Once again, the "sound", the tone/timbre of music becomes the focus of the discussion. More important issues are overlooked. Time and rhythm is what gives music it's vibrancy. That is where the soul of the music is; the human touch. It is also what gets distorted the most by the recording/ playback process. Ideally, live unamplified music should be the standard. But live amplified music can also serve. The immediacy and impact of a miked kick drum at a concert in an arena, or the grandeur of a full string section making a crescendo during a Mahler symphony cannot be duplicated by even the best sound systems. Those deficiencies make the issues of wether the sound is a little bright here or a little bloated there seem petty by comparison. I find the argument that there are too many variables, too many different sounding halls, different engineers, yada yada, to be a tired argument. It's all about familiarity with the sound of the real thing.
