I trust only my ears! Evaluating components is an art. Designing and building them is a science.
Since no component system or room is perfect once I've identified a problem, how do I correct it? Do I bring home every product and insert it in my sysytem? Suppose I want more bass. Do I get better speakers or do I make room improvements? Measurements can't take you all the way home, but they can eliminate the pretenders.
It can also save you money. Many products use expensive overkill to solve problems. Big is good then bigger must better. A few measurements could tell you at a certain point no signifcant improvement would occur. It's no doubt in my mind that many cables are using exotic materials when it would better to install better RFI Shielding and better connectors. Most cable companies don't even supply basic measuremnts like capictance or the cables ability to reject radio waves. Maybe they should do some measuring before they charge us megabucks for upgrading to platinum.
One of my fun things to do is look at systems on audiogon. I can't belive the horrible speaker placement. Speakers so far apart they couldn't possibly be getting a proper stereo image. Cables that cost more than thier components, dipole speakers pushed up against the wall. Almost every Martin Logan I saw was too close to the wall. ( I only hope some of these were posed for sake of the picture).
We have to pay some attention to the measurements.Let's not even mention how some audiophiles idea of "good sound" is ludicrous.