Is it pure?

We all work so hard trying to achieve purity in our reproduction systems, and that's a good thing. One of my readers, Mike, pointed out to me it's paradoxical, the lack of purity found in a recording studio making the music in the first place; most modern studios awash in DSP and manipulations of all sorts. Anything but pure. These two observations may not be at odds with each other as it might first appear. Take modern film for example. Years ago, the best films were pure: photographed on film with beautifully crafted 70mm Panavision rigs and projected with the best optics at fine theaters. You could tell the level of purity and craft going into one of those films. Today the best films are digitally manipulated: DSP, if you will (not literally, but you get the idea). The goal is the same for both methods: make gorgeous, believable images that help tell a story. Regardless how each process works, pure film or well crafted (highly manipulated) digital, the results can both be stunning when reproduced by pure means. And here's where the rubber meets the road (as we Americans like to say). It is every bit as important to have a pure playback system for these films, or your music, regardless of the method they were produced with. It is not ok to accept post processing just because the source files were subjected to it. One plus one doesn't always equal two.