Agree or disagree with the following statement.

Measurements are facts.
Listening to a component enables you to form an opinion.
Forming an opinion from measurements is called a guess, a shot in the dark because you haven't actually heard a component.
Kind of reminds me of Japanese approach in the 70s and 80s, the better the specs the better the sound.

Look, how do you buy a TV? You go in the store and look at the picture of the ones in your budget. Then you pick the one you like. Why should audio be any different? Duh!

Would you marry a woman based solely on her specs? If you did, It would almost certainly be a brief and costly experience. Audio components are a little easier to get rid of but the sting could be just as bad. It's your money though, so fie away.

I've not read the whole thread, so I may be off topic now or repeat what has already been written, sorry in case.

I think specs can give us an idea on 'how it sounds' but just an idea, a hint. That's due to several reasons, going from the reliability and completeness of the specs to one's capability of fully understand the specs themselves, and passing through a nebulosa of factors I don't now but which may give a 'model' its peculiar voice(employed materials, constructive solutions, proprietary patents not unveiled yet... a factor I could call undeclared specs) .

A skilled technician or a competent hifi enthusiast may guess much of the sound of a system by just reading the specs of all the components; I can't believe, though, that he could EXACTLY and COMPLETELY imagine (like hearing in his mind) the sound in all it's shades, subtelties, the exact amount of crispiness, of slam, dynamics, harshness...
and nuances and subtle differences are often what this is all about.

I agree with the statement, but find test parameters important too.