If you are asking for a "reference point" for music listening, I would suggest a few small classical concerts--quartets?--at the local college and so forth. If you like jazz or modern rock, etc., go to a few smaller venues and listen. No way they will be "recording" perfect, but you get the sense of the live music performance experience however good or bad that it is. Then, go to your dealer and listen to what he or she thinks are the "best" (most accurate?) systems and remember, YOUR ROOM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT of the listening experience. If you learn a few things about how a system CAN sound at the dealer's and then try to compare that to what you heard live--hard to do since musical memory is fleeting--you can then swap out various components in your home system to get the sound "YOU LIKE."
Start with speakers and then go to the various other items. I would not worry so much about speaker feet or turntable magic cones or solid platinum wires or all the other stuff that makes up a system yet. Get a sound you can be happy with IN YOUR ROOM and then change it bit by bit as you listen to more live music and more recorded music and get what YOU like.
When I play my instrument through my Sunn amp VS my Fender amp, I am trying for a specific "sound" associated with that specific amp that may or may not be what YOU like, right?? But, it is the sound I WANT for that part of a song. Is it "accurate" or "right?" It is for that song in that studio, but you may hate it when played back on your system. Same with the quartets you hear live. They are trying to reproduce the writer's sound he heard in his head as best they can. Would the composer approve? Who knows, but if YOU like it, that's is good enough for me.
Start with speakers and then go to the various other items. I would not worry so much about speaker feet or turntable magic cones or solid platinum wires or all the other stuff that makes up a system yet. Get a sound you can be happy with IN YOUR ROOM and then change it bit by bit as you listen to more live music and more recorded music and get what YOU like.
When I play my instrument through my Sunn amp VS my Fender amp, I am trying for a specific "sound" associated with that specific amp that may or may not be what YOU like, right?? But, it is the sound I WANT for that part of a song. Is it "accurate" or "right?" It is for that song in that studio, but you may hate it when played back on your system. Same with the quartets you hear live. They are trying to reproduce the writer's sound he heard in his head as best they can. Would the composer approve? Who knows, but if YOU like it, that's is good enough for me.