It looks like a debate to me.

Folks,
All sensory perceptions are filtered through our brain of biases and past experiences .  That is what subjective implies.  This hobby or passion of ours may have different motivations for different people, and those individual choices should all be fine and tolerated.  There is no absolute right or wrongs here, and to engage in "argumentum ad hominem" makes no sense....perhaps the late Harry Pearson was correct, in that the "Absolute Sound" is that of the live experience, which I believe can be approached but never equaled in the home listening room.  It is all a REPRODUCTION...whatever pleases each of us, and whatever each of us finds "better" or "worse" is fine with me.  Perhaps we should chose to say which items we prefer, not which are better....Is one great artist better or worse than another, or does one please us more?  I one delicious meal better or worse than another, or does it just please us more?  Similar themes, I think....PEACE

Most people have not (rpt not) heard a truly great system. I’m not going to speculate why that is. They might think they have, sure. That’s why the old wives tale of live music being the absolute sound persists. It’s like a virus. No live venues sound alike so how can live music be the ideal. Do you think a crappy venue still sounds better than a good home system? Give me a break? There is no absolute sound. Yes, I know what some of you are thinking, “But how do you know? Are you out of mind?”

... Take all comments with a grain of salt and a grain of truth.

Verify with your own experience... be open to others statements (ask if by experience or by opinion and be 50% sure they are truthful in their response) and remember things that were heresy years ago SOMETIMES PROVE OUT...

Could # of responses/forum comments be relevant?

" could # of responses/forum comments be relevant? " only if they were relevant to begin with.

tooblue:

... SHARP-POINTED truth: I guess I'd agree that a comments' relevance to topic should be of paramount importance (and value to the 'conversation'/forum discussion)...