I haven't invested tens of thousands of dollars so that I can play that vinyl record that was made poorly, but, rather, to listen to the music that was recorded exceptonally well. I think that we "audiophiles" concentrate on the better recordings. We all have old, poorly recorded ones that are dear to our hearts, and make us feel good when we listen to them but what gets my little hairs on the back of my neck raised are those incredible recordings. They make the musicians sound like they are in the room with me--or, I guess, like I am in thier room, with them.
What are we really trying to replicate?
Two questions:
(1) At what point does the level of an audio system exceed the level at which it was recorded and/or transferred to media? Does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars to reproduce a record that is mass produced?
(2) When trying to replicate a concert, can speakers actually sound too good? I doubt most concerts have a equal level of sound quality compared to the systems represented on this forum, so is there a case to simply build a system that plays extrememly loud? How much unamplified live music (think symphony) is really available?
(1) At what point does the level of an audio system exceed the level at which it was recorded and/or transferred to media? Does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars to reproduce a record that is mass produced?
(2) When trying to replicate a concert, can speakers actually sound too good? I doubt most concerts have a equal level of sound quality compared to the systems represented on this forum, so is there a case to simply build a system that plays extrememly loud? How much unamplified live music (think symphony) is really available?