Subjective agreement requires identical delivered signals and matched objective measurements

Evidence

The challenge in good headphone design as well as perceptual research related to their sound quality is to overcome these variables. Only when the same signals are delivered to listeners ears can we expect them to agree on what sounds good. And only when the objective measurements capture those signals can be we begin to correlate and predict their subjective impressions. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1683

Categorization

• XREF: Core methodological principle for psychoacoustic model building: signal standardization precedes subjective-preference prediction.