@sixfour3,
As someone who believes in science, measurements, and subjective listening, I believe there are some serious misconceptions about "measurements", and the position that those who use measurements take, and what they mean. That misconception comes from blind attachment to absolute measurements (a well known audiosciencereview person), as well as those on the other side who don’t don’t understand measurements or want to sweep them under a rug in all cases.
Measurements will never indicate individual preference. They may indicate, after large scale tests like Harmon/Toole did, that most people will prefer a particular set of measured values, but they will never guarantee what any individual will prefer.
Measurements may also reveal "uncomfortable" truths, like high resolution digital does have more "information" and can capture and play back what comes off that microphone more accurately than analog tape and vinyl. More accurately does not mean you will prefer it, and because of side effects of vinyl, there may be psycho-acoustic effects that allow more of certain types of information to reach your brain. Strangely enough, more noise can also allow you to detect lower level signals in some cases. Reduced information can allow you to focus on that which is most important which may be lost in a higher information "stream".
And just to "tweak" the never measurements crowd :-), while measurements cannot reveal what we will subjectively like, they are pretty good at identifying what can or cannot make audible differences, but if you are unsure, you can always perform an unbiased test with your ears/brain :-)
As someone who believes in science, measurements, and subjective listening, I believe there are some serious misconceptions about "measurements", and the position that those who use measurements take, and what they mean. That misconception comes from blind attachment to absolute measurements (a well known audiosciencereview person), as well as those on the other side who don’t don’t understand measurements or want to sweep them under a rug in all cases.
Measurements will never indicate individual preference. They may indicate, after large scale tests like Harmon/Toole did, that most people will prefer a particular set of measured values, but they will never guarantee what any individual will prefer.
Measurements may also reveal "uncomfortable" truths, like high resolution digital does have more "information" and can capture and play back what comes off that microphone more accurately than analog tape and vinyl. More accurately does not mean you will prefer it, and because of side effects of vinyl, there may be psycho-acoustic effects that allow more of certain types of information to reach your brain. Strangely enough, more noise can also allow you to detect lower level signals in some cases. Reduced information can allow you to focus on that which is most important which may be lost in a higher information "stream".
And just to "tweak" the never measurements crowd :-), while measurements cannot reveal what we will subjectively like, they are pretty good at identifying what can or cannot make audible differences, but if you are unsure, you can always perform an unbiased test with your ears/brain :-)