sound is subjective. picture isn't IMO.
you want the picture to look natural therefore reference standard. it's a set standard has never changed. this shade of red should look exactly like it was intended to be displayed. not any birghter, darker , etc.
sound is subjective because of how it works. some people like more bass. sure people may like a brighter tv but it will wash out the colours then they have to up contrast and now colours are too strong. also it has been suggested reference sound isn't very pleasant to some peoples ears and gives them fatigue. they prefer a slightly warmer sound with high frequencies slightly dulled down.
it's why both tv's and amps come with presets. when it comes to sound i don't think there is a wrong way to do it. so long as you like it. with tv however i believe it should be reference just because that is what it should look like in the real world. i also leave my sound settings on auto calibration to adjust for room correction, etc. so it sounds like it should in the real world. however i do like upping the bass a notch sometimes.
So who decides what the real world looks like ?
Picture, or more precisely colour, is extremely perceptive and subjective. People
do see differently.
The first thing to remember is that colour does not actually exist… at least not in any literal sense. Apples are not green, and fire engines are not red, the sky and sea are not blue, and no person is objectively "black" or "white".
What exists is light.
Light is real, you can measure it, hold it and count it (well … sort-of).
But colour is not light. Colour is wholly manufactured by your brain.
How do we know this? Because one light can take on any colour… in our mind.
Latest research is pointing towards the fact that colors are differentiated by how our brains react differently to different wavelengths of light.
They believe our brains don't automatically associate, for example, short wavelengths with blue, they are trained to as we grow up.
Scientists think that other factors, such as mood, feelings and even emotions can affect our perception of colours.
They claim it's entirely possible that two people can look at the exact same object and have the exact same wavelengths hit their eyes, yet “see" different colors!
Another factor that may affect perception is the physical parts of our body that process the information from the world around us.
Most people have three different photo receptors in the backs of their eyes that perceive, (for the sake of simplicity), the wavelengths that refer to red, green and blue. Of course, color-blind people may be missing one or more of these photo receptors.
Still others — called tetrachromats — may have a fourth photo receptor that helps them see the full range of colors with greater sensitivity than the average person.
Unless your eyes are specially tested, you might not ever know you're a tetrachromat. You might just spend your life perceiving colors in ways that most people never will!
So we all see the world differently. Indeed, we have no choice about this because our individual experiences of the world, are necessarily individually different.
None of us sees the world as it truly is, only how we as individuals perceive it.
In this sense we are all delusional, what each of us sees is a meaning derived from our shared and individual histories.
So who is to say what anything actually truly looks like in the "real world", so where is this "reference" you talk about, who sets that?
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