How much reality do you really need?


The real question to the audiophile  is, “how much reality do you need” to enjoy your system? Does it have to be close to an exact match?  How close before your satisfied?  Pursuing that ideal seems to be the ultimate goal of the audiophile.
The element of your imagination has to come into the equation, or you’ll drive yourself mad.  You have to fill in part of the experience with your mind.
But this explains the phenomenon of “upgraditis.”
128x128rvpiano
"There is one simple trick to dramatically improving your system for about $1.00 Enjoy a small amount of THC prior to sitting down to listen for an hour or two. Those who do know I speak the truth. Those who haven't....."



I'm in...Now where can I find those 1 dollar THC hits in 2021?
At +/- 24% THC, about a dollars worth of cannabis in the bowl is all you need these days.  ha ha 

The performances jump out of the groves with my new cartridge today. Does it sound real?
No, it will always be an electronic recreation.
Do I care? NO
rvpiano, your response had me think up a good one. "When life give's you lemons make martinis"!
As far as live performances, most often, I have no desire to re-create a live performance in my home. My old ears no longer tolerate 85-110db of loud and most of the pop and rock concerts I went to over the years, while engaging and enjoyable, they were loud and great acoustics was seldom their strong point. Most live jazz performances and orchestral, not quite so loud (85-90 db, as apposes to 110+ db) and the added enjoyment of listening to real instruments - strings, horns and percussions; still to loud for me to listen to at that level for several hours every night. I have no desire to spend a night enjoying my favorite music only to have my ears numb for the next three days.

As far as comparing the performance of one’s system at home to the experience of listening to a great live performance in the studio, by and large the studio experience (except for the education) would be a bit of a let down. Most of the work in the studio is mixing, editing, dubbing, recording and re-takes. Quite often, all the performers, instrumentalists and back up vocalists aren’t even in the studio at the same time, performing together, as a group. Rather than a great one take live studio performance, it is most often a consortium and a culmination to create a masterful rendition of how the performers and recording engineers believe the performance should sound. Wether or not the end result sounds exactly as they intended on your system at home is speculative at best. The important thing is that your system makes it sound right to you.

What I enjoy now and appreciate, in my home, is a good recording that imparts the timber, texture, emotion and fullness of a live performance and the ability of my system to present that to me with all those qualities on an imaginary stage beyond my speakers, at a volume my old ears can handle.....Jim