Hifi V.s. The music makers

If they are engineers or musicians who play Rock, Hip Hop, or other amplified genres, they will have some hearing damage or limitations. In these cases, they are coloring the sound at home with equalizers and such. Also, many in this category will listen using pro-gear at home.

I'll bet that professional classical or traditional jazz musicians do make educated decisions on their choice of audio gear. But I'll wager they are not fanatical or obsessive about getting the absolute sound.

With audiophiles, we love the music and the technology and it's a serious hobby or way of life. Besides, the listener does not have the same setup and equipment as the studio of the original recording, so we make adjustments. And the bottom line is everybody hears differently.

Honestly, I have few issues with most recordings. I'm not saying they are all technically perfect, or necessarily even of high quality, but they are what they are and that is what I want to hear, no matter what. They are technically produced works or art. How they are produced and sound is part of that. In any case, really good material is generally covered by many in many ways over the years, so that produces a lot of options to choose from.

I used to be of the mindset that I liked good sound and hated most recordings. With modern gear, set up well, I find most recordings to have something of interest to offer. That's a good thing when it comes to retaining my interest. I can only listen to even my favorites so many times.

I'd prefer great musician over great recording.
Listening to virtuosos and maestros via cheap system in MP3 format can bring joy as well regardless of recording or playback quality.

The OP's stated premise is kind of like the one about all that wiring that exists before it gets to your outlet so why bother about the last few feet from said outlet to your system.

To that I say that once the recording is made, worrying about which cable to use in my system makes about as much sense as worrying about which speaker I should use or which source to use. It's my choice which depends on my taste.

I don't feel that I'm, in the least way, changing anything about the original recording.

This is not meant as a negative response to the OP's question but an answer of sorts that in the end begs the matter that to me, the final result (the recording), is just another link in the chain that ends up with a system of my choice to hear it in a way I like, being an audiophile and all that. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

They are also looking for absolute
"truth" to what they are hearing . no colorations. I ask why we
are so determined to alter their work ?

No, they don't. They're trying to predict how it will sound at home. Stereo
image is constructed from multi-microphone recording, compression is
applied etc. We're not trying to alter their work. Most of us don't even
have tone controls. We're trying to obtain clear, natural sounding 3D
image from what they constructed. Truth, as you call it, would require
zero compression, making it very difficult for the most of us to play since
we cannot provide required dynamic range either because of equipment or
ambient noise (or neighbors).

Some of recordings that suppose to be the "truth" are simply
atrocious while some are breathtaking and everything else in in between -
just an average. I agree with Czarivey, that music takes huge precedence
over recording quality but I tend to search for recordings that have both.