- Thread Author
- #1

Why the Obsession With Measurements Is Leading to Worse-Sounding Gear
Numbers don't lie… or do they?

![]()
Why the Obsession With Measurements Is Leading to Worse-Sounding Gear
Numbers don't lie… or do they?www.headphonesty.com
Great article. I totally agree with this that if it measures great it does not mean it sounds good. If that was the case I was on audio science review and not on audioshark.
A statement I posted before and that is now explained. It is musicality that counts, not numbers.
As for the '70s and '80s that was the era of the single, says-it-all, THD (total harmonic distortion). However there are components of harmonic distortion, a spectrum of various distortions that comprise the whole. The error of the era was to ignore those distortion components in favor of THD solely.There was a great point made above to the lessons learned from the "specs wars" of the 70s and 80s; those specs wars were also typified by many games being played by some regarding how the measurements were taken, framed, etc. to get the numbers to be attractive and compelling to make their point. Some gear in that timeframe that "had great measurements" and did not sound good at all may very well have had measurements that were rigged to look better than the component (or speaker) actually performed.
While I agree that musical attributes of playback matter most, I don't think measurements can/should be totally ignored and if a component measures very poorly (very high THD, bad S/N numbers, etc.) it will in some way manifest in what we are hearing. Measurements (reliable and comprehensive ones) are just one data point that some find valuable.
Data is meaningless without a framework in which to interpret it. In science, one generates a hypothesis and then gathers data to support or refute that hypothesis (or often neither), using an experimental model and statistical analysis to reach a conclusion. As far as I can determine none of that takes place at ASR or similar sites, so calling it “science” is inaccurate.Objective measurements of audio equipment serve as a fundamental baseline for evaluating performance.
Why, then, do so many older audiophiles resist objective measurements? They insist on trusting only their ears—which is fair—yet many, if not most, experience age-related hearing decline.
Let the objectivists be. At least they have data to support what they perceive.
The reason most older audiophiles resist measurements is because we don't care about them. Our decades of listening experience allows us to evaluate components because we trust what we hear, not how it measures. Listening and evaluating hi-fi (believe it or not) takes a lot of experience to master. It's like anything else you do, experience is king. For instance, I don't evaluate the highs, mids and lows when I first listen to stuff. First, I just listen for the boogie, if it doesn't boogie, it's gone. It takes me less than 5 minutes to figure that part out. I don't go back and forth and keep putting components in and out of the system. One will almost always have more boogie (which, to me, sounds more like music). I had a very highly respected preamplifier in my system about 7 years ago. I liked my system, but I didn't listen to it a whole lot, well because it didn't have a high boogie factor. So, I bought an xxxx preamp with a generous return policy with the guaranty that it would be "30% better" than the one I had (yea, right). I listened to the system for a minute or two, then installed the xxxx. It took 10 seconds to figure out that the xxxx had boogie like a mf. I never put the original one back in the system. I would like to hear Mike's thoughts on how owning a shop has refined his listening skills....Mike? Or anyone else for that matter. Cheers. P.S. I know that my hearing at 70 is not as good as it was when I was 20. But hearing and listening are 2 different things, yes?
….The reason most older audiophiles resist measurements is because we don't care about them.
In order to compensate I revoiced my Volti's with different resistors I got from Greg Roberts at Volti. I hate a bright top end so they are only 1/2 step hotter (the minimum) than stock. A few audiophile buddies have been over, and they assure me it is nowhere near bright (not yet, anyway). I mentioned the boogie factor earlier, boogie=musical. The music HAS to draw you in, not make you sit there and analyze the system. We do too much equipment listening and not enough boogying.….
Precisely. Spoken like a 70-plus years old audiophile who acknowledges hearing loss and yet still only trust his ears. It is all good.