Pleasurably better, not measurably better

@curtdr 

It has been suggested previously that reviewers should have their hearing regularly tested and the results should be published for the benefit of their readers but no one seems very willing to do it.

It has been suggested that many loudspeakers have their treble balance tilted upwards in order to catch the listener's attention during a short demo but another consequence of that could be that such speakers will actually sound better to those reviewers who are experiencing some loss of high frequency hearing.

Such speakers will be almost painful to listen to for those who have good high frequency hearing (16kHz+).

Saying flat is ideal always reminds me of philosophers who have very neat ideal theories which then bump up against real world experience;

Maybe, maybe not.

If what we're interested in is the accuracy of playback then we do want a flat frequency response at the point of delivery.

However, there is no good reason for the listener to then modify the signal to compensate for room acoustics, hearing issues, personal tastes etc.

As you say, 

'This is why we have bass and treble controls too... to help compensate not only for our own individual hearing but also for our own personal preferences and purposes. It’s music, for crying out loud!' Taste matters.

It certainly does.

@curtdr If we have someone singing, there is only one singer. Whether one person is there watching or a thousand, it is still only one singer. And it does not matter what every member of the audience is hearing, and what their ears measure at the audiologist.

Saying that “we all hear differently” does not make it become 1000 singers.

We may prefer it pitch corrected, or tone corrected, and we may like the room to not colour the sound.
If I have 10 people listen to the same track, they all say that is Bob Dylan. I do not get people claiming that it is The Pixies, The Police or some random piano track.

Whatever they are hearing, that track sounds like the same Bob Dylan that they have heard and that they know.

@holmz "And it does not matter what every member of the audience is hearing..."

If you’re a member of the audience, it certainly does! It matters to oneself.

Ultimately, it does not matter what every measurement is telling me, if it doesn’t sound great to me, with my ears, in my room, to my taste.

Like someone earlier in this thread here, I am not here to serve the gear, the gear is here to serve me... so matter how "good" or how "bad" the measurable performance, if it doesn’t serve me pleasurably better, then it has no place in my home. Some "audiophiles" really are more "technophiles;" and technophilia has it’s place, but it ain’t gonna dictate my loving audio preferences.

I’ve heard plenty of speakers that "measure better" but that I do not like as much as certain personal trusty pleasurables, so obviously it would be downright silly to buy the less enjoyable speakers just because they measure better! (unless I’m trying to impress somebody other than myself... or if I’m being masochistic or audio-moralistic and insisting to myself that I should like the less enjoyable speakers, and damnit I’m going to make myself like them better because I "should"... )

Ok - I generally agree that one should get what they like.
But if we want the reproduction to still sound like the singer, then we generally want something that is not distorted to hell n back.

Then again I have heard some speakers with a lot of personality that sounded pretty good.

And I have some tube gear, so I must like some distortion, just like everyone else.
But the gear is not too far over on the spectrum of tubey.

I heard some speaker with the low distortion Purifi drivers, and they were pretty outstanding, so it is not like accuracy and low distortion is bad… 

I heard some speaker with the low distortion Purifi drivers, and they were pretty outstanding, so it is not like accuracy and low distortion is bad… 

No, I'm not saying they are either, but that no oscilloscope or calibrated microphone knows the experience you are trying to have, that you want to have, that makes you feel good.