Agree or disagree with the following statement.

Look, how do you buy a TV? You go in the store and look at the picture of the ones in your budget. Then you pick the one you like. Why should audio be any different? Duh!

Would you marry a woman based solely on her specs? If you did, It would almost certainly be a brief and costly experience. Audio components are a little easier to get rid of but the sting could be just as bad. It's your money though, so fie away.

I've not read the whole thread, so I may be off topic now or repeat what has already been written, sorry in case.

I think specs can give us an idea on 'how it sounds' but just an idea, a hint. That's due to several reasons, going from the reliability and completeness of the specs to one's capability of fully understand the specs themselves, and passing through a nebulosa of factors I don't now but which may give a 'model' its peculiar voice(employed materials, constructive solutions, proprietary patents not unveiled yet... a factor I could call undeclared specs) .

A skilled technician or a competent hifi enthusiast may guess much of the sound of a system by just reading the specs of all the components; I can't believe, though, that he could EXACTLY and COMPLETELY imagine (like hearing in his mind) the sound in all it's shades, subtelties, the exact amount of crispiness, of slam, dynamics, harshness...
and nuances and subtle differences are often what this is all about.

I agree with the statement, but find test parameters important too.

True, you can't tell how equipment sounds based only on measurements. But that's more a factor of us not having adequate measurements that are truly fit for purpose.

And we should always listen to equipment when spending our money, because in the end, all that matters is that our own ears are pleased.

But I want professional reviews to include measurements, and I want the professional reviewer to understand measurements and what they mean. Sorry but I don't trust other people's purely subjective opinions. There is just too much room for unchecked ramblings (Sam Tellig? althought I always enjoyed reading his well-written ramblings) and outright unethical behavior (see Corey Greenberg).

Without measurements, it just opens the door wide open for people telling me that CDs sound better when they coat the edges with green paint.