The Absurdity of it All

@kevn  

Distortions, I listen for distortions first.

Silence in a system is a good thing when there is no signal. Turn it up with no signal with everything hooked up and turned on. The nature of the hiss will be a clue as to what is causing it.

Sibilance is a useful one. Nina Simone has a certain way of presenting sssss's. And for whatever reason, when recorded this part of her singing can get quite shrill when played back. I listen for how much clarity there is in those parts.

When listening to mids, I listen for transparency and how "bright" "crisp" they are. Also, they can be placed slightly higher or lower in the register.

When listening to bass, I look for a sharp, tight bass. It can get muddy real easy. 

Try running a 60hz tone through the set up. Sit where you sit and listen to the timber of the bass. Then walk around the room. It will at some point become a droning mess, at other points it will almost vanish. There will me a place where it sounds really good. This is where room treatments come in to play. The room is not easy to control and as it has been said many times, it's the biggest part of the system. 

Try moving where you sit, try moving the speakers so you get the bass to sound the way it did when you walked around the room.

A lifestyle system, where you are filling the room with sound, is a different kind of challenge.

No 70 year old has a putter that is any good any more.

Dismissing science because it doesn't fit nicely into your scheme is your own mistake to make. Science does not know everything but it's information creates a foundation on which to build further knowledge. In saying , " I don't know," you initiate the first step in the learning process. There is a ton of information about sound perception available that audiophile tend to side step. There is a book that is relatively easy for a lay person to understand, "An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing" by Brian C J Moore. It is a very good place to start. 

mijostyn

Dismissing science because it doesn't fit nicely into your scheme is your own mistake to make.

It's odd how the self-proclaimed objectivists here get defensive when someone questions their holy "science." Challenging and questioning, collecting data and analyzing it, are all part of science. Blindly accepted common belief is not "science."

Science does not know everything but it's information creates a foundation on which to build further knowledge.

That's true, but what it thinks it knows is not infallible.

Perkri, The best you can do is to get the bass right at the listening position by doing all those things you mention.  As many here have noticed other than rebuilding your media room the best way to deal with the bass problem is by adding multiple subwoofers. Room treatments come into play at higher frequencies above 250 Hz. 

It is undeniable true that many fine systems are ruined by room acoustics. 

clearthink1,211 posts04-21-2021 11:12pmdletch2"One day, a few will clue in to the fact that if all they chase are marketing claims and not real substantiated audible claims, then things will never get better and that they are part of the problem."

What we hear are real substantiated claims

If you don't know what the word substantiated means, I don't think we can progress any further in this discussion. Good day.