@nyev ,
You started out with a post asserting that, and I hope I am paraphrasing correctly, that you believe we can have two things that measure identical, or close enough, but hear a difference. First, is that truly what you are asserting?
I think measurements can provide us with significantly more information about how we will interpret how something sounds than many audiophiles give them credit to do. I think first this belief from audiophiles comes from general lack of understanding of how to interpret measurements or how to apply them. There is a lot of data in a Klippel report for a speaker. It takes some level of training, not extensive, but at least some, and definitely some experience, to read all that data and come up with a fairly good understanding of how that speaker will be perceived by most people, even more so when their room is considered. Where this data is highly beneficial is where you have the data for the speaker you are currently using, the one you are considering, and know what you like/dislike about your current speaker. This allows an interpretation of the measurements within a framework of the listener's preferred target sound.
I do think the most contentious thing that ASR does is make the claim for many products that the product is transparent, and not only that it is transparent, but because it is transparent, it will sound the same as this much more expensive product. I would say that question could be easily resolved with a blind format listening test, but I am now quite certain that even if that showed them to be the same, that far too many would not accept the results. I am a bit shocked by the views on blind format listening I have read here. So I will ask you, what do you thin is an adequate and acceptable way to prove that two products sound the same?