Speakers are the only component that cannot escape the scrutiny of the measuring microphone. If it measures better, it will sound better! Time/phase, dispersion, frequency response, power handling are all well-understood (and easily measured) qualities. The days of "cut-and-try" of speaker design are long past!
The sound of speakers is distortion.
Stated by an experienced editor/reviewer recently, in his introductory remarks to a speaker review. In other words, the sound of a speaker is defined by its sins of omission and commission, as regards things like frequency response, frequency range, tone, dynamics, etc. This implies that there exists some sort of gold standard; a mythical distortion-free speaker. This strikes me as naive. Thoughts?