Disturbing "Sonic Trend" showing up on SOTA audio

Schubert nailed it!

As a musician and (somewhat) audiophile, I bought myself a pair of pretty nice omni-directional condenser mics J. Gordon Holt had recommended, and plugged them directly into my Revox A-77 reel-to-reel, in the simple spaced-omni configuration. I recorded some live music (a band I was playing in at the time, with upright piano, tenor and baritone saxes, vocals, drumset, and electric bass and guitar) and some studio sessions, as well as speaking voices (my then two year old son's especially) and other natural sound sources. I monitored all the recording on Sennheiser headphones, and still use the tapes for assessing the sound quality of reproducing gear. You might be amazed at how much more lifelike self-made amateur recordings can sound than commercial releases---so much more transparent and immediate, sounding almost like a direct-to-disc LP in comparison!

True Psag. The WWII generation heard unamplified orchestras, both Big Band and Classical, the Korean War generation heard folk singers and acoustic guitars in coffee houses, on college campuses, and at parties, but the Vietnam War generation forward has heard live music amplified only. Non-audiophiles like loudspeakers that sound like PA's, have you noticed?! Perhaps if I hadn't grown up hearing some music acoustically (R & R bands sit down with a couple of acoustic guitars when the songwriter/s teach a new song to the band members, plus I've played with stand-up bass players. And when recording in the studio, the singing is au-naturel. I now listen to a lot of bluegrass, which is of course acoustic) I too would have no reference point.

But the flaw in HP's logic is that it assumes the sound contained in recordings is that of the original acoustic event as a listener present at the recording would have heard it. That's a mighty big assumption!