Merry go round

@hilde45 - thanks for your reply - alls good, enjoy your journey! 
In friendship - kevin.

@kevn Thanks, you too!

rvpiano:

Honestly, I didn't quite understand your point. Your view of "portrays the music accurately”  is that it "delivers the musical message in a realistic way without distortion of original signal."

My point was that there is all audio systems add their own character -- "coloration" or "distortion," that is, "character" -- and so the word "realistic" is useless.

Think of an audio system like a painting rather than a window. 

When we are in a museum, we do not ask, "Which painter portrays Jesus (say) accurately?"
We say, "I like Dali's portrait of Jesus" or "I like Raphael's portrait of Jesus," etc.

We like the painters who somehow speak to our emotions, our sensibilities, our sense of taste, our understanding of what the subject matter means to them.

Some people who are not religious might prefer a certain religious portrait because it conveys their "take" on religion -- there's a dark hint of criticism to it, which jibes for them.

Others who are deeply pietistic might prefer portraits which amplify the transcendental greatness of the subject matter.

Audio is really no different. It's all an interpretation of the original event. The question is, do you know yourself well enough to know which interpretation fits?

If you're ambivalent about sound, you're likely ambivalent about yourself.

@hilde45

My point is a very simple one. I didn’t mean for it to cause a hullabaloo!

When I say accurate, I mean that my system now sounds like the music I hear at a concert hall. I’m not probing the meaning of the word accurate. I’m using it in a very general sense.  Maybe I should have used the word resembled.

@rvpiano Got it. 

Sometimes my concert hall doesn't sound very good. I will come home from a performance and put on a CD or stream the same song and think, "Ah, now that's better." It is -- it's truly better.

I had alot of audio equipment and can change my set up .So that's what I do...if I can get stuff down from my attic....but I'm 73 and NOT buying new equipment....I spent my money on lps and cds ,especially the cds you can get stuff so cheap now...ever vinyl if you luck out at the thrift,savers,local library...got 7 albums this week cost me $44 bucks....and if I bought them at ebay they would of cost an average  of $7.00 more for shipping ...so I saved big time..