Beat is criticising the specific (and sole) measure used in the article, and has provided a list of specific measurable properties that also have bearing on the

Beat is criticising the specific (and sole) measure used in the article, and has provided a list of specific measurable properties that also have bearing on the issue of sound quality. I think your criticism is unfounded. The complicated, handwavy stuff occurs when you try to map the measurements on to what people think is good. Maybe some day we'll have a good enough handle on that (psychoacoustic perceptual models, and so on) to call it just "signals and math", but right now it isn't.