The sound of a live instrument is IMHO a long way away from what even the best equipment can recreate. As a test of this, i can take my Taylor (acoustic steel string guitar) and play just one note to most any listener, experienced or not, and that listener can immediately tell the difference between 'live' and reproduced.
BUT that doesn't mean to say that our systems are not good at portraying a simile of live music in our listening rooms. Some systems are better at this than others. Some people have a better audio memory than others and IMHO if someone likes what they hear from their system, then that should be all that matters.It's the old saying, "one man's meat is another man's poison" when listening to someone else's system.
I do agree that it seems foolish to buy any equipment without listening to it first though.
BUT that doesn't mean to say that our systems are not good at portraying a simile of live music in our listening rooms. Some systems are better at this than others. Some people have a better audio memory than others and IMHO if someone likes what they hear from their system, then that should be all that matters.It's the old saying, "one man's meat is another man's poison" when listening to someone else's system.
I do agree that it seems foolish to buy any equipment without listening to it first though.