Oh brother. Just an FYI: This old nut had a SLIP connection from my Amiga 500 in 89/90.
Not that you would natively know what slip is w/o googling it
No wonder why he's so stubbornly dwelling in old technologies...
To begin, an instrument is like a bottle of wine. Some have the potential to age well, while others do not. Similarly, sound vibrations are able to improve the ones with potential, as well as deteriorate the ones without, much like a bottle of wine. How can a luthier tell? I don't know, I am not a luthier, but he probably learned something in violin school. How can a sommelier tell? Same answer.
As an analogy to the composition of wood, you can try experimenting with a plate of sand. Create an unevenness to the sand, raising some areas and depressing other areas. Place it on top of a speaker, and see what happens. The vibrations causes the sand to level out. Wood does the same thing, but at a slower pace.
jinjuku: a theory is something that is backed by observation and true until solidly disproved.