How do you know when a stereo sounds good?


When do you know your system is pleasing to listen to? How do you conclusively prove to yourself that your system sounds good to you? How do you determine that you enjoy listening to music through your stereo? Do you have a suite of measurements that removes all shadow of a doubt that you are getting good sound, sound that you enjoy? Please share.

128x128ted_denney

When Adele becomes listenable. (It hasn't happened yet but that's my ultimate goal)

Keeping it simple when the sound has a strong phantom center image and my speakers seem to mostly disappear.

When my brain gets tricked by where the sound is coming form.

Sorry but this phantom image between speakers is not even the beginning of acoustic control...The stereo sound must be out of the speakers and filling the room or around you and even coming from back of your head in some recording....All recording albums are different, but if the sound is ONLY between speakers, your stereo system is not optimized by acoustic at all....

Your room is probably under controlled...

 

Keeping it simple when the sound has a strong phantom center image and my speakers seem to mostly disappear.

When my brain gets tricked by where the sound is coming form.

When you find yourself thinking back to how great Led Zeppelin and other former favorites used to sound so good and instead you are listening to Steely Dan who you never gave much thought to previously.

Bottom line; when you find yourself much preferring artists that you never know existed before you spent 20k or similar putting a nice system together.

@mahgister Of course all that too.  I'm just describing the beginning of what I find enjoyable with a well implemented audio system.