[danadam]

and that’s supposedly anything less than 4ms difference of the sound arriving at each ear is perceived as “straight ahead”

And by ms you mean µs? 4ms is a massive difference. You can listen yourself, in the attachment there's an example with 2ms delay. It is 4 "knocks", the first 2 are at the same time in both channels and for the last two there is 2ms difference:

 

[The Jester]

Corrected …. 4 microseconds not milliseconds .. (ms) …

 

[DaveStarWalker]

That is somewhat true. Film and TV mix rooms are standardised, it’s only music studios that aren’t. However, in commercial music production it’s usual for the mix to be monitored on different setups, the main monitors and near-fields for example, commonly more than one studio is used for recording and mixing and of course the finished mix goes to another studio for mastering. These different setups and studios have the effect of averaging out (even’ing out) discrepancies that the FR of one studio might have caused.

There are other considerations though. On the one hand: When calibrating rooms/speakers the scale of discrepancies is orders of magnitude greater than the discrepancies found in amps and DACs. For example, freq deviations of 6dB are typical, even in a good studio. On the other hand, good/famous studios are famous because their rooms have proven to be particularly conducive to producing hits (and/or the highest quality recordings). And lastly, Toole demonstrated that experienced engineers become can become used to certain discrepancies and subconsciously compensate for them.

G

CQFD...

 

[UmustBKidn]

...
I would argue that on this and similar sites, there is hardly anything more useful. Even though many audiophiles don’t want to listen to anything that questions their marketing induced delusions.

G

...At the risk of incorrect interjection...

I take exception to the highlighted phrase...
The good lord only knows how much I would dearly love to listen to a wide variety of music, on a wide variety of gear. I can't, because of health problems (one of which just kept me in the hospital for a week)...
I can't even get to the so cal canjam, which is just 20 miles down the road... It's really sad.

It doesn't help that I have Meniere's disease in my right ear....
So I basically have one good ear to listen with...

I took a long time to decide to buy anything I own.
I bought and built a Bottlehead Crack, and I own a couple Schiit components.
The handful of headphones I own are each enjoyable in their own ways.
This, done on a relatively slender budget.

I want to listen to new gear.
Those who can, have a luxury many of us don't have...

 

[gregorio]

I take exception to the highlighted phrase...

I didn’t mean “many audiophiles don’t want to listen” to different gear, I meant many don’t want to listen to any information/facts/science “that questions their marketing induced beliefs”.

G

 

[bigshot]

I thought that was very clear.

No one is so blind as the man who will not see.