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The plural of anecdote is anecdotes, not data.
The ear-brain combinations of thousands of people are sadly far less reliable than measurements, not least because they are influenced by factors other than the stimulae themselves. This has been borne out by DATA again and again, such as when you ask people to rate speakers and they can see them and know how much they cost they ALWAYS rate them bettter than when they can only hear them including altering the rank positions (Sean Olive, Harman).
Here in the back of the bus.....
Data doesn't put down serious cash for equipment. Money talks and BS (i.e. academic research funded by dubious parties) walks.
Dubious parties such as Dolby labs , NHK Japan, BAS, AES, Harman and various Universities, dubious research often using self-confessed audiophiles, engineers, tonnmeister students, audio salesdroids, audio reviewers and other audio professionals, dubious research that has often gone through a rigorous anonymous peer review process. Dubious research such as 100+ years of psychophysics research ?
The laws of physics and the ability of humans to discriminate between stimulae are indifferent to the cost of audio items.
If you read the reviews in Stereophile you will find multiple examples where their golden eared reviewers are incapable of detecting
grotesque flaws in expensive audio kit, flaws that are trivially exposed by their bank of routine tests. You put trust in that lot , seriously ?
Reviewers like Harley and Fremer ?
Harley whose only audio credentials were that he won an essay writing contest and whose articles contained so many material inacccuracies that he was routinely corrected by The Audo Critic, whose ramblings about jitter were so inaccurate that Aczel commissioned an article by Bob Adams (Analog Devices) specifically to undo all the damage he had done ?
Fremer a reviewer whose inability to detect a broken cable and who gave glowing reviews to a CD/DAC combo with 25% distortion below 50hz and which never achieved a flat FR at any frequency ?
This lot you trust ?