The thing with Specs and Measurements which i used to pay way more attention to 10 years ago than I do now is that the industry as a whole self-sustains itself to make itself look good. When CD players first came out - and some still do - post wow and flutter on cd players. This was done for the soul purpose of converting vinylphiles to cd by showing impressive numbers - despite the fact that it's something tha should not have been posted as truthful of cd player performance(err relevant) since most modest turntable's W&F is inaudable. CD player's were quick to ignore certain dynamic characteristics and jitter though.

Then we come to the meausrements of other products but there are many measurements and only a few are used - some will say they get the important ones of relevance - but I'm not convinced. Too many very similar measuring speakers in the same rooms sound considerably different some are just outright overrated and poor. The recent case of the great measuring B&W 705 in Stereophile - but looking at measurements conducted outside the rags revels majorly bad results of the midbass driver at the top of its passband - many of these companies are utilising some nifty technology to get the best readings from the measurements standrds - Feedback in SS amplifiers yield phenomanly great looking graphs and specs - but easily and handedly get beat upside the head on the only test that matters a damn - listening.

I like some SS amps for example - BRYSTON is one i havce recommended and continue to recommend --- the 3B and preamp from them cost about the same as a 9 watt Audio Note OTO Single Ended tube amp. In nearly every measurable way(the ones that are currently in fashion) the Brystons MURDER the OTO. Side by side in actual Listening however and the reverse holds true. It's ok because when we sell somthing we always want to put our stuff in the best light - but that's marketing - not the truth.

This doesn't mean you chuck out the measurements - but they are probably measuring about 1/10 if that of what you are hearing. For example frequency response is deemed most important and the speaker should be flat - well that's never going to happen and being flatter sure doesn;t mean it's going to sound better - a slight anomoly at a certain frequency can be FAR more annoying than a speaker which is pretty good at that frequency but wildly all over the place somewhere else. And which frequency YOU are more annoyed by is a factor as well. The problem is of course that many would rather rely soley on the 10% of the measurements we have than realy on the listening experience. For if you rely on what you hear there is a chance you will buy a speaker that has 5db dip somewhere in the graph where you could have bought a speaker that some reviewer thinks is better because it has a 1db spike(but it's closer to flat so it's deemed better). Never mind that you might enjoy the 5d dip speaker and listen more and enjoy it more than the spekaer that gathers dust because it sounds aweful but the review magazine touted it as neutral.

Rap music generally annoys me but some people love it - there is no explanation for that other than that your BRAIN not your ear is reconstructing what it is that it's being sent. Your background and values and preferences influences your reaction to what your hearing - as it should be.

I basically began to ignore the measurements when it was obvious that so many bad sounding or banal and not reproducing music properly were being deemed as showing exellent measured response. My firends here are in bands - i listen to live music amplified and unamplified a fair bit - just the other day at a Christmas party we had a girl who is putting out her second album in April - she plays acoustic guitar and sings blues/country and is quite a talented vocalist but the name escapes me Melanie something. Anyway this is not exactly the most taxing thing to reproduce a guitar and a female vocal - you soon realise how most of those great measring class A or B speakers simply don't do it - not remotely close.

Basic instrument textures are not there - missing completely. So it's a good way to measure well if you avoid the hard part of the recording (decay) or just limit the bass you attempt. I think there is a real fear that if you have a full bodied big sound will also have some colouration - I think that people who listen to a lot of live music will know better. You need the tonal body of the instruments being played - i hear most of that completely gone with most speakers especially most standmount speakers - it's not a bass issue either so adding a sub doesn't help. It's a very slick industry - and don;t think for one second that most of the magazines are not in cahoots with the people building the products. I don;t blame either group for that mind you - because the makers need the advertising of a good review and the magazines need to give good reviews in order to sell magazines and giving bad reviews can hurt their magazine.

The trick is wading through it and figuring out what is going on behind the scenes - or yeah you could just listen and not really give a rat's bottom.