If I understand them correctly some people are arguing that if a specific piece of equipment makes them feel good, then it must be good equipment. That's an absurd notion. If that line of reasoning really were true, then a glass of alcohol would be considered an audiophile upgrade. It certainly increases toe-tapping musicality and the emotional involvement factor. Let's not lose sight that there is an objective reality somewhere beyond the firing pleasure synapses in our brains. No single piece of equipment adds emotion, musicality, involvement, etc. to music. All equipment, both recording and playback, can only add distortion to the electric based signal passing through. Neutral equipment simply distorts less than non-neutral equipment. All good familiarity with how real instruments sound, known high quality recordings, measurements, specifications and extensive long term listening can help one determine the relative distortion levels of a piece of equipment. This does not mean in the end we will all agree, since it's very clear that people have their own hierarchy of preferred distortions.
What does listening to a speaker really tell us?
Ok. I got lots of advice here from people telling me the only way to know if a speaker is right for me is to listen to it. I want a speaker that represents true fidelity. Now, I read lots of people talking about a speakers transparency. I'm assuming that they mean that the speaker does not "interpret" the original source signal in any way. But, how do they know? How does anyone know unless they were actually in the recording studio or performance hall? Isn't true that we can only comment on the RELATIVE color a speaker adds in reference to another speaker? This assumes of course that the upstream components are "perfect."