Originally Posted by
Shazb0t
I understand your point, but nobody is claiming that the preference rating is a be all end all solution to choosing a loudspeaker. It is interesting because the formula was derived based on the Harmon spinorama research and was statistically shown to correlate to user preference at a 0.86 rating. We don't have a lot of measurements or formulas in the audio industry that correlate to user preferences. The more hard data and correlations that we can make the better off the consumer will be.
What would be interesting to me, as a Sierra RAAL Tower owner, is a blind speaker test consisting of the BS22 and the Sierra 2 in a controlled environment with a large sample of listeners. Once at low volume where the BS22 is well behaved and once at high SPL where the BS22 cannot compete (this is not taken into account in the preference score). I wonder what the results would be? If we are to believe the Harman testing performed by Sean Olive, the BS22 might win the first and lose the second. I don't know what would happen, but I am not aware of any other group that has performed large scale controlled listening tests and published the results.