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PCAVTech's Ratings System

The purpose of this page is to clarify the meaning of PCAVTech's "My Opinion" ratings system. The ultimate standard of comparison for PCAVTech's ratings system is sonic accuracy. Here, sonic accuracy is defined as the ability of a piece of equipment to pass signals that represent sound without altering them in any way that can be heard as a difference

My Opinion	Explanation
Excellent	Deviations from accurate response won't be audible to sensitive, critical listeners using excellent and/or demanding program material and excellent associated equipment. Audible differences probably or certainly won't be noticed even if there are a reasonably large number of passes through equipment of this quality. Suitable for critical professional or non-professional use. Only amplifiers, digital audio, cables and signal processing equipment can be in this category at this time.
Very Good	Deviations from accurate response probably won't be audible to sensitive, critical listeners using excellent, and/or demanding program material and excellent associated equipment. Audible differences might be noticed if there are a relatively large number of passes through equipment of this quality. Suitable for non-critical professional or non-professional use. Only amplifiers, digital audio, cables and signal processing equipment can be in this category at this time.
Good	Deviations from accurate response are or should be at least occasionally audible to sensitive listeners using excellent program material and associated equipment. Casual listeners might not notice any problems. Sound quality should be satisfying, even to critical listeners. The very best loudspeakers might be in this category, perhaps if used in a sophisticated multi-channel array, and a carefully-designed room.
Poor	Deviations from accurate response are or should be audible in a sensitive listening test. Distortion and/or noise might be clearly audible, and even a little disturbing at times, even in casual listening. Suitable for use in less-critical applications, or by people who for expediency's sake, are willing to accept the audible deviations from sonic accuracy. This is the general range of quality of most "good", wide-range loudspeaker systems, particularly if used in a stereo pair.
Very Poor	Sound quality is obviously compromised by noise and/or distortion. It may be questionable if the sound quality is suitable for any HiFi purpose. Possibly useful when sound quality is not an major issue.
Bad	Output is so full of noise and/or distortion that a reasonable technical and/or listening analysis would be difficult or impossible.