The Absolute Sound vs Pleasing Sound

Frog, what you said about great instruments, their complexities and unique character is applicable to people as well.
I have never heard any of those famous violins live.

No, we won't give up, but they should find a way to make better recordings. We will appreciate that greatly.

I am absolutist and proud of it.
As I mentioned, microphones are unadvanced devices. First, improve them. There is no music recorded well. 

That's too binary. Partly satisfied and partly not, that's closer to reality.
Microphones are primitive things compared to ear. They cannot hear everything there is to hear. So what do we do ? Do we try to manipulate the recording in an effort to compensate for what microphones missed or leave it alone ?

So much agitation about nothing. Amazing. 

Another element is that even those of us with really good hearing do not hear live performance exactly the same, though it should be close.
So, one will prefer these speakers and another - those. But it should not be far apart. I think, Frog prefers big electrostatic speakers and quite a number of audiophiles do. I don't. Does it mean that my hearing is worse ? Maybe, maybe not. My musician friend also prefers electrostatics, by the way. I know this - I hate horns, any horns.

Frog and I are on the same page.
Biggest problem that I see is speakers. Do you want them to be 'neutral' transducers as much as possible or you also consider them 'instruments' as well ? Well, I would probably want to have two pairs of very different speakers.

Frog, how are you ?
We always have an unamplified instrument with us - voice. If system doesn't reproduce voice reasonably well it is no good.
Record your voice on tape and play it. Next step play an acoustic guitar, just strike a few accords, record it and play.
If you only listen to amplified and 'synthetic' music, that's easier, though still it is hard to get dynamics right in a small room, and almost any room is small.

Picasso couldn't paint, ridiculous.
One day absolute sound might become achievable. In the mean time, I will keep moving in that direction as much as I can.
"Pleasing sound" is a totally different approach. I am not interested in it but I do understand it.