How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

The sound waves travel my small room at a speed of sound, 343 meters per second or 1125 feet per second......

My room is 13 feet square... More than 80 crossing through my room each second...

This means my room atmosphere is like a tense violin cord....So sensible to any small change that is is easy to hear any new elements introduced in a room we already know...

My brain#ears decipher sound waves differently each one of them and make decision in SOMETIMES ONE MILLISECOND... ( Hass effect)

Then anything in the room, any acoustic material content, his geometry and the topology of the room, will deteriorate sound or improve its recognition in a way far greater than upgrading a good amplifier for a so called better one...

It is acoustic who dictate sound quality AT THE END...Not measurements of electronical piece of gear nor our own satisfaction after an upgrade...

Not the branded name of speakers or amplifiers...

Buy good gear FIRST and forget them after that , and read about acoustic....

And no acoustic tweaks will replace acoustic control...On the opposite we may replicate any tweak effect in a room by using acoustic treatment and acoustic Helmholtz mechanical control....

For example using angles in my speakers position and an acoustic screen i mimic an headphone effect ( the sound floating not in my head but around my head with some recording)...

But it is more easy to buy ready made costlier product than making our own acoustic listening experiment for sure...I dont negate the usefulness and practicality of products at all.. Few people use an audio dedicated room like i did...

I just want to make my point known....Acoustic reign supreme in audio...

Objectivism or subjectivism about the gear is a deceptive marketing effect RESULTING from years of customers publicity conditioning...

In short, when you get a Life Changing Experience, then it sounds good.

This is called a circular reasoning... This is a publicity motto... Sorry....

This is even used for decades to sell new upgrading product...

i always liked myself all my pieces of gear, one after the other all my life....But was never satisfied really... Guess why?

The only way to know if your system sound at his potential working peak, nevermind the gear, is by acoustic control...

After that all your albums sound interesting, all of them reveal the acoustical choices made at the recording time...

My worst album acoustically are now revealing and interesting...

If you look ONLY for very good audiophile recording it is a sign that your system dont worked at his potential working peak YET...WHY?

When your audio system is under control, all albums are suddenly musical in their own way, with specific acoustical choices and trade-off made by the recording engineer and even the bad one are interesting to know...

Music through sound and sound through music....Not one without the other....

“the amount of hatred and absurdity is stunning here.”

Agreed. There is a stunning amount of absurd hatred afoot.

Hatred is a strong word that shouldn't be misused. I would say strong disagreement.

When you take the time to learn how audio works, and then instead of wasting your money on things like magic fuses, over priced cable, AC noise isolators that do nothing, Schuman toys, teensy acoustic resonators, and all manor of stuff that does little or nothing, and spend time and money on the stuff that matters oh, like acoustic panels, bass control including sub arrangements, achieving an in-room response that is effective, learning to balance direct/reflective sound, and speakers that don't distort ... then you may have a system that sounds good.

However, you know you really have reached the pinnacle when the owner of an audiophile tweak company goes out of his way to insult you on audio forums.