that their conclusions were based on other 'objective data', their hearing was that accurate. :-)
Until that time we only had objective reiews rendered by engineers who were humble enought to keep their personal opinions of the sound to themselves and, consequently, their advertisers happy and their reviewers 'informed' but left to listen and form their own opinion about the sound. For example, as I recall Julian and Leonard thought, or at least published, that identically spec'd stuff sounded the same.
How lucky we have become. We now have audio review experts who can tell us everything we need to know. We don't even have to think. Just buy..........By the way I think this was also the birth of audiophile arrogance.
Times have changed. Or have they, really? :-) I think it really has its roots in our own genes. This perfectionism.
FWIW I just decided to brew the 'perfect cup' of coffee. I bought a bean roaster, a high end coffee maker that only heats water, a scale to measure, a couple of different types of bean grinders, and many different types of beans from around the world. What a blast! Talk about a steep learning curve. All for a cup of coffee. Starbucks will never pass my lips again. LOL!