I read this discussion with much interest. It appears that most agree that "Air" is some sort of phenomena that happens when playing back music and listeners are able to discern distinct traits in the audible queue such as echo, reverb, delay in transients and of course the emotional impact that such one realizes from all of this happening.
I have to agree to some in part about the medium playing a big part in this impression of air. For instance, listening to Poco, Legend (MFSL), I was more aware of the ambience and spatial queue of the instruments and was deeply impressed by the fact that I clearly and distinctly hear the back up vocalists convey their backup portions with subtle but delineated air among the separate mics they were singing into. In other words, the entire vocal section had air and space for me to pick out each individual providing me a sense of more air. On lesser recordings these subtle queue, lips opening and closing, breathing etc, may not be able to convey these fine ques. On a higher resolving system, it is easier to depict and discern the differences of these subtle ques.
Of course, this leads to the other parts of the equation, system and room synergy. We all know what that will do to listening to music if the whole chain is not in synergy.
I have to agree to some in part about the medium playing a big part in this impression of air. For instance, listening to Poco, Legend (MFSL), I was more aware of the ambience and spatial queue of the instruments and was deeply impressed by the fact that I clearly and distinctly hear the back up vocalists convey their backup portions with subtle but delineated air among the separate mics they were singing into. In other words, the entire vocal section had air and space for me to pick out each individual providing me a sense of more air. On lesser recordings these subtle queue, lips opening and closing, breathing etc, may not be able to convey these fine ques. On a higher resolving system, it is easier to depict and discern the differences of these subtle ques.
Of course, this leads to the other parts of the equation, system and room synergy. We all know what that will do to listening to music if the whole chain is not in synergy.