Please don´t forget that mathematics and engineering drove the audio business for more than 100 years !
All of today´s existing audio gear may it be speakers, amplifiers, CD players, recording mixers, microphones etc. was possible, because there was the possibility for the manufacturers to build audio devices to a certain standard and at least to the state of the art of their time.
Only a standard made it possible that millions of people were able to listen to radio programs and records.
These standards were established by physical properties, voltages, sound pressure levels, distortion levels, frequency bands and so on.
If such standards wouldn´t exist, it would be e.g. a nightmare to adopt MM phono cartridge of manufacturer A to a phono preamplifier of manufacturer B and so on.
Most of the subjetivism friends don´t see, that they hear their music through components, which are built to strict technical standards and specifications.
If these specifications are reflected by the sales specifications is a completely different story, because there are many, really many more things to think about, while designing e.g. a speaker like the specs you will later read in an advertisement. This is systematic science, but not known by the public, because a lot which goes beyond standards and common knowledge is a manufacturer´s secret. This science may also include the wisdom how the taste of an average listener is. No manufacturer would sell more than a single unit, if really everybody had a different taste. So if the average phool wants to buy heavily distorted amplifiers, the engineers will set up a standard to make them exactly like the phools want them ... :scratch2:
IMHO the way to Audio Nirvana goes only over the music and the people who make music themselves and not by judging technical components by means of taste. For me this is so important like judging the quality of a glass safe while seening da Vinci´s "Mona Lisa" presented inside ... :scratch2:
So judge your audio gear with sine signals or whatever, but not with the innocent music ...
As a amateur musician I can say, that nothing, really nothing in audio comes close to making the music yourself, sorry ! And that´s the kind of subjectivism I like !