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Re: And here's my problem with what people with your view say

Soundmind I agree that when I sit in front of a system I'm not intimately familar with initially ONLY the sound system in its totality can be judged.

I also agree one never hears an amplifier alone, it's always combined with at least a signal source and a loudspeaker. When did I say differently?

Allow me to rephrase my statement to fit the criteria you've set forth... "I've owned very highend solidtstate audio components that formed a completely solidstate system in the past. As good as those systems were and some were VERY, VERY good, they couldn't hold a candle to my current system which includes an SET amp, at least not in terms of reproducing music realistically. There's just something that's more organic or more complete to the music when its replicated in a system with an SET amp that I've never personally heard in ANY audio system with a solidstate amp."

Unfortunately even though I've now reworded my statement to fit your criteria you are 100% incorrect when you say "It's impossible to judge whether a single component in a sound system is more or less accurate subjectively."

In order to judge whether a single component in a sound system is more or less accurate subjectively one would only need setup a system & become intimately familar with it. Later remove just a single component (preamp, poweramp, CD player, interconnect, speaker or whatever) "IF" any changes are heard then those changes have to be a direct result of that one component being added to the system. Now although you are still listening to a complete system, you'll have a very good idea of what that components sounds like in that system, in that room.

As far as your question, How do you know which SET in advance will sound the best if measurements don't correlate? I guess in all reality you don't, but it's the same thing with solidstate components as well. I've heard solidstate components that measure very well, sound listenable at best! Certainly they weren't musically engaging and they caused listener fatigue quickly, so how did the measurements correlate in this case?

As I've stated numerous times in the past todays measurements don't correlate with how the human ear/brain combo determines what's realistic and what isn't. That's precisely why SET's can measure poorly, by todays standards and yet sound great, and solidstate can measure great, by todays standards and yet sound poorly.

This is exactly why it takes time (in my case over four years) to assemble a highly musically satisfying system. This why you need to try before you buy, afterall a component might sound wonderful in an audio shop and sound horrible in your home. It's not easy, but hot damn it's worth the time and energy involved.

Assemblying a highly musically satisfying system is an act of love, not science. Perhaps that's where Objectivists make their mistake, they want to take a highly emotional event and reduce it down to scienticfic data. I, for one, don't believe that can be done.

Thetubeguy1954

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