Quote Originally Posted by mlsstl
Just a quick comment that a comparison between musical instruments and stereo equipment is not a valid analogy.

Musical instruments make original music. The instrument builders search for pleasant, distinctive distortions, harmonics, and abnormal frequency response. There is not a broad call for musical instruments that generate perfect sine waves. Steinways and Stradivarius violins are prized for their unique distortions, not their lack thereof.

The goal of musical equipment is quite the opposite. One wants the speakers and the other reproduction equipment to do only that - reproduce what is on the recording without adding anything of its own or leaving anything off. That is quite different from what wants of a musical instrument.
Your point is well taken , audio equipment companies objective is to how best to fool the ear. A speaker is not a Stradivarius violin , or a Steinway piano. There is no perfect speaker. In audio we are dealing with physics especially with a speaker.
With high end audio the results are subjective.

No to people hear the same . Equipment can test great on instruments and sound very different to the ear. An example the Marantz 10 B was considered the best FM tuner ever built.
Many tuners tested better on the bench , but could not match the 10B in listening test.
In pianos , there are also differences , some pianist prefer the Baldwin , others the Steinway and even others the Bosendorfer. Which is better ? again the answer is subjective.
is audio equipment any different ? whether built today are 57 years ago ? Are we so arrogant to believe that because it is new it is better ?

The quality of the pianos listed above is impeccable. though pianos. Each one has a different sound. The ear is very different than a piece of test equipment.
Is a Borendorfer piano built 50 years ago inferior to one built today.?
The phrase " They don't build them as good as they did years ago" applies in some cases. Musical instruments and high end audio may be those cases.