neutrality vs. realism

Since mics, etc. will always take away something from the original sound, it would seem components would have to add some of that back. Meaning the must put out more than they get in.
Not the best example but: say SET's are quicker than reality. Since some speed is lost in the recording process, SET's just put it back at the realistic amount of the original event.

Cdc, an argument like that could be used to justify engineers using EQ, harmonic enhancers and other creative outboard devices.

There are some wonderful comments here and I want to posit a few thoughts.There is a simple way to check "real" in your room in your home.I assume some of us own and play acoustic instruments or can go to acoustic house concerts in there cities and or invite musicians to your home to play and get some free grub(they love that).Sit in your sweet spot,listen, make notes,how does the attack,decay and timbral qualities sound to you with a real instrument in your room.My wife plays her taylor guitar in the living room where the system is so I can make comparisons.Is this the perfect solution?,no but it is one way to reference sans opinion and hyperbole.I like to find solutions to questions like these and not run down my battery on conjecture.Between the hundreds of us here we can find a referencing tool for checking the realism of our systems and a guitar,violin,horn,singers,drummers and others in your listening room does it for me.

I've occasionally had esteemed, graying jazz musicians play live alongside my Steinway, between my Parsifal Encores.
Mostly standup, acoustic guitar, voice, and violin.
I'm impressed by the fact that I can REPRODUCE my piano by careful mic placement such that its bottom end sounds BETTER than live! Ha! There's no mystery, here, afterall, as the left Earthworks mic sits so close to the soundboard and lower strings that I can "make" my beloved "B" sound bigger and better through my Encores than the set of wavefronts that hit me when I'm playing the thing. It's all about wave propagation and summation at the listening (playing) position. Sure the top octaves are more complex live, with that truly wonderful "B magic octave", etc.
So the more-neutral (huh?) reproduced position sounds BETTER (thanks to purely-objective, science-proven stuff about physics, mic placement, Earthworks' transient response, a fully-Class A amp chain, etc.) than my oh-so-"REAL" 800 lb, 7' friggin acoustic transducer IN THE ROOM!
So the above discussion's "it's so nice that them poles should meet" near-waltz resolution and male-bonding now has to address THIS redefining of the turf! Would ya?...could ya? (And PLEASE keep Jung, Mazwell (my collegiate days fave) and Kant (especially, you engineers!) outta this.
And Asa's only allowed 20% of the thread-inches (sorry, I love ya too, buddy, but my eyes grow tired at these early AMs).....
So I'm a pig cryin' in shit: I'll be able to make recordings of MYSELF IN MY ROOM that sound as good as the near-best commercial ones (except for room ambience, of course), so I can't complain...'ceprt I can't figure out how to use this Alesis Masterlink....
A grateful and happy Thanksgiving to all!

Onhwy, I bought a used GRACE 2ch Lunatec mic pre for $800, rather than two glitzy 101s. Glad I did: the small Lunatec velco's under the piano out of sight, its detented knobs are finger-friendly in the dark, and its TOTALLY silent.
Get one used NOW as it's been replaced by the Lunatec V3 with a DAC in it for $300 more. The Alesis has a fine DAC, so it'd be redundant. Readers should note that I made 40 foot cheap-but-great Canare XLRs from mic thru pre thru Masterlink to Aleph P! $0.44/ft! A pro favorite, and now I know why. Yet when it came time to connect the Masterlink to the beloved Aleph P pre, my left/right brain balancing act between Asa's subjectivity (Nordost?) and pro engineers' (TWO of 'em watching me intently, laughing all the way) objectivity (more Canare) resulted in a crisis of audiophilia nervosa...so I made the Canares AND bought a 1/2m Blue Heaven XLR (at least I didn't get SPM, eh?).
My new/old piano teacher insists that I perfect getting my lower back energy projecting into my Brahms' chords, instead of sweating the wire. Man '0 man is she right? No wonder we marry these other-chromosomed types, eh? Cheers.