The way I look at this is that any journey has to start somewhere. This hobby is a journey and you have to enjoy every step of that journey also knowing there will be mistakes and frustrations just like life. Then as your journey is progressing you will realize that your journey has no end. You can map it out the best you can but will have many many detours. Measurements are a good starting place but only one small part of the overall equation to get the sound you want. Trade offs will be another component. X=[y+Zxq] but y+z is better minus q. Then you get there and you hear someone else’s system and you are blown away and realize that X is not X but it is Y=[x-z+q] and you start your search for Y and this takes you back to your starting place of measurements. Enjoy the journey and most of all enjoy the music!
3D lifelike sound and impeccable measurements - mutually exclusive???
The more I investigate gear the more it seems that it’s easy to get organic involving sound with flesh and body and a 3D immersive soundstage with the right matching of components but it also seems like it necessitates choosing some components that don’t measure well/add colorations/even order harmonics etc My question is are there components (specifically amps/preamps and integrateds) are out there that combine great measurements and in your mind also have that organic immersive sound that really helps many of us get more emotionally involved in the music or are these qualities mutually exclusive?