How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

I become convinced that my stereo sounds good to me when I continue to enjoy it after many months of listening to all kinds of music, without feeling any need to adjust anything, and even after hearing other systems that are decidedly superior. What sounds good to me and gives me the experience I want out of reproduced sound at home is at least a little below my threshold of absolute detection of sound quality. 

On 11/11, I started a thread here....." If a system cannot do this, I move on ".......I invite anyone here to read it, and comment. Enjoy ! 

Some measurements are critical. How wide is it? How tall and how deep is it? Will it fit on my shelf? How loud will it play?

All the rest of the measurements are just marketing. I can’t hear numbers or even verify what the heck they’re actually measuring it certainly isn't sound quality.

If numbers are really that important you should be buying a calculator instead of a stereo. When I rent a moving van do I really care what its 0 to 60 time is. I’m sure it’s measured somewhere but would you rent one because of that or how many boxes it holds?

After you determine where you’re going to put it the only thing that matters is HOW DOES IT SOUND TO ME?

If you can’t answer that question without relying on someone else's numbers, maybe you’re in the wrong hobby.

Read Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy and discover that the physics/abstraction  dichotomy is first dramatized as early as the fifth century BC. Collateral reading: The Bacchae by Euripides. The conclusion I draw is that BOTH the Apollonian electricians and the Dionysian aesthetes are necessary contributors to our chosen hobby (indeed, lifestyle) as evidenced in this discussion.

We would have no hobby without the electricians. What we would have might  sound like a can of nails without the influence of the aesthetes. As an admitted and accepted (in my orbit) aesthete, I honor those whose talents allow them to plumb the depths of physics in order to improve the audiophile's lot. Their work is essential and many of their tools are used by all of us in our everyday life.

Problem is the electricians continually fail to produce the perfect system. Someday they will do it and we'll gladly give it a listen and critique.

Meanwhile, is there anything to be done but enjoy what we have as we slip into the abyss?

Great post

denverfred....

My deepest respect....