es. Not. That one-liner swears at my n-years of Caring how stuff Sounds/and doing something about it, as well.
As one who spent a fair amount of time and inquisition in the period when transistors were attempting to compete with the none-such (Marantz et al) tube components du jour, I'd say outright: you know-not whereof you speak.
And this is just the tl;dr version 'cause I ain't editing for publication. (And yess, via a local S.F. FM-station 15-min Slot I have.. had to address an 'audience' re things-'Audio', many moons ago. Then I had to edit ;-^>

First of all: 'double-blind comparos' with LIVE orchestras, voices etc. initiated by one Edgar Villchur and similar listening *fests with 'golden-ears' attached to scientific brains: LAUGHED at the earliest ('TEC' for one) of these stabs. Indeed they got lots better/and now: artificially $$$-mondo-costly for those who have to prove to others their income via whatever local listeners can be seduced into an evening of--too-often audio freakishness. (aka Audio-Phools on the Tektronix-folks website.)

(A Marantz Model 8B went on ePay for ~$3k several years ago. I used to peddle his stuff (like the 10B Tchebyshev-IF-filters containing Model 10B tuner.) KLH and other Electrostatic speakers, etc. Revox tape, Crown [Indiana!] pro tape recorders, breathed on by a local Prof-guy who Fixed for hP the errors in one of their early audio spectrum analyzers/they thence produced the "B-version--I'm not making this up. Then Dr. Nelson redesigned Crown's best for a then unheard-of S/N ratio. (Yes I WAS lucky to have such a one a few houses away: he also had a Citroën SM ..for me to lust over. Dr. Nelson was a treat!

I no idea what is out there now, because it's all made to appeal to the Bugatti Veyron wannabe clans; little to do with live/playback comparos. Its's a faux-digital word-salad to debate "tubes vs transistors" anyway, but the pressed-quality of the LPs du that jour elevates it all to: Digital techniques to simulate Audio==analog to our ears, leads to the usual outrageous AD-claims for hyping such specs as 0.0000....07% THD, or not so great IM (intermodulation). But you never GET anything but via (whatever super- or normal-grade devices as Made The Recording. (Back to square-one, as THAT is where the best-tech needs to begin.) Neumann mics?, once, which? Mfg./Model of the cutter of the Master? ad infinitum.

---

* Typically, Villchur (then others) employed a Symphony ). (or Band, if you like) to play selections. On stage were a couple of his speakers (AR-1, 2, 3 etc.) and the performers. At a point, the musicians would merely simulate their playing (a gauzy screen lest you look for Tells in the way various instruments make sound) And the speakers performed. Many switches in a session. There are stats but I don't try to remember such #-dross forever. The numbers are likely Out There.

There exists NO one-sentence disposition of the [n!] nuances of How We Perceive Sound(s), despite all the propaganda and infinite opinions from those who never ever "found out lots of technical and human aspects" via their own experiments.

Carrion. sometimes it's marketed as Kobe beef but it-snot.
My ears never were 'golden'; possibly Iridium-plated pot metal nor could I fly Eastward to attend above comparos. Now the Iridium has flaked off, ergo I'd never try to pick a Today's best-buy audio thingy, so above is academic to moi.

Ah but.. the mind/brain remembers SEEING goose-bumps arise on a man's arm re the Infinity™ Servo-static One speakers and a Joan Sutherland voice recording (no words: the voice as instrument! Have to look-up the Composer; Concerto for Soprano and O. IIRC)... somewhere in Chatsworth CA, accompanied by a reputed golden-boy with lots of chops, writing regular Reviews. Theatre sounds today I pass on, because most owners/managers are apt never to have heard a Symphony LIVE (unless too old to care or be able to tell?) These ex- aero-space (young) founders had just unloaded a massive Hewlett-Packard Fourier Analyzer beast, the day I flew down there. Science. Fun.

So yer Da's got cuth!..

Also have the young Maynard Ferguson's, All the Things You Are ... recalled almost imediately by Mrs. Jerome Kern /she didn't like the slurs and stratospheric arpeggios..

Some early recordings shall live evermore.. prolly not these two, but.. someone WIll have a copy in a trunk.

(You wouldn't want to hear of the food-fights re McI's choice of an odd output circuit, nor Saul Marantz's specifying a special alloy to be used in the laminations for his output transformers.) I could be happy with my Linn-Sondek LP-12 turntable + a special cartridge ..but sans Ed Long's magick speaker-doping secret ..no idea which speakers I'd aim for next {{sob}} if I don't soon find a wizard with similar chops in that black-art:

the cone's edge IS the 'spring' of course, but it seems that [ f = k x s] Ain't what you want there; you need a programmed dk/dt to play in that field; nobody did that via computer simulations and fancy drivers to force compliance (to my knowledge) but Ed Long found this analog-via-elastomer-creation mixes which simulated (what his "time-aligned" method could map out (accurate phasing was one of his tools.)

Ah well, someday there will be Super-audio, but I doubt that there will be program material available then (except underground) ..that anyone like moi would care to hear all that accurately [ba dum].

---

Frank $ Ernest cartoon strip, at optician's:
"Don't make 'em too good, Doc; there's not much I want to see all that clearly."
;-^>

there *are* such golden ears who can Hear the nuances--and pick their preferences reliably (and some, via something akin to that special Wine-obsessed vocabulary?: give 'analyses" congruent with Real-engineers ..and like that. In addition to these few: in the New truth-is-optional Era, there also are a myriad who claim that virtuosity.. wash/rinse/repeat.

All of which is why I aver that, "no one sentence, laudatory OR dismissive ... makes any sense", given the human/machine complexity of the entire matter. er, Still.

Also too: input created with synthesizers and such paraphernalia confound any judgment of 'Fidelity' as: these are not the sounds of voice OR "instrument" being Reproduced as accurately as possible; these are Produced collections of effects... witness how it was that "Sgt. Pepper" was 'produced', via all manner of prescient details handled by innovation with existing gear. Yes, the recorded version must be playable, but you never could listen-in on its Production so as to A/B one -vs- the other. Rest case.

Optional PS:
I once accompanied an Instructor friend to the L.A. Philharmonic [Wallenstein conductor] for the debut of Frederick Marvin (still playing, last I heard..) We recorded the Chopin Piano Cto.#2 on a barely-"transportable'" huge Ampex machine/prime in the day (which JSC also owned!) I thus had the -delayed- version of hearing it once Iive, thence shortly after hearing last of the tape over headphones superior to most speakers du jour. It was of course surprisingly Good, especially compared to the consumer gadgets like Webster-Chicago (Webcor™). Nor had I the experience/vocabulary to express "differences" in perception. He later cut an LP (!) with his own equipment (of quality I had no idea.) I still have that disc, but it won't reveal much applicable to this discussion.