My friend Art Tedeschi from the Colorado Audiophile Society sent me an interesting observation which I think is rather relevant and relates to our thoughts.
"I think most died-in-the-wool audiophiles have two distinct goals:
1) We want a system that bathes us in glorious, unadulterated sonic bliss that washes away our troubles and soothes us emotionally and inspires us intellectually and....
2) We want a system that's as true as possible to the live performance.
Unfortunately, these goals do not necessarily coincide, which is the crux of the problem.
So however unreachably lofty, my vote would be to strive for accuracy, as I believe the best recordings will always supersede a system that consistently sounds good with all or most sources.
Practically speaking, of course, I also prefer a system that sounds good, but the industry itself must have some kind of standard to evolve it in a positive direction, and I think the only standard we have now, as flawed as it is, would be the live performance."
So accuracy or emotionally inspiring? Heck of a choice.
Why can't we have both?
