Is it possible that the human ear can distinguish artifacts not readily apparent to a distortion meter? Why; if people say they like certain sounds and those people have not been exposed to this debate or do not know of the controversy surrounding whether we can genuininely tell if an amplifier sounds more like music than another amplifier does; must we negate their opinion as naive or useless?

What about the people who never seek out high end gear or study how to listen to it or know nothing about it; or how much it costs; does their opinion count?
These are the questions that plague me about this debate. We all know the usuall responses; they are impressed with the cost;
They are impressed with the looks;
They have a personal agenda, etc etc.
But what about the people who know nothing of the equipment but play music on instruments; would their opinion count?

I think it is too easy to dismiss the ones who listen to music but don't care about the equipment because they are not having this debate. But they should be the ones to do the tests with.