Pleasurably better, not measurably better

I like the food analogy. Consider predicting how people will react to a dish by measuring the pH, thickness, saltiness, sweetness. Characterizing the food by single parameters is almost hopeless.  So you have the characteristics of a mixture and peoples values compounding the problem.

@hilde45 @ghdprentice 

Really good anology, I like it! And certainly no well mannered person would ever attack another for discussing the ph of a wine or the saltiness of the soup or the sweetness of the pie. :-)

Pleasurably better, not measurably better.

Love it. There's simply no argument against it save for trolling and insults and it brings us all back to the point of this hobby: it's what we, ourselves, enjoy.

Remove dogmatic objectivism from the equation and you're left with personal preferences, self enjoyment and the (happily) loss of peer pressure from those too tightly wound. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Technophiles: Is pleasurability measuable?

Quickly descending into a promo campaign for dealers?

Let’s not forget that there are also a few music lovers that do care for accuracy in playback.

Accuracy, not short term attention grabbing rising treble or smiley frequency curves. You can buy speakers like that for a few hundred dollars, so why spend thousands?

Accuracy and long term satisfaction is our common goal, is it not?

We don’t want to endlessly flit from one step of the never ending audio roundabout to the next, do we?

Losing money and gaining frustration as you go.

The best and most surest way to lasting pleasure is the measured way.

Endgame speakers are few and far between, but all of them seem to measure well.

Accuracy and long term satisfaction is our common goal, is it not?

No?  First, I don't believe that "accuracy" is really possible in a speaker/room combination outside of the original recording space, nor do I believe the engineers would have mixed to reproduce that space.  Next, if you look at the research undertaken by JBL and Harman over time, speaker makers and measurements were based on human desire, not energy time curves.  Those who misunderstand that always end up with systems far too bright and dry.

Lastly why should I care about accuracy if it isn't more engaging to listen to?

I'm not buying a telescope to measure the distance or size or material composition of a distant star.  I'm not buying a tool to help me measure the amount of chlorine in a pool.  I'm buying gear that makes me feel good.  At best I can achieve a system that sounds good with a wide variety of source materials.