Perception

I think Geoffkait is spot on about this thread... I go myself to the extreme with a fact I experiment with and that is not in the "audio path" : a tiny cooper bell suspended by the center of my ceiling audio room with 2 stones that change my perception of the imaging (shungite+ Herkimer diamond)...No sarcasm coming, only silence...

I am referring to something much more mysterious than suspending a bell or crystals somewhere in the room or in the house somewhere or even tiny little bowl resonators. The reason I say that, gentle readers, is because it’s too easy to explain the suspended bell’s and crystal’s operation as simply affecting the sound waves in the room, which I consider to be part of the audio signal.

What I’m actually referring are completely independent from the audio signal - electronics, speakers, cables, digital cable, power cords, house wiring, room acoustics. So, I do not (rpt not) include acoustic resonators like bell and crystals in what I’m referring to. Or anything that affects vibration or RF. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, what’s left, right? 😬 At any rate, I suspect this is more in line 🔜 with what the OP was driving at when he wondered what *external factors* affect the sound we perceive/hear.

At this point, gentle readers, it might be a good time to fasten your seat belts. 🔛

I grew up playing in orchestras, so I was around the sounds of instruments for years - nearby and all around me.  Judging the sound of an audio system is easy for me:  How much does that sax sound like the real thing?  Is it sitting there off to the right 8 feet away, or is a facsimile spread all over the sound stage?  When all the instruments play together in a crescendo, can I still clearly identify each one and where it is?

This is much the same theory that spawned the magazine title "The Absolute Sound."  Forget the personalities involved at the mag.  It was the concept - that we should strive for our systems (and recordings) to recreate the live performance as best they can.

My suggestion is to get out and listen to live music as much as you can.  The more you do, the more confident (or disappointed) you'll be in your system.

As a former classical musician myself, I do know what real instruments and voices sound like. What I’m referring to are external factors that affect our perception of recorded music. No recording can equal the sound of real music.
And every recording is different, and is going to contain some differing form of distortion from the live event.  We can’t hope to build a system that is going to account for the vagaries of every different recording. So, we can accept the limitations of each recording or choose to concentrate on that distortion which annoys us.  We have to convince ourselves to accept some form of compromise or drive ourselves crazy.