How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

When you turn in on and listen...its trilling.When you get an album by an artist you like and play it and say WOW that sounds great....

When you play a album and the artist or group sound like they are playing live ,in your room....

When you stop talking about the sound and start talking about the music.

Well, if any question begs a tautological response, this is it.

A stereo sounds good to me, when it sounds good to me.

A stereo sounds good to you, when it sounds good to you.

It doesn't matter how one interprets the questions posed (whether "you" was intended to mean "one", or "me" as I read the question, the answer is the same). I've heard any number of systems that the owner was enthralled with, but sounded pitiful to me. In none of those instances was either of us wrong.

If the questions were intended to ask for a differential comparison, that's a very different matter, but also subject to the same preferential differences.

I would say, however, that if you cannot enjoy good music on even a mediocre system, it's not just the music you're interested in, or you have a very different understanding of music than I.  I fully enjoy listening to music in my Westy Vanagon, although it has the acoustics of an F2 tornado at highway speeds. I've flown >1M miles listening to Bose (or worse) headphones in horrendously noisy aluminum tubes, and enjoyed thousands of hours of music. I feel sorry for folks who can't enjoy the beauty of music if the decay of a cymbal isn't perfectly reproduced, or the "midrange" isn't perfectly liquid. Is it *more* enjoyable with better sound in a better acoustic? Sure, it can be, that is why we're here, theoretically.

But, I can be, and have been, brought to tears on particularly beautiful and soaring female vocal lines with mid-level cans on Youtube. If that's impossible for you, then I think you're missing an important part of the beauty of music. Mediocre reproduction of beautiful music is still beautiful. Beautiful reproduction of crap music is still crap.

That's just my opinion, of course, and it's totally impervious to the approbation or denigration by other's differing opinions.

@khughes , you are forcing me to both rethink my answer, to some degree, and revisit the question.

When do you know your system is pleasing to listen to? How do you conclusively prove to yourself that your system sounds good to you? How do you determine that you enjoy listening to music through your stereo? Do you have a suite of measurements that removes all shadow of a doubt that you are getting good sound, sound that you enjoy?

This is not the innocuous question this may seem to be. For those that don't know Ted, Ted has been on a multi-year, perhaps multi-decade attack on using measurements in audio. He created a "subjective" forum on Facebook where one is not allowed to discuss measurement, he makes fun of people who use measurements on multiple forums and in general to the point of being banned frequently.  It makes total sense, Ted's business is based around selling products that with few exceptions will produce no measurable benefit or a measurable difference so small as to be considered inaudible by any reasonably accepted metric. Even for the most obvious products, i.e. power conditioning Ted has never published any tests that show either a verifiable benefit other than a link one time by a 3rd party that showed just the slightest improvement.

Ted has published innumerable questions like this over the internet, in multiple independent forums, many of which he is no longer welcome at, and in multiple Facebook groups. So what you see as an innocuous question, I see as free marketing.

So since this is a free marketing posing as a question, I will respond with a

Do you have a suite of measurements that removes all shadow of a doubt that you are getting good sound, sound that you enjoy?

The answer is yes, yes I do.

- I don't think that my speakers are low distortion, I know they are.

- I don't think that my amplifiers are low distortion, I know they are

- I don't think my crossover are not adding coloration to the music, I know they don't

- I don't think I may or may not have system noise/ground/noise, I know I don't and where I did, I used products with known and verifiable benefits to fix the issue

- I don't have to guess at what my direct / reflected sound is, I know what it is

- I don't think I have an ideal in room frequency response (or more accurately whatever I want it to be), I know I do.

 - I also don't question whether my DAC is free or any number of real and invented artifacts,

- And just for good measure, I don't think my turntable is set up ideally. I know it is.

Now you may think that I believe the perfect path to audio nirvana is zero distortion and a perfectly flat response. You couldn't be farther from the truth. I am very aware of how distortion and frequency response can be manipulated in pleasing ways. I am also aware of what works for some music does not work for others, and even what works for one recording does not work for the next. So why did I set my goal to as perfect as possible?  Two reasons. One is I know exactly how my system performs, hence I know if what I hear is the recording or the system. Two, is I can (with signal processing) dial in whatever I want, depending on the recording, mood, who I am listening with, whatever.

Now I will give props where props are due. Ted does have a very good skill (other than marketing). I honestly believe that Ted has a very good ear, has a good feel for what his customers like to hear, or at least audio reviewers, and importantly, he knows how to set up a trade show room to sound pretty good, which is not an easy feat. There is a reason why Ted uses some of the best speakers made, and equipment that gives what many would consider a pleasant experience, typically tube gear with a typical higher frequency roll off good in a nasty hotel/trade show room. I have no doubt Ted spend hours listening in that room, moving the speakers, etc. till it sounds best, and having a good ear, is probably able to do this better than most.  What I don't believe is that SR equipment in the room, other than the acoustic panels, has much of any impact on the overall sound.