I suspect I’m missing something here, but I got to thinking about why these categories matter. In the end, we are mostly talking about how we evaluate gear to be put in our own systems.
The perfect way to compare and select gear (nearly impossible):
Put it all in the same room, level match, get people to rapidly move different speakers into place and switch wires incredibly quickly, perform controlled double blind tests between all combinations with the same wide variety of program material and choose what you like best.
The way the industry structure forces you to audition gear (we all get pressured into some of this):
Go around to various showrooms, or buy one incredibly heavy and expensive piece of gear at a time. Listen mostly in different places, different moods, different music, looking at the gear and getting primed by salespeople about what you will hear and subtly dissed for your previous choices. Use the music they select. Get confused by worries of “synergy” and “burn-in” that you haven’t really experienced the equipment yet. Let inertia prevent you from completing an annoying (and maybe physically demanding) return process.
Optimizing with current possibilities:
Use measurements and an understanding of the available science to winnow down the gear you want to try. Develop an audition playlist that you are familiar with and use it over the salesman’s objectives. Include demanding and complex music with dynamic range, not just string trios and breathy vocalists with ukeleles. Do a few level-matched blind tests with electronics and be honest about when you can hear a difference. Be a stickler for good measurements with electronics, and buy plenty of power in amplification. Eliminate speakers with too high distortion, badly non-linear FR, wacky directivity, or over-demanding impedance/phase curves. Audition some of the rest with as much control as you can. Ignore the salespeople, or wave your wallet, say you are dead serious about purchasing, but only want to hear evidence-based claims. When it is all done, add room EQ and treatment (I suppose if you know what you are doing, you might want to do some treatment before auditioning in your own home).
I used to think there was room for subjective reviews, but in my return to the hobby I‘ve come to believe they are truly useless. However, once you have what you like, you can go look up the subjective reviews for your equipment. They will be pretty good, no doubt, make you feel better about your purchase, and add some positive confirmation bias to your listening.
I welcome ASR (thank you
@amirm ) as it makes the latter method increasingly possible and less painful. I despair of many audiophile (sonicsolipsist) sites that heedlessly push us into the second model, and pretend that it’s only the subjectivity of the first model that counts, rather than the controls, therefore the second model is somehow what we wanted all along.
