>>>I doubt, however, that any one of our personal opinions transfer to others<<< It's often tough for those opinions to make a significant dent on existing preferences, and sometimes existing prejudices. The taste for a particular kind of reproduced sound might also have little to do with what one might hear as live sound. For example, I once mentioned in another thread that the so-called neutral, clean, tight sound numerous audiophiles seem to prefer is rarely in evidence in the concert hall during a live performance, where the sound tends to be relatively fuller, warmer and softer in outline than electronically reproduced music. The kind of pinpoint localization, spotlighting and layering of instruments often heard on recordings is also fairly untypical of live performances. Further, despite the fact that orchestras are often recorded in empty halls or venues, sound engineers still regularly seem to lean toward bathing things in rather hyped hall ambience. Finally, one of the most telling things about many live orchestral concerts is that the highest dynamic peaks rarely irritate the ears in contrast to the many efforts designed to make reproduced music more listenable. Despite all of this, when it comes to listening to one's system in one's home, many still consider the neutral, clean, tight sound to be more realistic(as well as more enjoyable)than the aforementioned kind of live sound commonly encountered in many halls. Often, upon hearing that live kind of sound reproduced with components different from their own, they criticize it as being innacurate, because it's "too colored", "dull" or "dead".
