Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking...

Mahgister, you are like a patchwork quilt. Costly is a relative term. There is top notch equipment out there that is not at all frivolous relatively speaking. Better equipment is always a possibility. However there are things you can do that will greatly increase the performance of a system, room design and treatment are great examples. Isolating a turntable correctly is another. "Market conditioning" is exactly what convinces lay audiophiles to spend money on garbage that does absolutely nothing and at times makes things worse. 
The main problem is that many audiophiles really do not know how or care to evaluate equipment and changes correctly. They think that just listening is enough. The problem with this is that it is not and they are giving advise based on this extraordinary faulty method. If they stayed within their own world then fine. But instead they tell people to "trust your own ears." It's like someone trying to get in a Moto GP race whose never been on a motorcycle. All you have to do is trust your own instincts right? Try that snow skiing and you will keep falling up hill. All you have to do is listen and you become an expert in evaluating audio equipment?                                                                                                                    

Of course you have to listen.  The trick is knowing what to choose that you will listen to.  

Mahgister, you are like a patchwork quilt. Costly is a relative term. There is top notch equipment out there that is not at all frivolous relatively speaking. Better equipment is always a possibility. However there are things you can do that will greatly increase the performance of a system, room design and treatment are great examples. Isolating a turntable correctly is another. "Market conditioning" is exactly what convinces lay audiophiles to spend money on garbage that does absolutely nothing and at times makes things worse.
The main problem is that many audiophiles really do not know how or care to evaluate equipment and changes correctly. They think that just listening is enough. The problem with this is that it is not and they are giving advise based on this extraordinary faulty method. If they stayed within their own world then fine. But instead they tell people to "trust your own ears." It's like someone trying to get in a Moto GP race whose never been on a motorcycle. All you have to do is trust your own instincts right? Try that snow skiing and you will keep falling up hill. All you have to do is listen and you become an expert in evaluating audio equipment?

You are lucky!

I dissected you insane and completely sophistic post but i lost my page and i will not take the time to rewrite it...

It is completely stupid...

Comparing audio listener to racer of formula 1 ! 

😁😊😊😊😋😋😋
And why not imposing to them  the legal obligation  to buy  a  "listener" license after a course in electronic market consumerism to teach them  what they must buy in the future instead of using this low graded and dangerous  and "faulty"  sense called " hearing" anyway....

 Are you a stand up comic?

And why not imposing to them the legal obligation to buy a "listener" license after a course in electronic market consumerism to teach them what they must buy in the future instead of using this low graded and dangerous and "faulty" sense called " hearing" anyway....

You’ve made my Saturday, mahgister. Thanks))
People who listen to music with their eyes and not their ears seem to think that if they can’t figure out their musical preferences, then no one else can.

I will give an example of the LISTENER ENVELOPMENT concept and acoustical experience (LEV) for any audio system to test yourself...

It take a great control of the room to hear this :

Threepenny opera of Kurt Weill with Lotte Lenya 1958 version :

https://www.amazon.com/Weill-Threepenny-Opera-Kurt/dp/B0000026HI/ref=pd_sbs_2?pd_rd_w=6koxC&pf_r...

listen side no 15, The procurer ballad, 4minute 38 seconds:

In my room the male voice sound in my left ear like with an headphone, same for the feminine voice singing in my right ear at the same moment, the 2 voices seems coming from behind me, opposite to the speakers locations and the orchestra are in front of me behind the actual speakers, at 8 feet distance, filling all my wall between the speakers but behind this wall.... i have the impression of 2 other virtual speakers behind each side of my ears.... Like if there are 4 speakers in my room... There are many sides of this cd that give the same effect not only this 15th side...But this one is particularly spectacular...You will undestand why i trash my 7 headphones in a drawer and will never bought none other....

This is in my regular sitting position...

It is no more true in nearfield listening....Where the sound seems a "bit" more detailed but is less livelier or less natural and sound exactly like in an headphone but better with my speakers/room... Passive and active room controls work EVEN for near listening, contrary to a false popular misunderstanding of the way and of extraordinary speed of sound crossing the room and affecting it, in relation with the 80 milliseconds of critical analysis time treatment from the brain to make sense of these wavefronts travelling near 80 times per second in my room...Each wavefront is a bunch of frequencies travelling together...

It is an example of ACTIVE room control of the "listener envelopment" factor called LEV Listener envelopment ...LEV is the degree to which the reverberant sound, of the first main 2 wavefronts coming from the right and left speakers to the 2 ears directly but also indirectly from early and late reflections encounter themselves for each one of the ears and seems to surround the listener—to come from all directions, thanks to the active controls of the Helmholtz method...


This listener envelopment factor in relation with the source width factor (ASW) put you on the scene of the past recording live event and make you able to live anew the live event like the recording engineer choice of microphones and location choices of these same microphones make it possible, it is a perspective take on the real event created by the engineer...

The original event is not only in your room now, but you are actually there also....All recording are not on the same level of 3 dimensionnality it is the reason i choose this recording for a clear example....