"my ears have rarely been able to match their test results."
It is important to learn this skill, because the measurements are the sound, with the exception of small nuances. Knowing what measurement effects which part of the sound can really help cut through lots of options and help you "upgrade" you system with much more control and direction.
What is dangerous about measurements is it sets a standard that people can make objective judgements about the performance of equipment, and this is very bad for high end audio. Once you can take your own measurements it becomes very easy to correlate the general performance of a product and what is sounds like. The imperfection of measurements is only human, what we interpret and how we take them.
Information is information, its how you sort it out that makes it useful or not. Whether you hear the information (can't print it out) or see the information
PS: tabulated measuremnts like ".0004% distortion", absolutely useless agreed there. The battery of graphs on Stereophile reviews super useful, even when JA changes the measurement tolerance to make a product look good.
