Does 'Accuracy' Matter or exist ?

Hi Onwhy61 - thanks for explaining! While the variables you speak of are not insignificant, I must agree with Frogman - all halls have an "easily identified, inherent, signature sound" which will still be there despite these variables - and the same goes for the specific timbral qualities of every human voice and every acoustic instrument. Far too many recording engineers do not make recordings that are very accurate in Frogman's sense nowadays, and this is to me and most of my fellow musicians a much bigger issue than whether or not the playback equipment can then pass that info on. It certainly can't if it isn't there on the recording in the first place. I personally think that too many audiophiles blame the equipment when in fact they are listening to a bad recording job. But that's getting off topic.

Listening to music this afternoon this song, a recent favorite came up in random shuffle. Listening to the lyrics I said to myself, this is at the core of what moves me about music. It is why when I consider the question, "Does accuracy matter?" (regarding the reproduction and enjoyment of music), I have to say that it's just not the point...it matters if you make it matter, and if it happens to be important to you, but it is not a requirement to profoundly enjoy music, and focusing on such minutia in listening takes one further and further away from enjoyment, in my experience. This is especially so at the level of most indulging in this hobby where some seem to need to find any number of rulers to measure and compare their pride and joy with everyone else's (I really restrained myself there in that metaphor).

This is from Martha Tilston's 2006 release, "Of Milkmaids and Architects", in case anyone's into the contemporary Brit-folk scene. Those with 3 copies of Dire Straits BIA and 4 versions of Pink Floyd DSOM on their frequent rotation might find this a bit boring. It kind of goes back to what I was talking about those early introductions in ones life where it really sinks in and moves you, that you never forget:

_______________

we were the wild wild child of the street
we rollarskated everywhere
Jason and the Argonauts, with festival hair
we were taught to catch our dreams if you can
and put the babies wellies on and help them in the back of the van

oh and I remember
Sophie dancing round the room
singing 'here it comes,
here it comes,
this is the best bit of the tune'
she waves her fingers in the air
says 'doesn't it make you fizz?'
and I understand that Sophie knows
what magic is
I understand that Sophie knows
what magic is

sometimes I go back in my dreams to Bristol
you can hear Jamaican music and taste the Asian sweets
then to the adventure playground
running through the streets
we were both slow readers
we could make a bow and arrow
from the wood and flint with twine
and we cut the lawn with scissors
made sense at the time

oh and I remember
Sophie dancing round the room
singing 'here it comes,
here it comes,
this is the best bit of the tune'
she waves her fingers in the air
says 'doesn't it make you fizz?;
and I understand that Sophie knows what magic is
I understand that Sophie knows what magic is

so now she pours me a glass of pink wine
she takes the babies wellies off
and whispers to him 'bed time'
when he's sleeping she hunts through the CD pile
she says 'you've gotta hear this one, gotta hear this one'
she starts to smile
so now I'm watching Sophie dancing round the room
singing here it comes here it comes this is the best bit of the tune
she waves her fingers in the air
'doesn't it make you fizz?'
understand that Sophie knows what magic is

now I am reminded
what music is

so I get up with her,
dancing round the room
here it comes
here it comes
this is the best bit of the tune
we wave our fingers in the air
'doesn't it make you fizz'

I understand that Sophie know what magic is
you must understand that Sophie knows what magic is
though I am taller in many ways I'm smaller
then my big sis

The ref has stopped the fight, the Hwyman is barely on his feet clinging to the ropes and clearly can no longer defend himself. The Amphibianman's team has run into the ring and hoisted him upon their shoulders in a victory stance. #61 is being helped out of the ring his face a bloody pulp and his legs wobbly, but it appears he's trying to shout something at the winner. "You never knocked me down, Frog. Never knocked me down!"

"I personally think that too many audiophiles blame the equipment when in fact they are listening to a bad recording job."

I actually think this is precisely on-topic; a point well made!

My original question revolved around the inability to judge equipment effectively when so much of the recording process is an unknown.
Many listening sessions, using the largest selection of recordings, might well begin to clarify the problem of judging for 'accuracy', but the unknowns still prevail.

Onhwy61, you cracked me up, that was really, really good. Nothing like some good natured discussion and banter in my book. I suspect that when all is said and done, there is actually less disagreement than comes across in these posts. Disagreement there will be; obviously. But the sticking point for me continues to be that I consider my posturing to be positive and forward-looking. IOW, I think that the advocacy of using the live music standard is a way of deepening the appreciation and enjoyment of music. I have been tooting that horn (pun intended) on this forum for a long time. I have taken a lot of heat, and gotten a lot of rolled eyeballs for it. But the bottom line for me is that I really don't think a lot of audiophiles really know what musical instruments REALLY sound like. Does it matter? How can it NOT matter? The other posture says that focusing on those minutiae will detract from the enjoyment of the music. Sure it can. Only if you let it, and lose sight of the heart in the music.

If the gear let's me hear what it is that makes Carnegie sound like Carnegie, then it will probably do a better job of letting me hear the even more subtle phrasing, and tonal color changes that a great artist uses to convey the music's message. How can that be a bad thing? Problem is that so muuch of the beautiful, subtle information gets wiped out by the recording process. Many don't realize just how much there was to begin with.

"If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music" -Gustav Mahler