Part of my premise is a question if past some threshold we can meaningfully speak about “better”.
There is a broad agreement on what sounds poor (for instance, we had Grundig “Party Center 2200” when I was a teenager; fine for radio news, orherwise crap). I recall Williamson did a lot to set benchmarks. Past that lies the land of diminishing returns, where different people prefer different things, and “better” becomes individual.
If swapping into the system a different piece of equipment which was set aside for a half a year causes me similar [positive] emotional reaction as a new piece of equipment, I interpret it that I have reached a plateau. Most probably it is my hearing limitations kicking in, there surely are much better ears (I cannot sing, at least I dare not, and, more importantly, nobody asks me to)... but I am not so sure whether there is a strong correlation between good ears and audiophile hobby (that could be an interesting research topic).
It is a scientific fact that people in average think that they are better than the average person. So audiophiles normally should believe that they (we?) have better ears than the average person. Before research, I have my reservations to agree to that (for one thing, I believe research consistently shows that women have better hearing than men).
Moreover, if smb. hears a difference, and smb. else does not, it may just as well mean that the first person’s mind plays a trick - we often experience what we expect to experience.
So those are my problems with subjective approach to sound quality - if I observe my own behavior, I conclude that I may be going in circles. I could knock myself out doing ABX comparisons, etc., but that is already done, results can be repeated, no need to re-invent a diamond frame bicycle.
That being said, some subjective observations remain consistent, e.g., I consistently set aside Pass Aleph 4, and I prefer to it ML no. 27, 23 and even Parasound hca 2200 2. I like Aleph’s purist schematic and SE class A, but I prefer a different sound most of the time. I would not call my preference “better” though.
There is a broad agreement on what sounds poor (for instance, we had Grundig “Party Center 2200” when I was a teenager; fine for radio news, orherwise crap). I recall Williamson did a lot to set benchmarks. Past that lies the land of diminishing returns, where different people prefer different things, and “better” becomes individual.
If swapping into the system a different piece of equipment which was set aside for a half a year causes me similar [positive] emotional reaction as a new piece of equipment, I interpret it that I have reached a plateau. Most probably it is my hearing limitations kicking in, there surely are much better ears (I cannot sing, at least I dare not, and, more importantly, nobody asks me to)... but I am not so sure whether there is a strong correlation between good ears and audiophile hobby (that could be an interesting research topic).
It is a scientific fact that people in average think that they are better than the average person. So audiophiles normally should believe that they (we?) have better ears than the average person. Before research, I have my reservations to agree to that (for one thing, I believe research consistently shows that women have better hearing than men).
Moreover, if smb. hears a difference, and smb. else does not, it may just as well mean that the first person’s mind plays a trick - we often experience what we expect to experience.
So those are my problems with subjective approach to sound quality - if I observe my own behavior, I conclude that I may be going in circles. I could knock myself out doing ABX comparisons, etc., but that is already done, results can be repeated, no need to re-invent a diamond frame bicycle.
That being said, some subjective observations remain consistent, e.g., I consistently set aside Pass Aleph 4, and I prefer to it ML no. 27, 23 and even Parasound hca 2200 2. I like Aleph’s purist schematic and SE class A, but I prefer a different sound most of the time. I would not call my preference “better” though.