What does listening to a speaker really tell us?

My yardstick for evaluating any component really boils down to how much I "get off" on the music over an extended period of time. What else matters?

I wish some one would identify for me the "perfect" upstream components that Pawlowski refers to so I can start to evaluate the performance of my speakers! :-)

For myself, its all about fufilling my fantasy of what I want to hear in my room - I certainly have no idea what took place in the recording venue. Beyond a certain point fulfilling that fantasy seems to be more limited by the recording than the equipment. I find it important to have electronics and speakers that are synergistic and produce a relatively detailed and neutral toned sound in my room. I want to be able to tell a bass in its high registers from a cello in its low registers and a cello in its high registers from a viola, etc, if its on the recording. I want to hear brushes distinctly without an uptilted high end, and and and.......

Part of the voodoo here is that human hearing isn't linear. When midrange and bass tones are at equal sound pressure levels, the bass ones will sound subdued 'cause the ear is more sensitive to the midrange frequencies. The reason fidelity takes many forms stems from the basic question Pawlowski asks, fidelity to what?

Rockvirgo, your logic escapes me: why would listening to a linear speaker be any different from listening to live sounds? Do you, somehow, think that music or any live sound for that matter reaching our ears is equalized to compensate for the ears lack of linearity? The lack of knowledge and acceptance of the basics of sound reproduction, propagation and perception mark you as a younger person formed at the teat of subjective audio. Pardon me if I am wrong.

Introducing a loudspeaker in your room, listening to a reference piece of music on your unchanged upstream components, ics, pcs, tweaks, etc. gives you the nature of that loudspeaker's performance relative to your current reference loudspeaker. Aural memory of other speakers used within this identical setup will expand the base of knowledge of what speakers can tell you. For me, information about any particular item in the chain can only be gathered after a reference has been established. Then, preferences become meaningful and allow you to find audio equipment “perfect” for you.

So, what does listening to a speaker (in our own room) really tell us? From a layman's perspective I can detect, dispersion characteristics, weight, color, balance, an so forth. The most important thing the speaker will tell you is whether you have found a “keeper” or to keep looking. Good luck.