Just so happens that I was a practicing scientist when I began my pursuit of high end audio… before graduate school. Within a year I realized that the published technical parameters were grossly insufficient to account for most of what we hear in electronically reproduced music. It isn’t that this is beyond the realm, companies use science and engineering as a foundation to producing good sounding equipment. It is that the number of variables become overwhelming quickly. So, many variables quickly send designers to experimentation quickly… basic material science.
This is something I know something about. I worked as an inventor (electrical mechanical engineer) after college. I was given the task of designing a new system. The first few days I used physical and chemical properties to design. Then, realized how I would need computer simulation. I just went out and bought dozens of materials and used them in a prototype to see how they functioned. Hundreds of time more efficient.
Basic science is fantastic when using a few variables… but throw in dozens or hundreds for the sake of creating audio components and it become too time consuming.
Let me suggest you forget your vendetta against all of us stupid gullible people that will spend $5K on speaker cables or interconnects. Just go out and listen to some insanely expensive systems. Forget the price. Just listen. If they don’t sound fantastic to you. Great, go home and enjoy your system. If they do sound amazing… like they did to me… start investigating why.
I did. What I found is that they are systems and every component matters. You can find a good sounding system with just great components, but you will not find great sounding systems without every aspect carefully chosen and optimized. If you simply put together “good measuring” equipment like ASR is likely to recommend you will have yourself a very poor sounding system.