greater resolution as an end in itself ??

Mrtennis,

I think part of the equation in the "Higher Resolution"
dabate is the fact that some highly read reviewers are at the point of appreciable hearing loss. And they won't admit it.
I went to a local high end store here in Phoenix with a fellow audiophile, a couple of years ago. We heard a system that the store owner raved about. After he left us alone with the system, I asked my friend if the system sounded as bad to him, as it did to me. I described my take on the system, he pretty much agreed.
I've known the store owner for years, I used to agree with him the majority of the time on systems I heard at his store. I believe as his hearing degraded, he desired more & more detail to make music sound as good as it used to.
I'm 54 now, and I've recently decided I want my 2 channel to sound as good as my finances will allow.
In a few years I will have appreciable hearing loss.
I want to make the most of my hearing now.
My front end consists of an Electrocompaniet CD player, and a Pass X1 preamp. I believe both of these pieces have very good detail, but they still sound very musical, to me.

I can't stand it when I go to a live concert and there is just too darn much resolution there!

Seriously, I've never considered resolution to be a problem. The more the merrier! Distortion and certain tonal imbalances bother me more but I do not have as many issues these days as in the past. I've learned to take various recordings for what they are, for better or for worse. Just please, no audible distortions!

Mapman - Tonal imbalances bother me too. It is very tiring to climb the stage and adjust their amps at every concert.

Analogously, ask yourself: can an HD video have too much resolution? Not if your goal is to be able to see everything as clearly as possible. then again, some of the things you see may be dog ugly or you may not find attractive or perhaps the HD equipment is of inferior quality and introduces noise or distortion that limit the results at resolution X. That is the equipments fault, not the fault of higher resolution source.

Audio is pretty much the same way.