Musicality vs Transparency & Detail

For me, the thing that makes music emotionally satisyfing is reproduction of Timbre. Whether or not your system gives you tons of detail and resolution, or a warm "musical" sound is not the final arbiter-for ME. A speaker that can present extreme detail may or may not get the timbre right. What is important (again-to me) is does an acoustic bass sounds like one does when you are in its presence as it is being played, does a clarinet sound like a clarinet or an oboe? Does that cello sound like a cello or are you in a quandary as to whether or not its a bass as its being bowed? For electric instruments some may say "Well, fine, but what is the true timbre of a Fender Stratocaster played through a Marshall stack?" That is a more difficult question, but again, if youve been around electric intruments played live, you hear a difference and know if the reproduction has that "right" sound. What I am constantly amazed at is this: the variables introduced by all our hearing abilities being so different due to physiology or age or environment makes one wonder at how there can be any standard to compare components against! How can Listener A say Speaker X presents detail in "extremely fine resolution", when Listener B may have hearing that is even more acute , and Listener C may have hearing that is incapable of perceiving that fine a level of detail? Food for thought.--Mrmitch

Maybe we can agree then that timbre is important insofar as it is possible to identify the tone color of an instrument as being of that particular instrument, as I alluded to in my previous post. What good is any recording if I can't distinguish between a viola and violin or a bowed cello and a bowed bass? I think we all know that no mike feed is ever going to match the sound of a live event. I dont think I stated that a recording will give you the true timbre of an instrument as it is heard live in performance. There is no wrong or right here, only what each of us feels is most important to US. That's why I brought up the differences in hearing acuity. Stringreen and Violin have a different set of priorities, and thats as it should be. We all perceive sound differently. By the way guys, I played clarinet and sax since the age of 7, was in All-State Band, high school orchestra and jazz bands, and w ent on to play guitar and bass in rock bands through college ( hope you wont hold that against me! lol)--Thanks for all your opinions, its one r eason I enjoy Audiogon!--Mrmitch