Our perception of audio

[j_j]

My next key question would be about the effects of the modal region (in smaller rooms) on phase and spatial perception thereof, apart from swirling or relatively rapidly changing interaural phase differences at lower (40-90 Hz) frequencies.

Thanks again,

Young-Ho

That is annoyingly complicated, there's no simple answer.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

My two cents here are: the result of listening to real sets of audio equipment can only be a clear binary "like/dislike" value.
Any scaling or, even worse, any use of terms and epithets that allow free interpretation (soundstage, smoothness, crispness, transparency, bloated, microdetails, blah-blah-blah) is the road to nowhere and the basis for endless controversy.
The listener either likes the sound of the system, or does not like it.
I don't know why this is necessary for already produced systems, especially for those which implementation details are closed.
But I know for sure that it is very necessary for audio system design engineers, because if you can somehow connect the results of blind auditions with, relatively speaking, the architecture of the equipment, you can cut off unpromising paths in advance and not spend a lot of money on R&D.

Although, of course, all this is complete nonsense.
Not only is it impossible to convince a fan of a tube push-pull sound that his amplifier is bad. This is also not needed by anyone.
And someone believes that his single-ended amplifier on a direct-heated triode is the only correct one.
And someone likes the same single-ended amplifier, but by Nelson Pass, on MOSFETs.
And someone is in love with the old Pioneer with the incomparable "super class A" with floating power.
Someone really likes R2R DACs.
And so on, to almost infinity, because over the decades of the development of the industry, a lot of very bright and beautiful things have been done to this day.
Something was very high-tech and complex (Mark Levinson amplifiers, for example, are very smart and elegant designs inside), something did not live up to the hopes of the developers, something turned out to be so complex and pretentious that in the end to achieve high nominal parameters from it extremely difficult, etc.
And when all this forms a motley system ...
There is nothing to talk about at all.