Only the person armed with the idea can produce a better speaker. And ideas are not science, nor "evidence". [emphasis Duke's]
Cosmik, I really like the way you have identified the
idea as where creation happens. If the art is to be advanced, it will start with an idea.
For example, Toole's research started as an idea... a very good idea, to find correlations between measurement and perception. He probably had that idea before knowing whether or not it could be done. And he absolutely advanced the art, and in particular the psychoacoustics, of loudspeaker design for home audio.
It's the designing to "evidence" aspect that is circular. I am attempting to break out of the circle
I think I understand what you mean. At the risk of indulging in the cliche', IDEAS are what will take us outside our current box, not data (though data re-examined can inspire ideas). But ideas are also like genetic mutations - MOST of them will fail. Then those which succeed eventually become part of the NEW box, to be transcended by still better ideas some day.
Or (much better) they could approach it from the other direction: define what the ideal speaker should do and design something to realise it (as close as practical). In this case, the design would not be based on evidence at all, except for final confirmation and (this being the real world) refinement.
How many people would be prepared to define what the ideal speaker should do before they go looking for evidence? Not many.
I'll give it a shot:
The ideal speaker would get two things as perceptually correct as possible, within applicable constraints:
1. The first-arrival sound; and
2. Everything that follows it.
This does not tell us WHAT to do, nor HOW best to do it. Answering those questions are where research and refinement come in.
[edit] The question of "WHAT to do" is not about loudspeakers and rooms. It is about ears and performance venues, to inform ourselves about where the goals posts are. HOW best to do "it", whatever "it" turns out to be, is about loudspeakers and rooms. [/edit]
Cosmik, last year I learned the hard way that you and I do not agree on WHAT or HOW, and we probably disagree about "what the ideal loudspeaker should do", but I THINK we agree that
Only the person armed with an idea can produce a better speaker.