Do you play an instrument? Helps in speaker eval?

With most acoustical instruments the player has a different acoustical perspective than a typical microphone setup or standing a few feet in front of the instrument.

After I've done a mic setup with a decent engineer my raw Bass track can sound amazingly life like. The file or the knock down to 1/4" tape sounds better at home than at most studios.

What gets past mixing, post production, mastering, and the crud that is publication and production is far from the initial recording.

I had a hard pan of a Soprano-phone and my big 4/4 Slavic Bass with about five minutes of "Giant Steps" that I used to take to audio shows. Knowing what it was supposed to sound like was quite telling to me. So my answer is yes.

I used to play piano more than now, have an old 1926 rebuilt Chickering Grand adjacent to the listening room. I would rather play than use my recordings for evaluation as it always reminds me I started too late learning THAT instrument. Chopin would have cried.:( Played several woodwind instruments starting at age 9 through early 20's. None of this helps when evaluating speakers. How music sounds when you're playing it, or in a band or orchestra, has little to do with how it sounds as a listener. Priorities are different for the two.

Listening to as much live music as you can is the best way to hear the true sound of music and evaluate reproduced.

Jazz piano professionally.(Pop and Dance stuff when I want to make $$$ :(
Actually started getting into high end stuff when I was a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Started reading Stereophile then and visited various high end shops there. My first high end purchase was a AR ETL-1 turntable with Rega arm I got for cheap in Boston when everyone was stupidly selling their turntables for CD players which were just coming out (late 80's). Playing piano and playing in live situations (with acoustic instruments) definitely helps me know what it should sound like on stuff at home. My ears are fine tuned and I have been through many rounds of equipment with all the tweeks to approach that live sound. The recording quality has improved much since the 80s - especially digital. Just subscribed to MOG this week through my squeezebox, and yes I can hear the high end blurring and softening from 320kbps MP3s - but what a incredible catalog of music to listen too.
I know that's another topic.

I use to be a touring professional Hard Rock singer!, I can play drums good and piano, bass guitar and a little acoustic guitar, I believe being a musician does help evaluating speakers!, cheers to all of you here!

I have pretty deep experience as a classical guitarist. I've played violin and viola at weddings for years. Since around the age of 12 I've played off and on in bands--electric guitar, bass, keyboards, mandolin, dobro and vocals. Failed miserably at drums.

I want my system to sound as natural as possible with acoustic sounds and I think my background helps me discriminate good from bad. I figure such a system should have no problem with electric sounds as well.