stereo system evaluation--objective or subjective

That would mean removing subjectivity and using only technical data. I wonder to what extent design engineers use their ears. There is a fairly large margin of predictability towards a particular desired outcome but I would think a lot of trial and error goes into prototyping any piece of gear before a final rendition is settled on. So I guess I've answered my own question.

The only logical way to evaluate a TV is look at the picture and compare it to the picture of other TVs sitting next to it, no? Why would evaluating anything audio related be any different?

Cheers

Geoffkait,

That's true, but evaluating TV picture is not that simple. Where it comes to sharp/soft or cold/warm static picture anybody can see it right away, but when the same picture looks very different at 240Hz refresh rate it become complex. My TV has this ability and I hate it. Everything looks like home video made. Somebody must love it, otherwise they wouldn't sell it. I also remember TV set that was sharpening slowly when picture got still (faces). It looked very weird in the store but customer I talked to couldn't see it. My Samsung LED TV has edge lighting that supposed to be very uneven - I cannot see that. My TV picture is almost perfect to me but some people, I talked to, believe that analog technology was better. Sound is perhaps even more complex.

again, nobody addressed my point:

are there any specs that can be used to screen components

are there any parameters which could be used to discriminate between components that one might want to audition from those to avoid ?

for example, there are many preamps out there. it is impossible to listen to all of them. it may be possible to establish a probability that, given criteria, one could feel confident that it is worth listening to some, or , perhaps, it's hopeless.

Mrtennis,

The answer is no. Technical measurements are objective but often gear that measures best sounds the worst.