To hear differences there are differences because speaker size shape, crossover points etc. or placebo, or mood or bias. Without blind testing one can not rule these things out. Nobody buys anything without some bias. The straw man is too simplistic. I walk into the audio store and the audio sales guy says here is data from ASR and all of the curves have minor differences. Now behind this curtain are the two speakers, so you listen and one sounds better but you don't know what one. You take it home and one is tall and stands on the floor and the other is stand mounted but has nicer veneer. You listen and you like one better and upon returning to the store you find that the one you liked in the store was not the one that looked best at home and sounded best in the at home. Bottom line, if the only difference is how they sounded the decision is simple. With respect to posters this exercise is frivolous because that is never the situation. Or you say, well the data supports them both so I'm going on other factors like my golden ears.
