Other than music, why are you an audiophile?

I'm not totally buying into this emergence concept. I work with and design systems. So I will say this: Components working together make up a system, but the system characteristics can be described mathematically and predicted beforehand based on the behavior of the components and how they interact. When the results do not match prediction, then some complexity or variable has been overlooked, that's all.

You are quite right that, for MANY types of systems, system characteristics can be reliably predicted from component characteristics. These types of systems tend to be either aggregative or mechanistic. A representative example would be a mechanical system like an car engine.

But for SOME types of systems, system characteristics cannot be reliably predicted from component characteristics, at least with the current state of science. These systems tend to be either highly holistic or highly complex. A representative example would be a biological system like an ecosystem.

In other words, some systems are more likely to support emergent characteristics than others. For ones that do, like ecosystems or economic systems, it is notoriously difficult to predict system characteristics from component characteristics. In theory, it is possible to predict the system characteristics of even highly holistic and highly complex systems. In fact, some progress has been made in the last two decades with the mathematical modeling of these types of systems. But we are still a long, long way from being able to reliably predict the behavior of highly holistic/complex systems by studying the characteristics of their components.

What follows from this is that emergence, as a phenomenon, is largely in the eye of the beholder. That is to say, it is largely a consequence of the cognitive and perceptual limitations of persons. If we had the mind of God, nothing would appear emergent. But since we don't, some system characteristics APPEAR emergent that are altogether within the scope of physical laws. This is why, in the OP, I used phrases like "an audio system, taken as a whole, SEEMS greater than the sum of its parts" and "the phenomenon of emergence is what makes hifi SEEM like magic."

Of course, I wasn't suggesting that hifi is magic. I was suggesting that sometimes hifi SEEMS like magic, because the musical characteristics of an audio system are the result of the holistic/complex interaction of the electrical/mechanical/acoustical characteristics of the system's components. As such, they can be difficult to predict. Certainly for the average audiophile, they are often difficult to predict. But even for the designer of audio components, I would imagine that they are often difficult to predict. Otherwise, designers would not need to rely as heavily as they do on listening tests. In any case, the difficulty predicting the musical characteristics of an audio system from the characteristics of its components is what makes hifi sometimes SEEM like magic. And to me, that is part of what makes hifi special.

Hi Shadorne - Thanks for your contribution. A few brief words of clarification: I wasn't trying to define what it is to be an audiophile, which is why I mentioned in the OP that "My answer is personal. It may not be true of anyone else."

Also, I wasn't trying to suggest that the emergent musical characteristics of an audio system are alterations to "what is on the track," at least not in the sense in which I believe you intended it. In my view, emergent musical characteristics are not the same thing as distortions, colorations, or inaccuracies. To be sure, emergent musical characteristics are DIFFERENT IN KIND from the mechanical/electrical/acoustical characteristics from which they emerge, but that does not in itself make them inaccuracies, provided that the INFORMATION about the music that the emergent characteristics contain is preserved throughout the process of transduction.

Anything extra that emerges may sound as sweet as heaven but I am not interested in this kind of sugar-coating.

I too am not very interested in "sugar coating." You may recall my recent thread, "How do you judge your system's neutrality?" in which I was an outspoken advocate of the value of neutrality, where neutrality was understood as the absence of colorations, and colorations were understood as audible inaccuracies. So, in other words, I am not an advocate of inaccuracies, even when they are euphonic inaccuracies, or "sugar coating." We are in agreement about that.

With that in mind, the emergent musical characteristics I was referring to in the OP are not "anything extra" in any sense that impugns the accuracy of an audio system. They are emergent, simply because they are (1) different in kind from the components' characteristics; (2) caused by the components' characteristics; and (3) difficult to predict from the components' characteristics.

Perhaps it appears that I am suggesting that emergent musical characteristics are "something extra" because I pointed out that they are DIFFERENT IN KIND from the component characteristics from which they emerge. But that is not because "something extra" has been added to the musical information. It is simply because they are the product of TRANSDUCTION, the conversion of one type of energy to another. That is quite an uncontroversial thing to say, and something of which I am sure you are aware. So I suspect we are in agreement here as well.

they are emergent, simply because they are (1) different in kind from the components' characteristics; (2) caused by the components' characteristics; and (3) difficult to predict from the components' characteristics.

And this would be because the equipment or equipment matching or the room setup is inadequate.

No. The issue of whether or not a system characteristic is emergent is altogether INDEPENDENT of whether or not a system is accurate.

Perhaps I have not been clear enough about what I mean by 'emergence.' I don't want to derail the focus of this thread, so I will simply suggest that, if you have any interest in the topic, you google search 'emergence.' You will find an array of articles and books about emergence written by philosophers and scientists, including an article I wrote in the journal Philosophy of Science entitled "The Reemergence of Emergence."