Tubes vs Solid State - Imaging, Soundstaging, 3D

But having said that most afiles care more about the sound than the specs, if I hear something that sounds good but does not measure well ( to some reasonable reference standard that it probably should) a little question mark will likely go off in my head asking "why".

In general, technical standards are a good thing. Not sure why audio should be any different? That's one of the things that leaves high end audio open for criticism, lack of standards. In lieu of standards, its harder in general to decide what things will play well together. You have to rely more on specific more proprietary solutions designed to work well together. Proprietary usually means fewer choices. That can be a good or bad thing. How Apple does things is an example many can relate to. People who love their products rely on Apple exclusively to a huge degree. Its a closed product space where Apple alone makes the decisions and provides the options. Many like that! Many do not. I am NOT an Apple fan in general.

if I hear something that sounds good but does not measure well ( to some reasonable reference standard that it probably should) a little question mark will likely go off in my head asking "why".

Now you know why, the technical specs don't jive with human hearing/perceptual rules, which also answers the question below:

In general, technical standards are a good thing. Not sure why audio should be any different?

I am sure its possible to develop test/measurement techniques that *do* correlate with human hearing rules, but right now the industry has had no will to do so and has not for the last 45 years so don't hold your breath.

"I am sure its possible to develop test/measurement techniques that *do* correlate with human hearing rules, but right now the industry has had no will to do so and has not for the last 45 years so don't hold your breath."

I'm not.

I suppose the standards that are applied do correlate to some extent with human hearing rules. It would be hard to see how products could be sold if not.

But I suppose it can also be proposed there are better standards possible. Few standards are perfect, so I could see where this could be the case.

More a matter of degree, or Shades of Gray, like most things, as I see not, not black and white, right and wrong.

I submit that there isn't any rules for human hearing. It's clear that very few audiophiles can agree on a regular basis when it comes to which piece of gear sounds the best, or even better. It has been shown that people can even develop strong preference in A/B comparison where nothing actually changed. While I won't completely dismiss the idea that there's something to human hearing that's beyond scientific measurement, I don't believe that is any attribute of it that is consistent enough to be distinguished from placebo and personal preference.