Stereophile, no more bench tests????!!!!

Specs and measurements are useful mainly as guidelines to determine what components are most likely to perform best together. Performance enables good sound but does not fully determine it. You still have to listen once you have decided what to listen to together.

Nowadays, integrated amplifiers with DAC and phonos already integrated even can largely solve that problem. Then it’s just speaker integration that specs can still help with.

At least that’s how I’ve managed to efficiently assemble multiple good sounding systems in recent years using specifications and measurements.  Measurements provided in Stereophile proved to be very helpful with my buying decisions.

It’s a shame if so. High End Audio seems much more interested in bling and mysticism not engineering in order to preserve itself here these days. Oh well.   Much easier for all and probably more profitable that way.