Getting into the music

Whenever I visit my brother and we retreat to his basement lair to enjoy a few fine intoxicants, I'm always struck by how much I enjoy the music. It doesn't seem to matter that it's played through a cheap Sherwood AV receiver and a $200 pair of haphazardly aimed Athena towers; the left of which is shoved into one corner with a candle and nik-naks on top.

I get a similar effect listening to CD's on my Arcam Solo and Andrew Jones Pioneers out in my garage shop. It seems as if I give the music a little more respect for sounding better than I think should be possible.

Then, when I listen to my main system, I'm somehow expecting better than I perceive it to be and I'm back in hyper-critical mode once more. It's frustrating.

EXACTLY!

I underline the key element that create the problem :

Then, when I listen to my main system, I’m somehow expecting better than I perceive it to be and I’m back in hyper-critical mode once more. It’s frustrating.

Acoustics is God in audio ...

We expect something that it is not there because we perceive a lack or an excess from an unbalanced system/room ..

A simple example :

Why i did not perceive as a  frustrating lack of bass from my 4 inches woofer which goes 50 hertz and not twenty ?

My top headphone goes near 20 hertz...😁

The reason i live well without frustration  nor need for a sub woofer even if 50 hertz is not 20 , it is because the speakers/ room are balanced expressing each acoustic factors optimally relatively to one another ...I know i lack bass but it does not bother me at all because all is well balanced ... Acoustics rules and mechanical and electrical embeddings done right rules with it  ...

RV in exchange for your recommendation for Mussorgsky's Pictures (in another thread) I offer you Kantorow's version of Rachmaninoff's PC #1 on BIS. Of my 8 other versions this fits me best, sonically and musically. I highly recommend it to you. I had a fun couple of hours listening to all of these. 

Newbee,

Thank you