Do you trust your ears more than measurements?

Dan Foley from Audio Precision wrote an interesting short article in 2016. A few clips from the article:

• "As he explains, instrumentation noise floor is an overlooked contributor for the reason we are not able to measure a particular audible “distortion,” especially with low sound pressure level (SPL) signals."
• "the reason given as to why a particular audible “distortion” cannot be measured is that the measurement equipment doesn’t have sufficient signal processing capabilities, such as measurement bandwidth or Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) resolution."

article: "Test and Measurement: “I Can Hear It. Why Can’t I Measure It?”"

I use my ears, 100%.

Every once in a while, I get the bug to change some settings, adjust some parameters, that sort of thing...

Invariably, I tune it back to where it was (or very, very close, anyway).

That leads me to believe I’m pretty much at the limits of my equipment. I’m OK with that.

I have never, ever had anyone who has listened to my system not leave smiling.

I have no idea how it measures. Sure sounds good, though. 😎

Funny how ignorant people may be because they are lazy or lack the time and energy necessary to learn ...😁

Measurements are not all about mere  electrical factors of gear design by the way ...

They can be physical mechanical measures...

They can be acoustical measures with various parameters...

They can be psychoacoustics measures...

Then claiming all is subjective impression is pure ignorance...Sorry...

Then claiming that all is objective measures  most of the times with few electrical measures specs as in ASR forums about a piece of gear ISOLATED from all other mechanical and acoustical and psychoacoustical  measures if connected to a specific system in a specific  for specific owner specific mearured ears is RIDICULOUS....

All these measures imply a variation of the possible set of parameters which must be correlated to your own specific ears impressions...

Then why people are so dumb and divide themselves in two blind  opposite crowds ? ( it remind me of the Trumpist opposed to the Bidenist )

It is because of the conditioning by marketing power focussing to their selling pitch about   ONE pice of gear to sell  at a times to the gullible reading the price tag as truth ...

What we buy matter less than the way we will embed it by listening in a training process by varying the set of possible mechanical,electrical and acoustical parameters of the system in a specfic chosen room . Period. 😊

Acoustics science rule audio and this include room acoustic as well as psychoacoustics not price tag or electrical design few specs measures confirmed or not... A system synergy cannot be ruled and established  and confirmed  only by few electrical measures, it takes more measures and of different kind,  and it takes our ears to learn the measured and to rule them by chosing the right set FOR US  because i must decide of my room dimensions and speakers types etc ......

Ones ears are a far more sensitive instrument than all of the commonly used measurements / charts taken together by an enormous amount. Trained ears / mind is an order of magnitude more sensitive. 
 

So 100% ears.
 

There may be some top high end audio designers that are able to tell what something will sound like with many measurements of various variables.. after decades of experience. But for those that want to assemble a system, learning about sound and training your ears by listening is the only reasonable approach.

I use my ears always.  I’m in it to enjoy my music. I dilly around with speaker placement a little. I get my gear in place and make sure it’s properly cabled and and set up and I’m happy. I’m not in it for a science project. I’m in it for the joy of the music.