I only trust my own ears. After all, I'm the one that has to listen to the sound my equipment makes, however flawed or corrupted that sound may be. What good is it to have a system that creates a 'picture perfect' sound if you don't like that sound?
In Whose Ears Do You Trust Most?
Ok, so I've been an audiophile for 30 years or so, I've heard a lot of equipment, and I think I can analyze sounds and express what I hear in words pretty well, but still, when it comes down to it, I don't feel 100% about what I think I'm hearing till my non-audiophile, equipment agnostic, music loving significant other tells me what she hears, how it compares, etc. I'm always a tiny bit afraid that I hear what I think I will hear (I think Roger Modjeski called it the Heathrow Effect) - don't know if you had that feeling. I trust her her naive, indifferent assesment of equipment to keep me honest. You?