Strange phenomona this hobby.

I think we're all a little self-delusional in this hobby. We have people who swear they are re-creating the ambiance of Carnegie hall in a 10x13 room with a 7 ft ceiling. Personally I like to pretend that Coleman Hawkins is blowing right there between my speakers....there in front of the TV.... didn't you hear that? He was there... I swear...

You can drive yourself nuts trying to capture that level of realism. But the alternative is worse. I hear that recovering audiophiles often take up bird watching.

Wonderful responses, and we all understand each other even though we have different taste or hear things differently.
If I may add, sometimes the very same component will sound different because of caps or resistors having slightly different values or solder work being slightly inconsistent. This hobby is better than competetive chess or brewing beer even more challenging than being a ski
instructor.
Dcstep
You may have misunderstood me. I meant that I heard systems such as the mbl's (3 times at the expos 2 of those times they sounded like the real thing way better than anything else at the show).
And I do go to the concert hall, my favorite genre is opera and I am fortunate enough to be so close to the met and that tickets can be had for under $30 if I blew my check on some silly component.
Enjoy the music.

I keep wondering why does the mbl system stand out. I believe it is because one thing they do well is image. I never will forget when hearing the beatles in their(mbl room at the expo) room. You could practically see the musicians.
Not only that, I like certain music and anything outside that doesn't do it much for me. Not that it's bad music, I don't believe any style of music is better than other styles. Though I still can't figure out rap? But get this- in the mbl room they were playing music I never cared for, and it sound great. I was thoroughly enjoying myself but I also found the music interesting. I could see myself discovering new styles. I think if only that, that is reason enough to seriously consider the mbl set. I would like to keep discovering new music, shouldn't that be a quest in life. Just like with food of different cuisines, I want to be inspired with new genres.
What other speakers taste eh hum image well?

As many have said, this hobby is quite complex and there are very few absolutes. In my history with the search for the perfect chord, i had thought i had found it many times before only to find (sometimes very minor) a tweak that dramatically improved the quality of the music. My most notable experience was a speaker change that really got me into this hobby over my head. I was one of those bose diehards who felt the bose system was innovative and could make music sound so good. I had a set of 601's and was saving for a set of 901's. I always bragged how good they sounded until I had a friend who brought over a set of
Klipsch speakers that I did a side by side on my equipment. The wow factor was present that day as all of my concepts about music changed. I could not believe the difference as well as what I was not hearing. Many years later i recognize however good i think my system sounds (and i do feel my system sounds great:^) there is a better system out there. My table is a highly modded Maplenoll that sports a zyx cartridge. I am working to audition some different phono stepups since i know those are my weak spot but i know even when I fill that hole, others will be apparent. Most of use will not be able to spend the amount of money required to have the perfect chord but its the pursuit of that chord that keeps us going.

Actually, stereo can bring music to our homes better than live music - in some instances. I am a professional violinist and know that some seats at the Met and/or most seats at Avery Fisher, are just horrible for hearing what the music actually sounds like. In NJPAC (the big performance venue in Newark, NJ the most glorious sound in the hall is right in the middle of the 1st row of the 2nd tier. When you look at the seats, there is no close ceiling and it sounds as though you are suspended in space. NJPAC knows that to be true, because the main michrophones are set up exactly in line with those seats...suspended out in space. The worst sounding seats are the expensive orchestra seats, and the some of the worst seats at the Met are the those 30 dollar back of the hall tickets. My point is one rearely hears the best even at a live concert. A well recorded recording with the microphones well placed will easily beat the pants off of a live concert. (Please go - that's the way I make a living). One of the biggest problems with electronic (especially digital) recordings is the reproducing of the microdynamics of the event. When we talk, the emphasis of a word, or syllable, etc. can change the entire meaning of the sentence. So too does the meaning change in music. If misunderstood emphasis or deemphasis becomes confusing (which happens a lot in recordings), the sound becomes "canned" and not real. I am not talking of ultimate debibels, because in reality, at the concert, the orchestra plays much softer than most stereos are played. Its just that the life of music is compromised many times. Another problem that stereos have are the complicated reproduction of phasing and reflection that is so natural in real life, but so hard to achieve via speakers. Many speakers actually are wired purposely out of phase to make the speaker sound better in the store. Another aspect to critique is the taste - yes the taste of the audiophile him/herself. If one looks at a typical Sony tv, you will see a very nice picture, but one whose colors are purposely bumped in cartoon fashion. This produces that "Wow" effect, but one really can tire of this exageration of nature. Only long term satisfaction can be derived from a natural depiction of reality. A stereo set with boom, sizzle, phasing exagerations, etc. will bring the wow belief to the public, but soon you will find the cartridge, then the speakers, then the cables, etc. on Audiogon..with an "update" in mind.