Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post

Leave such things to the EEs and builders of equipment. End users should simply judge using their ears: that's the subjectivist approach, and indeed the AoS one!

Marco.
So I'm going to have a demo of every (for example) amplifier in existence before I make my choice of which one to buy? It isn't practical to select hi-fi by listening alone.

You have to narrow it down to a point where it is practical to test them using your ears. So what is the best way to compile that shortlist? Look at the engineering quality and the measured performance and use it to rule out the tat.

You may have a good system but how do you know you couldn't have had a better system and maybe for less money? You can't listen to everything that's available, let alone every combination of everything that's available. You'd have to live to be a million years old.