How much “suspension of disbelief do you need?”

When I was eleven, I saw the movie Patton at the Midland theatre in Kansas City. For 2 hours and 50 minutes, I was there, every battle, every personal victory or defeat, I was there. When George C Scott, walked away with his dog at the end of the Movie, I looked around where I was sitting, to discover that my Grandmother and Sister were there also. (I'm glad they were because I'd a had a tough time getting home)

I had a similar experience with the first good stereo system I ever listened to; Dahlquist DQ-10 and a Dynaco ST-70. James Taylor was in the room.

Is this the Audiophile version of being in the zone? Are there things we can do to help transport us to this place? Meditation, Exercise, a glass of wine, a "brownie"? Is there a form of self hypnosis that takes place?

The timbre perception is my audio room could be "natural" , more natural than before acoustic treatment and control, but it will never be like the timbre perception experience in the real lived original event...

Why?

Because the timbre experience is the center focus in his sound manifestation FROM all the properties from the resonant body of the musical instrument but also from the acoustical settings of "the recorded room", then the timbre experience of the same musical event in my "playback room" will also be the sum of these TWO factors PLUS ONE : the resonant body and the original room, at which we must add now the acoustical properties of my own room...

A small room cannot disapear to let emerge "virginally and pure,  without his positive and negative own interference, the "original event" itself ....

No personal room happily is an anechoic chamber, and no small treated and controlled room sound the same, by virtue of his geometry, size, topology and acoustic material and devices content...

No need to "suspend our belief" or to believe, only the need to put in place the right accoustic controlled conditions to translate one experience to another one.... The two are related but completely different: the recorded event and the playback event...

This must be evident for anyone who ever assist to a concert and listen to it recorded after that.... We musk ask them...

My point was how much one has to work to suspend disbelief, its a matter of degree. Suspension of disbelief intuits some level of mental effort, belief requires no effort. As my system has improved over the years, I find increasingly less mental strain and greater immersion and/or belief performers appearing in front of me, even to the point of wanting to reach out and touch.

I feel the same....And my system cost is 500 bucks but acoustician or their pupils  dont give a dam bout price tag of gear...

My point was how much one has to work to suspend disbelief, its a matter of degree. Suspension of disbelief intuits some level of mental effort, belief requires no effort. As my system has improved over the years, I find increasingly less mental strain and greater immersion and/or belief performers appearing in front of me, even to the point of wanting to reach out and touch.

The responses to OP provoke me to the core of why I choose to devote time getting the audio reproduction right, meaning “good enough for me”.

The old conundrum about whether to “fish or cut bait” applies; remembering to relax and just enjoy isn’t always easy.

To feel like what I’m hearing is what the band heard on playback in the studio control room does it for me.

LedZep “Houses of the Holy” tour had a quad system also.