I don't want to beat a dead horse but I'm bugged.

You are right if you speak about the differences in gear....

But sound subjective evaluation is not only pure relative taste, it is also a LEARNED HEARING experimental journey with acoustic and psycho-acoustic experience and principles...

Difference in gear design and specs are also SUBJECTIVE and are judged by our own needs and expectations...

Difference in room acoustic are no more only subjective, you can objectively CONTROL a system/room at will and you can learn from this OBJECTIVE experiments installation the more you explore it...

That is my point...

Differences between relatively basic good gear at any price will not replace the HUGE impact of small room acoustic and psycho-acoustic control done right...

We learn to listen... Our tastes are secondary like our gear pieces are secondary if they are well chosen gear to begin with and in accordance with our wallet...acoustic is primary for our understanding of sound...

Saying the opposite is pushing people in the marketing trap of obsessive upgrading and entertain a universal ignorance about how good sound experience emerge in a specific room for our particular ears...

Also keep in mind that there exist a minimal threshold for  what may be  experienced as a good sound experience related to the S.Q./price ratio for the gear you own...One this treshold is reached and master upgrade are way less attractive...An improvement is ALWAYSpossible for sure but here the ratio S.Q./ price plays for most of us...

Acoustic cues and factors  that may be and must be controlled : timbre, bass, dynamics, imaging, soundstage, LEV/ASW ratio, etc all these acoustical cues and factors  will give us an OBJECTIVE number of "tags" and indexes all along the subjective road...

Controlled Correlation between our subjectivity and objective installation is the heart of acoustic and psycho-acoustic learning experience and experiments...

Superior sound is subjective. What you like someone else may hate. Many roads to the same place.

Superior sound is subjective. What you like someone else may hate. Many roads to the same place.

Agreed and exactly my point. You have to hear and listen to make a final choice determination. If some folks prefer to downplay actual listening,  more power to you and enjoy your scrutiny of numbers. Listening has served me well so I'll stick with that.  

Charles 

The fact that one component can measure better than another isn't the point of my earlier comment.  I believe audiophiles should not have to accept poorly measuring equipment.  The tube equipment that I see measured in Stereophile actually measure fairly well.  As a group they don't measure as well as the majority of solid state amps, but it's not as if they don't have good measurements.

@onhwy61 

I think the implication is that some people like the sound of audible artifacts. I think I may have in the past. If you make them measure well you lose the artifacts.

I think the implication is that some people like the sound of audible artifacts. I think I may have in the past. If you make them measure well you lose the artifacts.

Oy vey!

I guess I’m just not picking up the logic here. Oh well, nonetheless I do appreciate and respect everyone’s point of view on this topic.

Charles