The Absolute Sound vs Pleasing Sound

With as little coloration as possible in the electronics, in other words tube distorion generators need not apply. Straight wire with gain or at least transparent within a humans auditory range. All we're doing is trying to reproduce the medium not the concert.

It's just an example of expectation bias. It's not like it isn't a common human condition. 

The only thing you're going to get in your room is  reproducing what's on the medium not what was originally live in the studio or live in a concert venue. The more transparent or neutral your electronics sans speakers will only take care of that part of the equation in your reproduction effort . Should your speakers have a flat FR from 20hz to 20khz  adjusted to the Harman curve? Are nulls and peaks in your room addressed ? Testing has shown most people prefer that. Perhaps you don't,  but are you reproducing what's on the medium in a neutral way? To me trying to chase  a live concert sound in your room is a fool's errand. I can get a trumpet to sound like a trumpet but not like one playing in my room, I really wouldn't want that, same with drums, guitar,  violins,  pianos. I've been in enough rooms playing and singing having a good time but that's not what I'm looking for nor what I expect from my stereo. I only expect to try and reproduce whatever medium I'm listening to with as little coloration as possible. In other words what used to be known as high fidelity. 

Striving for the sound of live is a fool’s folly”. Yet, in the same post the same poster goes on to state: “I want my system to have as little coloration as possible”.

Nothing contradictory I can see.  I am not striving for live sound in club, concert hall or outdoor venue but the best reproduction of the media I am listening too. In striving for reproduction I want my electronics to  add as little coloration as possible to the media.  If I am playing digital then I want a DAC that measures beyond human hearing so I am not coloring the media, I want an amplifier that measures as close as possible as well again not adding to the media. It all falls apart when speakers and your room are  tossed in but I aim for speakers with a very good FR, measure the room, address the problems either with passive or active solutions. Maybe this is also a fools errand but I figure I've done the best I can to try to recreate high fidelity of the media not the live event. I have no control over the production of the media but I can try to get off of it what was put on it as best as I can.  I understand I am in the circle of confusion as F. Toole  puts it but I figure it's the best I can do. 

What's sad is how some people either refuse  or can't seem to grasp how biases influence human behavior. The violin test was just an example of how these biases affect each of us no matter how well we think we're immune. At least
" Fritz" understood and shrugged, knowing he's human without twisting himself into a logical pretzel. 

I wonder why anyone thinks because humans have biases they're somehow deluded?  I imagine if I heard a Stradivarius I would consider it superior then if heard it compared with other violins in a blind test but didn't pick the Stradivarius I wouldn't assume I'm  deluded or suffering from hallucinations. I'd shrug it off and laugh about how easily we're influenced by our biases. 

What's saddest of all is not accepting Fritz when he acknowledges how his bias influences him.

If you know it’s a Strad, you will hear it differently," Fritz says. "And you can’t turn off that effect."

 I'm not locked in a mindset I simply took Fritz at his word , maybe I'm mistaken and you were saying Fritz is locked in a mindset not me, if so I apologize.

What is even sadder, IMO, is to be locked in a mindset that says that reactions are the result of bias and to refuse to be open minded about the possibility that it is not bias at all that is at play. 

I wonder why those who denigrate testing for biases seem to think the outcome of such tests will support the position of "measurementists"? Why is it everytime a simple psychological test on bias is reported in an article or paper or book some feel the need to tie themselves in knots trying to explain it away. We all have biases and they affect a lot of things we do or feel that have nothing to do with audio. Seems weird to me.