Can You Hear Me Now


In an interview with Laurence Borden of Dagogo, Dr Earl Geddes talked about the ability of people to really have golden ears. In his work at Ford, he tried to gauge how good the ten member golden ear panel was. I will let him tell you his findings. “For the most part the study concluded that this panel was “not capable.” In other words their judgments could not be relied upon to be statistically stable. That said, there were two members of the ten who were capable, so it was possible. But the real point here is that someone is not a good judge of sound quality just because they think that they are – all ten members would have claimed that they were audiophiles and good judges of sound quality.
After several more studies along these same lines, I came to conclude that the more someone claimed to be a “golden ear” the less likely it was that they actually were.”  
That got me thinking: how many of our members would belong to the group of eight and how many would be with the two who could really hear. Interesting reading. The full interview can be found here:
https://www.dagogo.com/an-interview-with-dr-earl-geddes-of-gedlee-llc/
N.B. Dr. Earl Geddes is one of the pioneers of the Distributed Bass Array system. His work on the subject is well known. 
spenav
It all depends on purity(carats) and whether they're solid gold or hollow inside to determine what they're worth.
I buy on the recommendations of people I trust. People who have tried out many components and tweaks and can distillize their experience. 

That, and research on that information. Along the way I gain knowledge.

The only thing I have not applied is DBA cause it is too impractical in my listening room due to lack of room. One sub is all I can swing. 
@vinylshadow
Most people buy the same way, whether the recommendation comes from Michael Framer or your next door neighbor, you got to start somewhere. That or go to trade shows.
One sub might be all you need in a small room to satisfy a single listening  position. You just need to find the right spot to place it. Enjoy your music.
Coincidentally, my listening room was built by my next door neighbor, Michael Framer.