How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

I've been a audiophile since the start of the 80s. During that time, I've found out that you start to listen more to the sound that your getting than the music itself.

You will notice that certain music peaces sound very good on your system and others sound pretty bad. That will be the case in just about any case as all recordings are not of equal quality. Also, your listening room will make for 50% of your listening enjoyment.

I started to listen more to the music and less to the sound. That way, I can enjoy music in my car, just as much as my big rig. It's just a different experience. Enjoy the music first. Sound is secondary.  

Take the measurements with a grain of salt. If I went by the “measurements” I would have never bought the Vandersteen's I currently have and love. Every measurement told me that they were 86 to 87 db and that my class A amps could not drive them. All the measurements in theory were wrong as my amps not only drive them but they sound great besides. So like everything gather all the info not just some and make your own judgement decisions and enjoy the music.

For me, it's real simple: Drop the needle on "Live From Deep in the Heart of Texas, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen" and crank it up to where conversation isn't possible, close your eyes and just listen to the musicianship. You should be about third row center in the concert, able to point to the musicians on the stage. It is a rowdy Texas bar recording that just happens to be one of the best live recordings I have heard.

Then drop the needle on "Waiting for Columbus" from Little Feat. Once again, you should be at the concert with some of the best musicians EVER!

Next up is "The Seth James Band, Live @ Grune Hall". This is Texas blues at its best.

If your stereo can recreate the concert in your listening room, you will smile, you will laugh and you will enjoy all of your music all over again.

@cindyment

"So since this is a free marketing posing as a question, I will respond with a

Do you have a suite of measurements that removes all shadow of a doubt that you are getting good sound, sound that you enjoy?

The answer is yes, yes I do"

For the record, I don't have a clue who "Ted" is, and being an old curmudgeon, this is as close as I get to social media, thus I'm more likely to invent time travel than get into FB.

BUT, here I would have to disagree with you. I would submit that don't know *that* the sound is good, nor that it *is* the sound you enjoy (although closer on this one) because of measurements. You've identified a number of the *whys* you find you're subjectively enjoying good sound. An example, say you tilt your system response to accommodate a loss of HF hearing on my part; that tilt makes your system sound wonderful to me, and shrill and unlistenable to you.  That's why I make the distinction - measurements can control, they can distinguish, they can provide for reproduciblity and repeatablity of particular setups, identify room modes, etc. They identify the "whys" for an individual, not as a general principle, because individual preferences are not determined (measured by, or identifiable by, are not the same IMO) by objective criteria. This may sound like a quibble, but believe it's fundamental to understanding the issue. You need no understanding of acoustics or physics to determine what sounds good to you. Serendipity can work, like the lottery. But you do need them to understand the parameters that combine to create the sound you prefer.  Audiophiles that poo-poo DSP will nonetheless experiment with all manner of pathological cable designs to achieve, less reliably, less predictably, and more expensively, what DSP easily achieves - i.e. what it is designed for.

And of course, when one makes an extraordinary claim that has no known support in either acoustics, electronics, or physics, one needs measurements to support the claim.  Yes, rocks, plates, firehoses, I'm looking at you...

@mahgister 

"Is my system better than the system of Ted or cindyment ? No

But it is so good i dont give a dam about upgrade... My system is under 500 bucks... All my device are homemade..."

This I would wholly agree with, it's where I am as well albeit more expensively, but to my thinking, you have made a diametrically opposing comment below:

"Feel free to contradict me...

A system does not sound good because we feel it is good.... A system sound good with minimal acoustical settings... If not it is an happy illusion... All my system were bad all my life and i always tought that they sounded good..."

OK, so please explain how is "because we feel it is good" qualitatively different than "But it is so good i dont give a dam about upgrade"?  You seem to be using "good" extremely liberally, meaning anything from "meh, sort of ok" to "so wonderful improvement is irrelevant".  So not sure exactly what you mean (I know English is not your mother tongue, and I'm not trying to quibble grammar or syntax, just not sure the distinction you are trying to draw). 

I would also say that "If not it is an happy illusion" applies to all stereos at all times. Stereo *is* an illusion, is just the realism provided by the illusion that we are discussing. There is no one "True Path" to enjoyment, there are a great many, and they are far from universally shared.

Thanks for the occasion you give me to be clearer...

All our past  systems may sound good to us...At some time and for many people it is enough... And it is OK....

But if we enter in some listening experiments journey, like i had, you  may discover some BASIC facts...

The electrical noise floor of the house is too high...

The vibrations affect greatly your gear....

The passive treatment of the room is very important, and even active mechanical control may be necessary in a dedicated room, i even add a mechanically controlled equalizer made from many Helmholtz resonators...

It is not perfect by all means....

But now i know why my system is "good" because i had a comparison BEFORE and AFTER these embeddings controls installation WITH THE SAME GEAR...

Then thinking that our sound is "good" is not enough now for me generally speaking ... We must know why....Thinking that good gear will do is not enough...Because of  the huge impact  of electrical noise floor problem, vibrations, and acoustic...

My comment "feel free to contradict me" is only to underline my openness to discussion...

There are 3 criterias FOR ME to know if your system is good:

Is the playing microdynamical timbre of any voices and instrument are well defined like a human face ?

Is the sound filling the room, fill the room with good imaging OUT of the speakers ?

Are ALL your albums now revealing the acoustical choices of the recording engineer and his trade-off when recording the album? If all your albums even the less well recorded are interesting now?

If yes you are there....Perhaps not with the best system but you begin to listen music without thinking about the sound or without picking an album  only because it appear well recorded...

is it clearer?

My best and deepest respect....

OK, so please explain how is "because we feel it is good" qualitatively different than "But it is so good i dont give a dam about upgrade"? You seem to be using "good" extremely liberally,