The Absolute Sound vs Pleasing Sound

The end result of Every recording ever produced was based on someone’s subjective view on how it "should" sound. Therefore, there are no recordings that will ever sound like the real thing. So why fight it? Go after the sound that "sounds" good to your ears. Otherwise, you are chasing unicorns.
You may think you have achieved the "pinnacle" in sound reproduction with your system within your own environment. However, I may hear it and think otherwise, vice versa....ultimately, it must please your ears and no one else's. 

Like I said, different strokes for different folks. If you have spent any significant amount of time listening to the recordings of Kenneth Wilkinson, for instance, it is obvious that the man had a very good sense of what “live” sounds like. Problem is many can’t or have no desire to experience a significant amount of time attending live performances; perhaps because of genre preferences. What we are talking about is voicing a system that, ON BALANCE, sounds closer to live unamplified music. No chasing of unicorns here at all; and no “fighting” of anything. Quite the opposite.

**** You may think you have achieved the "pinnacle" in sound reproduction with your system within your own environment. However, I may hear it and think otherwise, vice versa....****

I can pretty much assure you that if you are someone who has extensive experience attending live acoustic music performances and you were to hear my system, that you would think otherwise.  

+1 OP

Boy, how times have changed!  AKA, “I’m showing my age”. 😊

Happy listening, all.

@Russ69

I never did chase or attempt to massage my system to sound live.  Essentially what I have always been after is correct timbre, pitch and intensity.  A very very close second is weight and dynamic range.  

All of us or nearly all have been to a rock concert in a great sounding venue and the person running the soundboard also got it right.  Plenty of electronics going on there as well as many decisions.  I don't expect my system to reproduce it exactly as I remember it, but I do expect that all of my criteria in the paragraph above be met.  Many times this comes down to reproducing the bass properly, not a simple task. 

Example: I saw Sting at Radio City Music Hall and the CD came out some time later. "Bring on the Night".  Fabulous music, fabulous venue, awesome CD.  Makes me know all the work was worth it.
Please listen to the track "I Burn for You".  Several mega-dollar systems I've heard choke on that track. 

Russ, we're on the same page.

Regards,
barts