Validation

 Of course, compliments are always appreciated, but it’s not about ego, validation, or anything like that. If you don’t want any critical input, it’s your loss.

  A friend came over, so I played his favorite record (Santana’s first album).  He complained that, “he couldn’t understand the lyrics”.  My equipment is thoughtfully matched and fine (no one needs to tell me this) but it confirmed my suspicion that my room needs a lot of acoustic treatment.  Maybe my lp is suboptimal.  Whatever. I wouldn’t be much of an audiophile if I weren’t seeking higher fidelity.  
   My all-tube system is optimized for tonality, flow, etc. My friend, who is a music publisher, hears $.  I enjoy live recordings (among other things) with all their inevitable flaws.  My friend hears production values, more than anything, and can not get past the limitations inherent in live recordings.   I respect his “ears”, but he doesn’t kmow what he is missing.
   We all have different ears and focus.  Someone telling you what they hear is a just a different perspective.  

 I love my Livingroom system and consider it my end game done system. However, I had a friend who is a musician and audio hardware vendor come over to listen. His hearing ability was written up on 6moons.com and I had also noticed the same genius when I was discussing audio gear with him in the past. He told me that the Livingroom system, which cost me about $20k and is rather simple was the 3rd best system he had ever heard. The other 2 costing close to a million.

He was not a SS fan and likes vinyl and tubes the most. My setup was a SS Benchmark LA4 preamp and SS amp. I remember telling him before he came over that my setup was something me may not like but I loved it. 

If it was anyone else, I really would not have paid too much mind to the feedback but coming from someone who knows so much about audio made me convinced not to ever touch this system. I did do one upgrade, but only because the speakers were scratching the floor. I got the Townsend Audio Platforms and there was an improvement in the sound (especially the bass).

BTW - I have received a lot of negative feedback from my friend in the past. I can remember 3 pieces of gear that he told me were not good. I ended up selling them.

Not necessarily validation, but I do enjoy reading good reviews of items that I already own. 

As long as my German Shepard Bruno likes it, I am good. 

@jmalen123 

Thats the best validation!