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How much can be measured -- and how much cannot?

There has been a lot of discussion over the years on Audiogon regarding the measurement of components and other audio products. Some people claim everything is either measurable now or will one day become measurable with more sophisticated measuring equipment. But others say there are things in high end audio that will never me measurable and that measurements are really not that important.

Here is a typical example -- a quote taken from the Stereophile forum regarding their review of the Playback Designs MPS-5:

"JA 2/17/10 Review Measurements of Playback Designs MPS-5
Posted: April 13, 2011 - 8:42am

John Atkinson's 2/17/10 review measurements of the Playback Designs MPS-5 revealed less than stellar technical performance even though Michael Fremer really liked the player. I've included JA's closing measurement remarks below followed by the manufacturer's comments.

To my knowledge there was never any followup in Stereophile regarding the manufacturers reply the MPS-5 could not be adequately measured with traditional measurement techniques.

I believe Stereophile should respond to this reply in the interests of its own measurements credibility.

Len"

How important do you think measurements are? Are the ears really the only true arbiter?
sabai

Showing 1 response by roscoeiii

roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
And I will add that learning to read and understand measurements will provide a great education to an audiophile. When I compare the specs I looked at originally compared to the factors that I try to take into account now, I realize how much I have learned from this hobby.

Off the top of my head, factors that I now take into account:
output voltage
output impedance
input impedance
input sensitivity
gain
harmonics distortion (2nd, 3rd order, etc)
damping factor
speaker distortion (hard to find in general)
crossover point
crossover slope (1st, 2nd, 4th order etc.)

I'd also add to that list the standard plots vs. frequency graphs that one sees in Stereophile's measurements section.

And when I see many of Al and others' posts, I realize that there is much more to learn.

BUT all of that having been said, I too ultimately come down on the side of letting your ears make the final decision. Psychoacoustics are pretty wild, can be tough to get your head around, and aspects of them are difficult/impossible to measure. Heck there are very likely aspects to psychoacoustics that remain to be identified. But trust your ears, they are excellent psychoacoustic instruments connected to all the bits of the brain that matter for a satisfying experience of music.
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