Real or Surreal. Do you throw accuracy out the window for "better" sound?

@inna

As for the concept of "good enough", it’s an interesting one. No system is good enough for me because it is still far from real. Problem is not only the system but the recordings, most of them. So I just do one or two significant upgrades every few years and don’t think much about it.

Right. I wasn’t suggesting "inherent dissatisfaction" is a problem for everyone. 

Nor is the issue of whether a system sounds "real". There are far too many variables involved in live sound to identify a single, baseline for "reality". But if you enjoy chasing this chimera, have at it. Enjoyment is what we're all aiming for, right? 

@knownothing ,

You know more than you think. Flat sounds awful, way too brite and no bass.

@rsf507 ,

I am a bit of a socialist in that regard. The money that gets spent on luxury HiFi should be spent on subsidizing private grade schools. There are many amplifiers that are sonically as good or better than any Boulder Amp. An amplifier does not need a $10,000 CNC machined chassis to sound good. Same goes for speakers.

No, I am not going to tell people what to buy. It is still a free country, at least up until 3:39 today.

@mahgister 

That was me with the tongue in cheek comment. 

@stuartk 

People could easily see me as "inherently dissatisfied." As you suggest this may be true for some, but I look at it as a challenge, making a system sound the way I want, then doing it reliably. The only time I look at it negatively is when something fucks up or blows up. 

@mijostyn 

 

What I really want is a certain sound and image quality. 

Just for philosophical fun I'm going to challenge that statement. Is that what you really want, or is it how you expect that certain sound and image quality will make you feel? What if you could get that feeling without actually achieving that certain sound and image quality.

My own answer to that question is that it's the feeling I'm after, but there's also a feeling I get from pursuing it. There may be other things to pursue and achieve that would give me equally good feelings but I only have one lifespan to work with and I can't get to all of the good stuff, so this is a path I've gone down.

I'm impressed that you know what you are after. I generally know some of the things I'm after in terms of sound and image quality, but sometimes I discover things that I wasn't aware I wanted until I experienced them. And some things don't do for me what I expected when they are achieved. So for me, this hobby is still in an exploratory phase. 

The feeling with a piece of music is here in me positive, negative, indifferent , and all in between WITH any sound system even very mediocre one...

I was in audio hobby to discover way to improve ANY sound system beginning with the low cost one i owned...

Sound CANNOT change the felt musical impact, only convey it in a more impactful way but cannot change it...You dont like a piece of music you always hate because you listen to it in the best possible system...

Music is not sound... But through good sound and in spite of bad sound ... music is supra sensible meanings coupled to sensible information ...Sound is a physical medium...If you tap a fruit with your finger through sound vibrating modes you perceive a suprasensible meaning through a sensible vibration interpreted qualitatively by your ears/body : the fruit is ripe or not...

I figure it out only after reading you a second time...😊

My english mastery is shitty and i am familiar only with technical abstract vocabulary with no dialogue  with no  humor or subtleties or slang ...

But there is plenty of people who despise so much audiophiles as "tin foil hat" or people who listen to the sound not to music, i reacted to give an opposite view... I consider myself a satisfied audiophile who listen all type of classical music in jazz, european classical, or Indian and Persian and near east classical or fado and some other traditionals... ...

if i read your posts you are one too...

@mahgister

That was me with the tongue in cheek comment.