I would like to up the ante in this very interesting discussion. Haven't we all experienced being in the presence of a very gifted artist or of an otherwise very gifted individual and felt a very powerful force or presence about them? This force is evident even when they simply walk into the room, or speak, or just stand there. I am not talking about the feelings of being "star-struck" that we all experience on occasion; I'm talking about an almost palpable sense of that person's spirit. This feeling may also be the sense of the collective feeling of anticipation, excitement or even fear in a room full of people; as suggested by Gregm. Of course, of most interest to us is how this force manifests itself while that individual(s) is performing. Now, we audiophiles in the "subjectivist" camp like to point out that one of the reasons that certain audible (to us) phenomena is difficult to explain or justify is that the proper, and/or sensitive enough, measurement tools have not been devised yet. In addition, most of us (I think) accept the fact that musical subtlety is so delicate and fine that we will probably never be able to completely quantify and justify it's make up, as relates to sound reproduction. Throughout the history of audio design there has been the steady discovery of design considerations that are at least, "perceived" to make a difference in the "sound" of a component. Why then, would it be so far fetched to think that on some level, however fine, a bit of the spirit of a performer or the collective "vibe" of a room could be captured and subsequently reproduced by audio equipment? Certainly on some level that we don't quite understand yet, the parameters related to "sound" as we understand it, being that these sounds are being produced by the individuals in question, are very much connected to the "spirit". So why couldn't some of this be reflected in a recording/reproduction. Makes sense to me. Thoughts?