Larryh, I make my living doing commercial and advertising photography, then I come home and attempt to make my stereo sound like live music. Do I succeed in achieving sound that is exactly like real music? No, and neither do my photographs fool anyone into thinking they are looking at the "real world." I am glad that along with Southwest Airlines, Fidelity Investments, Interstate Battery and many others, most of my customers and the public in general, are pleased by a high quality approximations. I constantly upgrade my photo equipment (at GREAT expense) in an attempt to produce images that are more convincing. The investment in my audio equipment is (likewise), an attempt to achieve a level of reality in music, at least as much as I can get. Although I am paid, and repaid for my investment in my effort to reproduce realistic photographs, my pursuit of excellence in music is for the pure passion and enjoyment of it. So, I do not find it odd to discover an entire web site of fellow music lovers that have the same goals. What I do find strange is someone who does not care enough about music to make the required investment in equipment. No decent tools, no decent results, it is very simple. Could I enjoy taking pictures with a disposable camera? I guess so, if I had to. But why waste my creative efforts only to be disappointed with a crappy image. Could I enjoy the radio in a VW? Yes, if I had to, but why be disappointed with not only a crappy image, but poor bandwidth, low resolution, and a limited seating area as well?
HiFi is an opinion - nothing more
The audiophile community spends vast amounts of time and resources trying to claim truth about something that boils down to be no more than one persons opinion. I read where some proclaimed audiophile has created nirvana by rotating his loudspeaker 1 degree off axis when used with a certain type of interconnect cable. Phew... I might remind everyone that the human ear and the mechanics of hearing are highly individual, namely we don't all hear alike. Add to that the processing that goes on in the brain to add value to what we hear, we end up with nothing more than an opinion not fact. Case in point, a system set up to accurately reproduce sound in terms of phase, and frequency amplitude response would not be desirable by most audiophiles. It would sound bright, thin and certainly not have enough bass. Most audiophiles would prefer the sound of a Bose Wave Radio to a an accurately set up HiFi. Get some acoustical instrumentation sometime and try it for yourself. To all of you who savor the delicious warmth of your tuuuuby like transistors and transparent capacitors, I say get a life. If you find yourself basking in the latest techno tweek and thirteenth set of speakers, I suggest you go off line, visit a used car lot, find an old VW Beatle, turn on the radio and enjoy the music again. Re-invent yourself.