@goofyfoot
lets look at your comment in detail. “How would a purchaser know…”
That is really simple, there is this thing called the World Wide Web. I don’t want to sound like I am trolling you, but You asked the question. There is tons of information available on the web for anyone who cares how he spends $100k. For some that might not be a problem and that person is likely going to listen to his pal Joe tell him how he should spend his money. Now that isn’t always a bad thing. If you have shared experiences with a particular person and know what they like and you have similar likes that is good information, but not all have this type of familiarity. O the other hand EVERY manufacturer puts out some sort of fact list on what their equipment does, then after that you start your research.
I know that there is a big push on buying a car on your cell phone never having driven it, but how does that work when you finally get to drive that piece of junk that the previous owner put cork in the transmission to quiet it?
Then I go to a store to TRY to get hands on idea of how a particular system works but that is getting to be impossible as you don’t know what types of accessories are included. How long they have been burnt in together. What kind of JUNK the sales person is expecting you to listen to. I recently went shopping at one of the better and OLDEST stores in Denver and the sales person had NO WEAY of playing the sample disks I took in with me. He couldn’t even pull up the groups or selections on any of his streaming sources. He then asked me what I was using in my current system which I told him my background in designing speakers for over 40 years and that I had some GREAT, full sized towers. So what did he do? He connected some 4” B&Ws. I have nothing against B&Ws but they sounded like 4” bookshelf speakers PERIOD. He by the way lost that sale. Another shop was able to play my disks but on an Xbox. For Crying out loud. They called themselves a HIGH end Audiophile store. This store I called ahead of time to arrange an APPOINTEMNT and explained EXACTLY what I wanted and expected. They said this sales person is their go to guy for Anthem. He sat me down to listen to some Junk SMALL towers connected and when it couldn’t produce one note below about 80 hz he proclaimed that he had recently taken off the Subs and never ran Diraclive again. Why should I take hours out of my day, drive across multiple counties, and even expect to listen to the JUNK that modern sales people, and I use that term VERY loosely, set up for me to listen to. There are virtually NO PROFESSIONALS anymore.
Now your next comment, “There may be some designers who volunteer that information to the public domain but most do not for a variety of reasons, like not wanting their work to be pirated. “
As stated before there are a multitude of places you can find information. Places like the Audiogon Forums and many more. And concerning piracy, well yes there are some trade secrets but some people actually have a screwdriver and friends who have used their screwdriver and taken the lid off their BLACK BOX to see what is on the inside. Also much of the time all you have to do is look a the products sold like say the idiots at BOSE who have Never had an original idea EVER. Everything they have made is either publically available designs that they have at Best made slight mods too, or hopefully improvements to, and of course the designs that they have outright pirated from others designers. Some examples are the huge variety of slanted and angled speakers that they did not originate but only went off the deep end trying to find something that might work. The Noise canceling headphones which came after MANY years of Aeronautical experimentation on noise canceling tech they created for the Airline industry. And then the Bose boom box with the folded horn design what I believe either JBL or Altec Lansing created the first successful folded horns.
Finally your comment, “Designers have to use testing and measurements to build their products but scientific data isn't what they're selling.” To some extent yo are correct. The final test comes down to personal taste and hearing a product. But as mentioned above how do you go about that? Also some of the best companies use their engineering designs as a MOJOR selling point. I don’t have to go more than about 15 miles from home to visit ‘PS Audio’ of Boulder, CO where they will WOW any learned or beginner with their advanced tech and design, should you desire. They will go into details that most people never knew existed or cared to know about.
So the bottom line is do you care how your money is spent, do you even know what music is? You might not like my Jazz and I might not like head banger tracks. It’s an OPINION. Are you willing to even investigate what you want? How well do your friends opinions and tastes inter into your decisions on products you purchase?