Waxx
Major Contributor
If you know enough about how speakers behave and know your own preference you can. You can find out what deviations of technical perfection you like, and learn how the recognise them in measurements. But personal preference is by definition subjective so you can't predict that from a stranger.When the 80xx series got introduced I had a chance to listen to several models side by side and they all sounded quite similar (a good thing) but distinctly different than others, definitely on the "crisp" side of things, probably prone to give ear fatigue earlier than others, say, Geithains which have a reputation for being very listenable for extended duration.
I think this cannot easily be nailed down to some specific properties isolated as every detail of an actual implementation will count, to varying degrees. As does, of course, the acoustic properties of the listening environment.
For this I'm in the camp of those who say specs and measurements of speakers are important and welcomed but it is close to impossible to predict if you will actually like the sound or not, especially in the long term.
But as occasional freelance audio advisor for rich people, i take time to discuss with my clients what they want and don't want, and out of their stories i can mostly know what they will like (or at least the direction). But it takes time to study the preference of the person, and a lot of knowledge about speakers, technically and hands on. And it's not cheap as i need to spend a lot of time on that, so only rich people can afford me for that.
Harman tried to study that subject, and their team found out some general tendencies (low distortion, even dispertion and mostly flat with a very soft slope down towards treble) that most people like, and based their Harman Curve and the Olive score on it. But it's most people, not everybody. It's the standard that is used here to judge speakers. It may not tell it all, but it tells a lot, and most other things can be deducted from it.
And for long listening sessions, i'm more fond of (of commercial brands) Harbeth, or if you insist on clean neutral sound, Neumann. Not Genelec or Kii or Geithain or so. But at the end i'm mainly listening to own diy builds, mostly single driver fullrange systems. Very unpopular on ASR because they meausre bad, but they sound very good to my ears and i enjoy listening to them for days. And at the end that is what matters...