“Faithful to the recording”

@immatthewj 

"It seems as if every piece of gear winds up being written about in glowing orgasmic terms." 

In news reporting, it's the depressing stuff that garners attention and thus, brings in ad dollars. In audio, it's the "glowing orgasmic" reviews that bring in the ad dollars. 

Reviews of any individual component, speaker, cable, etc. don't mean much unless they're reviewed in conjunction with what you or I have at home, as a system. And how likely is that ever to occur?  That's why I don't buy based upon what I read, but what I hear!

Perhaps such terms of praise are best viewed as a measure of the reviewer's enthusiasm rather than an accurate description of what is occurring sonically, although given that each listener perceives and judges sound differently, I'm not sure there is an "objective vocabulary".

Brings to mind the Les McCann lyric "Tryin' to make it real compared to what". . . as in, what would you all rather hear from reviewers?

@immatthewj 

"maybe that's why I seldom read a review anymore, except to sometimes get specs and prices of something I find interesting".

When I'm contemplating an upgrade I read/watch as many reviews as I can find, in order to glean whatever info might be useful for the process of narrowing down which components appear to meet my parameters. Very rarely do I buy anything I cannot demo at home and return, if need be. In the end, I depend upon my own ears. 

@mahgister 

"From the first acoustic lived event where any seat give another perspective on the lived acoustic event, we have AFTER the independant recording process who "manipulate" by INEVITABLE choices trade-off process this acoustic event which is no more the original one now but a package of analog/digital information who gives another potential acoustic perspective of his own...

And we have the second acoustic event in YOUR ROOM, where you listen THROUGH your room acoustic settings and geography this TRANSFORMED and and TRANSLATED potential perspectival event into an actual one..."

Thanks for affirming reality! 

The "mythology of the high fidelity "reproduction" as you rightly call it, is very deeply ingrained. . . 

@asvjerry 

I find your remarks very sensible. 

Even if one could afford chasing SOTA, that pursuit is not necessarily a prescription for satisfaction. As someone with a high capacity for perfectionism/obsessiveness, I'm grateful that my finances preclude my embarking upon such a grail quest!