ACTUAL MUSICAL SOUND VS. MEASUREMENTS

Basic engineering. When you are buying a car or a home, do you look for quality construction and actual measured performance. Or do you trust tales of "italian soul"? Same thing.

Poorly designer equipment will still sound great with some music in some room. Say, your room has resonances. Well, speaker that dips at those frequencies will sound great to you. Flat speaker will sound horrible. So there. Equipment that measures oddly is just and equalizer.

Why, cables will greatly affect old type tube equipment where input or output impedance is reactive. Poorly designed power supplies will be sensitive to power cables.

Now, Ethernet cables do not matter. Seriously. :-)

@cdc i research each piece of equipment I buy and each cable I use. I do work with Infigo Audio cables on the side and I actually set up a demo program where people could try before they buy.  All systems and listening environments are different. No one system that most of us have are the same and even if they are they have different cables in them in different listening environments. I like to try before I buy.  I also require black backgrounds, low noise floors and good soundstages in what I use. My preferences is to always have air around instruments and the treble must be airy and extended. My amp has a black background with air and space.  It also uses all Class A power but biased at 35 watts. My Infigo Method 4 dac uses the ess Sabre 9038 dac chipset with multiple dac chips with miniature heat seats around each chip to limit the heat that limits distortion caused by the heat.  It has been tested to make no noise even when turned to 140db. My speakers were designed a former designer for gamut. The German high speaker maker. So my Gato performs extremely well and punches way above the 14k price point.  Like all of us do.  When spending your money. Do your research but try to try all you can when you have the opportunity.  

@mikhailark it depends on your equipment. The combination and the room that you have it in.  But it has to please your ears in your listening environments. Yes there are basic things that it should do but ultimately.  It can measure great and still sound like crap Use your ear in your room with your equipment. 

@2psyop exactly my biggest argument with the measurement group.  Music is meant to be enjoyed not measured. Measurements can help for the environments they are in. But if something’s measures great but sounds like crap,to your ear. You will not be playing it.