I mean, objective measurements can certainly help you get to where you're trying to go, but isn't the ultimate judge how it sounds to you? I trust my ears in the same way I trust my taste buds when evaluating a good steak. The butcher can go on and on about how this cut or marbling should taste better, but it's ultimately up to what I find enjoyable to eat.
"I Trust My Ears"
Do you? Can you? Should you?
I don’t. The darn things try to trick me all the time!
Seriously, our ears are passive sensors. They forward sonic data to our brains. Ears don’t know if the data in question represents a child crying, a Chopin prelude, or a cow dropping a cowpie. That’s our brains’ job to figure out.
Similarly, our brains decide whether A sounds better than B, whether a component sounds phenomenal, etc.
So, "I trust my ears" should really be "I trust my brains".
And that has a different ring to it, doesn’t it?