What is your reference?

An 1878 Steinway B Grand Piano. I have had it in three different homes--and does it ever sound different depending on the acoustics around it. The harmonics that an actual piano creates (in it's environment) is incredible--and difficult to reproduce very well. I intend to record this piano, but until then, I use Ito Ema's Goldberg Variations (M*A recordings). She plays a similar vintage Steinway, but a D version. This is one of my favorite recordings. Todd Garfunkle deserves a medal for this one.

My ultimate goal is to fool myself that I am either listening to a live performance or listening in on a studio performance. Hearing more detail than was intended or noticed when when preparing the final mix on material is not productive to enjoying the music in my opinion. I have both played and listened to a lot of live music both acoustic and electric and combinations of both. This is the standard that I evaluate my equipment to. I have one CD in our collection that I have had the opportunity to listen to the studio digital master tapes of. This is one of my best references. With other references I just have to give it my best bet, and am probably going for certain colorations to achieve my version of what music sounds like. One of my favorite test CD's is "Celtic Solstice" by Earth Music Productions that was recorded in St. Johns Cathedral, NY. My pet peaves are percussive insruments followed by voice, strings and brass. Due to budget constraints I do not currently deal with the low LF portion of sound. I have not heard any subwoofers in my price range that I consider to be "musical". In another home I would have (on our budget) opted for Zen SET's and large efficient floorstanders, but with five cats and not enough room I have settled for Musical Fidelty amplification and small stand mounted moniters. The cats gave up on the powder coated stands after a couple of days. I now listen to more classical music than ever before and am finding it difficult to balance my system between popular and classical. The recent addition of a new power cord to my CD player just narrowed the gap quite a bit. I know that we are all searching for an individual sound. I was able to listen to the Ah! Tjoeb CD player and am perplexed by the reviews that it is receiving. It was pleasant for the first 10 seconds but as soon as a piano came in on the piece it failed with an "F", yet this is a sound that many people are looking for. I guess that some people are better fooled than others, lucky them.

My ear is my reference. I sing in a professional chorus and subscribe is a major symphony orchestra. I want to come as close to what I hear live in a concert hall. I agree that some people have never heard much live music, so they go with what they are use to hearing. Some folks just have a bad ear. But that said, if you like what you hear in your system, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, no matter what you buy.

My 1992 Steinway M recalibrates my ears daily.

Onhwy61's philosophy re: recorded music pretty much reflects my own in a practical sense. Can I borrow it? Having said that, I have played both acoustic and electric guitars for 40+ years, and am particularly sensitive to the different sounds of guitar amps. BTW tube amps for guitar, eg Fender and Marshall, sound radically different than most solid state. But, having said all that, I live in the boondocks of Oregon, and the sounds I like best are: wind in the trees; surf on the beach; rain on the roof; owls at night; windstorms; thunder; foghorns in the distance; coyotes howling at night etc. Seldom are these recorded very convincingly, but there are places on a couple of CDs that definitely get our cats attention. Cheers. Craig.