ACTUAL MUSICAL SOUND VS. MEASUREMENTS

I must be out of the loop but I could not care less.

I'm returning to "audio" conversations after a long pause (25 years). If anything, my impression is that the emphasis on measurements in 'professional', published reviews (as opposed to comments/conversations in forums) and in marketing materials is relatively lower now than it was in the late 1990s - with some exceptions (e.g. ASR).

I think this may be due to two factors: 1) the fragmentation of the 'review' market with more and more 'low resource' individuals/influencers/youtubers and whatnot rather than magazines with labs etc; and 2) the fact that component quality and consistency of electronics (particularly digital, but also amps) has improved enormously.

The conversation (or squabble, occasionally) among consumers/aficionados doesn't seem to me to be very different from back then. There are a few 'objectivists' and a few 'feeling-driven' folks, with a large majority that looks at both sides. As usual, the extremes drive most of the noise.

I’m with Calvin in that I don’t think that measurements tell the whole story, and very annoyed by audiophiles who use them as their defying criteria 

@mahler123 I agree it’s very frustrating. Because you have guys on the internet who have not heard your system in your system in your environment and then spout a bunch psychotic allegedly scientific babble about what you are hearing and not hearing in your system a system that they will never hear and combinations of equipment, components , cables and rooms that they have never heard.