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Re: Speaker Measurements vs. Subjective Listening

My wife's statistics lecturer once told her class "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is interesting, what they conceal is vital." Test results are like that. They tell you a lot about the parameters that were tested and they tell you nothing about what wasn't tested. Anyone who believes we now can test for everything is a fool. Anyone who believes that any test report includes every test we can currently make is overly optimistic. All test reports, regardless of whether they be for speakers or for any other component, are incomplete.

That doesn't mean that test reports are useless. If something comes up well on the test report and the array of tests conducted is well chosen, that's encouraging. If it comes up badly, that's reason for caution,

But in the end we listen to music for enjoyment. We want a system that lets us enjoy the music we play. I have yet to see an objective test for a component's enjoyability and there won't be one because different people enjoy different things.

Don't buy anything you don't enjoy listening to, but use the test reports to help you sort out which components are better designed/built and or more suitable to your needs.


David Aiken


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