Sound Advice: 'Cost no object' on audio gear?

The point is spec sheets can be and often are useful tools for identifying viable candidates that will most likely PERFORM WELL TOGETHER case by case.

What sounds best, especially after a certain point, is purely a matter of opinion.

Of course some specs and opinions are better than others. The game is to try to find the good ones.

So one can choose their poisons I suppose, but it is what it is. Hopefully the specs reflect that to some reliable degree.

FWIW I also hesitate to recommend something I have not heard but I will do it if someone needs an opinion bad enough in lieu of anything better.

For example if a product or company fits teh bill on paper AND has many positive reviews out there or has been around for awhile and is a proven commodity, there is lower risk. I might cite that with the qualification that I have not heard if someone finds that useful.

Again its all in the information available and how well one is able to synthesis it.

Whether anyone listens or not is a matter mostly of trust, which ideally must be earned.

But yeah, in the end nobody ever knows exactly until they hear it. i will never recommend that anything necessarily sounds the best other than IMHO.

ZD, I might trust your recommendations for hifi gear but I"m afraid I will pass for now on the brain surgery although I'm sure anyone would find some room for improvement there if they looked. :^)

I agree with your last post, but you did say this.

"Specs are the only metrics one has to decide what to try when it comes to picking an amp for speakers or siource or preamp to use with an amp. You make a sound recommendation by matching specs."

To me, its sounds like a pretty rigid statement. If you didn't mean it as such, that's fine. Sometimes our posts don't always come out the way we intend them. But one thing I'll add to the specs issue is that I don't always trust them. When you are talking amp specs, there's no set standard the industry uses to measure in the first place. If, for example, you took 5 different amps from 5 different manufacturers all rated for the same power and measured them all the same way, you'll get different amounts for each amp.

So I think we both agree that specs can be used as a guide, but for best results listening tests should also be done.

Look, you want to buy a TV, right? You walk into the store And look at the TVs in your price range, maybe even some TVs that are way out of your price range, you know, just to see what the big deal is, right? Then you buy the best one you can afford, the one with the best picture quality of the ones you can afford. Not once do you look at specs. Audio is no different. You guys are just psyching yourselves out. Specifications are blinding you to the reality of the situation. Specifications are intended for those folks who cannot hear or who don't trust their hearing.

Well, not only that, but stores that sell TV's don't always tune them all the same. The TV's that the store would prefer to sell are usually set up the best, while the other ones may not get the same attention. You would be surprised at how many stores do this type of thing. Its a very common practice.

A tv is all self contained. Most stereo systems involve matching of components. Then there is the room and it's acoustics. Not as simple. That's the difference.