ACTUAL MUSICAL SOUND VS. MEASUREMENTS

@acman3 @mclinnguy Thank you for your kind comments. Although she was quite ill last year, she’s now relatively well thanks to ongoing targeted therapy. On the bright side, she had 17 years in remission to do amazing things and see her boys grow up. With a bit of luck, she’ll be around for a good while yet.

Sad to see Linda Nolan just passed away with breast cancer.

This subject has been rattling around my brain all day.

It occurred to me that the preference of many for vinyl over streaming/CDs gives us a steer towards there being more to assessing sound quality than just measurements.

By all objective metrics, the digital formats should be superior to vinyl. Yet, many people prefer listening to vinyl records. I have made comparisons between the formats using a Linn Klimax DSM/3 and a Linn Klimax LP12 with Urika II.

My preference was strongly for the sound of vinyl, despite the turntable falling short of Linn’s best. Granted not every LP is perfect, but generally the LP12 has a touch of magic that the DSM/3 lacks.

I’d argue that this is fair indication that measurement doesn’t tell us everything.

Don’t try to tell me that my preference for the LP12 is the result of confirmation bias. This test is repeatable. Also, it would have been much more convenient for me if I’d preferred the DSM/3. That would have saved me considerable expense.  

Ideally, I would have used a wider range of players. For my purposes that is not necessary and I’ll leave it for others to do. Of course, my preference is the result of subjective judgement. Isn’t that the nature of qualitative assessment and why quantitative measurement can only go far?

@wolf_garcia exactly I dont like math problems mixed with my music. I wanna not think and let go and let the music move me. BINGO! 

@everyone glad you are on this thread. Love the points of view and humor. This is what it’s about. Disagreeing without name calling or making enemies. Thanks. 

The only measurement I understand the amp power, preamp gain, speaker sensitivity, sormetimes cart measurement, and cables length.i care most of the musical performance and system matching.