Home Critic's Corner

Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Critic's Corner ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

Measurements and Listening

I was recently reminded by another post, of John Atkinson's assertion a while back --something along the lines of how surprised he is to very frequently find a lack of correlation between measurements and listening. To the point I am perhaps surprised (but grateful) that they keep publishing these measurements. I'm sure they are very time consuming.

I find the Stereophile measurements invaluable, and better than anyone else's. JA is one of the few critics who is actually able to properly measure equipment and then interpret measurements in a clear and educational manner. But contrary to his assertion, I find that measurements do correlate very well with the listening almost always, once you know what to look for. This I have evidenced with numerous gear including loudspeakers (where it is most evident), amplifiers and digital gear. In loudspeakers things like dispersion and overall frequency response have usually correlated very well to what I have heard in the showroom. Or in any event, provided plausible explanations for what and why I liked and disliked when listening at dealers to speakers such as the B&W 802D (passed), the Dynaudio Confidence C-4 (really liked), several Thiel models (passed), the top DeVore Fidelity (passed, and inexplicably an A rated component in spite of its flawed measurements and unremarkable sound), etc. Also with amps: for instance with the Edge NL-12 which in spite of it's rated power could not drive Soundlabs, or conversely with the Parasound JC-1 which did it superbly. In fact, I have still to find a component whose sound could not to a remarkable extent be explained by measurements taken by JA.

if anything I find that measurements help put my listening into perspective. I think we all have a tendency to accomodate to the way a system sounds, either positively or negatively depending on biases that are not necessarily in line with natural sound. while listening to live music often helps, I also think it is useful to question your own judgement when making a critical appreciation, and measurements are very useful for that.

"The Audio Asylum is a free,
independent resource"

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Parts Connexion  

Topic - Measurements and Listening - hexenboden 18:58:43 05/8/06 (159)
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]