Plus and Minus

Got into a discussion with a few fellow musician audiophiles.  

Issue one:  The fidelity of home playback versus live music.  After much bantering about, it became, 'How can you tell?"  If you didn't hear it live or you don't listen to live music, how can you say your playback system is true to live?  Interesting question.  I put forward, if your monkey bone tells you it is live - then it is live.  After all, who's to say what you hear and what someone else hears is true to live or not.  If you like it - its live to you.

Second issue:  How can you tell if a tweak is positive or negative?  If put it in, did it bring you closer? When you take it out, did it make it worse?  I put forward the notion that if you put it in and listen to it for a bit and then take it out, the question becomes did it take you there or take you away?  After all, you listened to your system without it and you know how it sounded; putting something in changes it (presumably) and only after taking it out can you judge if you really like it or not or are you enamored with it.  On this, there was general agreement.

Lastly, does 'how much you paid' factor into the equation?  That was universally shot down.  There are incredible audio values in a specific piece that belay its cost.  You just gotta hunt them down.  There was agreement that there was a law of diminishing returns.  I put forth the notion that the chase for the best knows no boundary save the wallet.  The smiles and nods were universal on this point.  The law being:  If you can afford it ....

Funny hobby we have.  The monkey bone should guide us and the wallet supporting us; yet, we argue about what each other hears and neither side has the same bone n' wallet.  :-)