How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

@danager what you call an adult conversation is laughable. This entire thread is a joke. The premise was to evoke a conversation leading to testimonials and shilling Teds over priced gear.

There has been no conversation here and it is the same old boring BS.

I will make a contribution for you, buy some decent  cables, some magic elixir for your connectors and you will be in audio heaven.

Yawn…."

Did you stamp your foot when you wrote that?  

Three pages of posts would probably disagree with there is no conversation here and your childish disregard for everyone who did participate with your one word condescending smirk is probably wondering like I am "Who the heck cares whether your bored or not and why if that's how you feel would you think its at all beneficial to the post to add it?"

I don't see a product mentioned in the OPs post.  If I was in a business of providing products to a specialized demographic I'd also want to better understand my clientele.

If cables and elixirs bring you pleasure and that's how gauge your enjoyment great.  That at least moves the conversation instead of detracting from it.

@roxy54 you are in good company. Strange world where measure AND listen are on the fringe middle while the two warring flocks go at each other with blind religious fervor….

The middle is never a fringe.  Vice versa.

It seems the core of arguments here and on all other audio groups revolve around what it is that constitutes good sound with people on one side who all but claim subjective observations of sound quality are meaningless. That people who believe stereos that sound good to them, do in fact sound good, are somehow delusional. Question, where are these staunch objectivists defending their position that what subjectively sounds good is not necessarily the most important criteria where sound quality is concerned?

Good question. Really good question. So far as I can see all the answers boil down to, "I know it when I hear it." A majority go even beyond that, "I know it when I feel it." They talk about being drawn in, losing track of time, etc. One even went so far as to say, "When I can listen to Adele." Talk about a high bar!

But, unless I missed it, not a single one said, "When it measures good."

Amazingly, no one said, "When the double-blind test confirms it sounds good."

Astoundingly, no one said, "Well on account of expectation bias I am never really sure of anything."

So kudos compliments and atto-boys on a clever discussion topic. Still, don’t judge, as Stilgar might say, hastily. The question is, "How do you know". So it could be you got the answers you did because this is those of us who know. Could it be people insist on measurements because they don’t know what sounds good?

Measurements are another tool that smart people know how to apply for example to help decide what products to choose to listen to so they can then make their subjective decisions about what sounds good more effectively.

What comes first the chicken or the egg?

How do you decide what products to listen to? A crystal ball? What looks good? What some guy on the internet or a reviewer says you should? Only the ones at the local dealer if there even is one near you? Only the ones in a friend’s house, if available?

Maybe. But if you are building a system with components, putting those into a room, and you want those components to perform well together and thereby have a better chance of sounding good or maybe even outstanding once you get that far best to learn to read and interpret measurements. Not that you might not stumble onto something good otherwise, but....facts matter. Especially technical ones. You can choose to ignore them but does not change the facts.