HiFi is an opinion - nothing more

I'm not sure I should even bother with replying but aside from your attitude problem, you have clearly never heard a system that measures impulse coherent with flat frequency response. My system has been professionally measured in my room as part of my setup and room treatment program. My Dunlavy SC-V's are phase and impulse coherent to begin with. Coupled with a Sigtech room DSP and room treatment the response at the sweet spot is virtually flat from 25HZ to beyond audibility. There is plenty of solid chest rattling bass on well recorded Techno, metal, organ or late romantic classical. Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky and Strauss do not sound thin and I hear live orchestral music two or three times a month. You may think I wasted my money on this system but that's about the only thing in your post that is really a matter of taste along with one other exception. I do listen with the top two octaves rolled off so the sound isn't too bright.

Aren't you the hypercritical one Larry? You speak as though you can't stand the idea of what people on this site do with their hifi or how they spend their time. If you're not into hifi, what are you doing here? I believe you're the one who should get a life and should dedicate all your time to something that are of interest to you rather than on something you hate. You even took the time you register a user name on this site. The only reason why I registered in Audiogon is to purchase something here. It doesn't sound like you want to buy anything here anyway. Why did you register? The truth of matter is if you draw a graph with the an axis designating cost and a y asis designating sound quality, and dollars you have to spend for every step of sound improvement, the chart is will not be linear. Everyone in this hobby realizes this and all have a limit or tolerance of how much they are willing to spend to achieve their acceptable sound quality. Seems like you don't believe in this dollar spent vs. sound quality relationships. You come across as "we" audiophilers are over focusing our efforts and money just to reproduce a simple sound wave and that we don't need. You wrote as though we treat sound as a luxury. You make us feel as though we can simply live with the quality of sound that comes equal to a VW bug. If you preach this philosophy, I expect you live your life in the simpliest way without the owning anything fancier than the basic necessities, right? You better not be driving a car cause you can take public transportations, have any expensive clothes because it's a luxury, and etc. If everything you own exceeds your the basic necessity of life, then you're just a hypercrite and have no merit to your argument.

I think Larry's comment on the VW was just a re-phrasing of the oft-cited, "it's supposed to be about the music!", and not an indictment of all things pertaining to luxury.

Why are posts like Larry's always the ones that inspire the most voluminous threads when everyone is saying "go away"? It would seem like if what he says is so useless nobody would ever visit the thread again, much less take the time to write a response.

It does give me an idea for a new thread, though - "How many pairs of speakers have you gone through in your audio quest?" Nothing derogatory intended, it just strikes me as an interesting question. For me, the answer was one before my wife began rolling her eyes and exclaiming, "what the hell do you need a new pair of speakers for - your current pair works just fine!" The count for my current incarnation is three with the fourth being strategized on.

As observed by others Larry is attempting to evoke a reaction simply for sport. ...Why provide him with amunition? Let the thread die here.

Larry obviously has an axe to grind and his tone is somewhat extreme, but that said, I suspect some audiophile are obsessed with their equipment. Do these people need to get a life? Who am I to say, but I strongly support the right of Larry or anybody else to voice their opinion on this subject, if expressed with civility.