Going forward, the judging criteria for the ranking list will be further distinguished into two distinct metrics: tonality and technicalities. I’ve written extensively about my definitions on tonality and technicalities in both my Graphs 101 guide and my technicalities article, so if you need more information you can simply refer to those.

But as quick refresher (and I really mean quick, don’t argue with me about what I’m about to say since they’re condensed summaries of 5,000 word articles) tonality is basically tuning and frequency response, while technicalities is an umbrella term referring to unmeasurable aspects such as resolution, transients and imaging.

So, why the change?

From the beginning this system was already being used for my ranking list, just subconsciously and in a more “arbitrary” way. Specifying and breaking down the main criteria of my grading system helps me be more transparent about my inner processes, as well as to help me be more consistent with my rankings.

I’ll probably not break down my rankings further than this since the problem of weighting individual components gets worse the more components I specify. I think there should at least be a certain degree of “abstractness” to the rankings since, at the end of the day, this is a subjective list of personal opinions.

On that note, I think there is a sort of “ironic dichotomy” with regards to tone and technicalities. Tonality may be the most easily measurable aspect of audio but the interpretation of the measurements is probably one of the most subjective aspects of the hobby. The concept of “technicalities” implies a certain level of objectivity where more/less of something is always better (resolution, positional accuracy, speed etc.) and yet its immeasurability implies complete subjectivity.

I don’t know. Call me a filthy centrist, but I think a marriage of the subjective and objective (the measurable and the immeasurable) is the best way of approaching the audio hobby.