One mans distortion is another mans sonic Nirvana.
I was reading an interesting review of a Hifi product the other day and the journalist was joined by a couple of other people to listen to the equipment. What the reviewer found, and I know this sounds obvious, was that each person listening to the equipment perceived different aspects both in how the equipment sounded but also highlighted which aspects were important to them.
Now we all know that listening to a system and evaluating it depends where you are sitting in relation to the equipment but also taking into fact our own different perceptions of hearing and ability to hear, we all come up with a different result. It is often the case that what one person finds great about a pair of speakers maybe totally different to another and therefore colour our judgement but delving deeper it is also true that different components of the sound are latched onto by the listener.
For example one person may notice how much air surrounds an instrument whilst another may be drawn to the realism of the vocals. We all have sonic clues that tell us what we like and for some these maybe multiple and therefore have to tick lots of boxes before the hairs start to stand on the back of our neck.
What I have learned is that with differing perception and hearing we all judge things quite differently and some folk may hear no difference at all between say one cable and another where someone else hears night and day.
So taking into consideration the hearing ability and principles of an audio equipment designer, what they believe is important to them when building and listening to a piece of equipment may or may not be what someone else thinks sounds good. We can only put forward our own perceptions as we hear them but should always be mindful that they may not be what others hear.
Main system : VPI Scout 1.1 / JMW 9T / 2M Black / Croft 25R+ / Croft 7 / Heco Celan GT 702
Second System : Goldring Lenco GL75 / AT95EX / Pioneer SX590 / Spendor SP2