High Performance Audio - The End?

I would give up resolution for a more pleasing warm non fatiguing sound any day. You are never going to achieve "real" as it does not exist. If you require real, then attend a performance. In fact, I feel that music reproduced in my home sounds better most of the time. I find concerts too in your face, at least rock concerts, with booming overblown bass. Plus the ambient noise of the people or the environment takes away from my enjoyment. Oh well, that's me...

There is no "real" in sound stereo reproduction...

But myself i am glad when i reach the feeling that this is "real" : accuracy of tonal timbre first and imaging in 3-d second, and a soundstage detached from the speakers in third.... Nothing of that is "real", but my feeling  that this is right is real....

:)

« Why dont you listen stero? i hate microscope» -Groucho Marx

My modest little system sounds really good to me and my friends. I listen to a wide range of music ranging from Kraftwerk to Led Zeppelin to Ella to house music. Current electronic music (like Yello, Brendon Moeller) sound so crisp and clear while soft rock from the 70s is rather flat. Whereas, it all sounds the same on a lower quality system (not necessarily a cheaper system). I'm learning to accept this as the quality of my system as improved over the years. 

Frankly, if you're listening to today's pop music on anything more than a 40 year old Sansui receiver and Radio Shack Nova speakers, then you've wasted your money on a quality music system.

jnorris2005, perhaps you can temper your declarative attitude. Others prefer different genres of music; get used to it. The high end certainly doesn't revolve around your taste. 

Further, you seem to have profound ignorance of premium audio systems' performance. ALL genres of music sound superior on a superb system. As a reviewer I use many genres of music, some which I do not care to hear regularly. These are valuable to assess the outer limits of performance. Without fail, the better the audio system, the better all genres of music sound on it. 

The fact of the matter is that the bulk of audiophiles' systems are not that good. Contemporary music sounds bad on these systems because they simply cannot handle it, while superior systems can. It's foolish to blame the genre of music when the system is poor. If you're running a $5-10K rig, then do not expect such music to sound great. Conversely, anyone can delude themselves into thinking their system is all that when it sounds good playing simpler, less challenging music. The fact is that if the modern music sounds poor on your system, then it's not that great of a system, and/or you didn't set it up well.