Do you play an instrument? Helps in speaker eval?

Drums and percussion. And I listen for how honest the toms sound - whether I can hear them being struck. Also, does the bass drum have its individual timbre? or does it just sound like a generic thump? Cymbals should have their own location and soundstage. I get frustrated when I hear cymbals disappear into a generic wash of sound, or compressed down to the point where the hi-hat is the same volume as the crash.

I've played clarinet since age 7, guitar and bass guitar since 14, took piano lessons, attended concerts (both acoustic and electric). Yes, I think it helps in evaluating speakers (or cables, etc) to play an instrument, and its fine to say there is only one "absolute" sound as reference (live, unamplified music). Here's the problem I have though when everyone is talking about an absolute reference standard....do you hear the same way I do, or anyone else for that matter? Who has presbycussis? Do you carry expectations from reading reviews in magazines or from word of mouth into your listening to different speakers or cable? Just saying there are many other factors that influence how we perceive music or equipment. Having played an instrument (s) is just one of them.

I play the drums, but the experience most applicable to my audiophile hobby is recording in a professional studio. It's important to remember that in many cases 'faithful' reproduction requires figuring out what the producer and sound engineer want the listener to hear, not what the actual instrument sounded like if you heard it from a normal listening position.

In one case I had kick drum that rang no matter what we did to deaden it, so it was fixed in post production. In another case the lead guitar was re-recorded several weeks after we had finished because they thought the sound wasn't quite right.

This may not be true in every case, but remember that even if the musicians are playing at the same time most of the instruments are fully isolated from each other and are subsequently mixed down to two channels. Prior to that all manner of tweaking can be done to achieve a coherent sound that the producer is trying to achieve.

Live music is recorded similarly, where the instruments and vocals are singley mic'd and then subsequently mixed down. Area mic's on modern recordings are less common. And remember that the sound engineer has control over instrument placement in three dimensions.

As far as drums go, modern samples are very sophisticated and many artists use triggers. Striking the head triggers a sample, the actual acoustic sound never gets recorded.

To my ears, knowing that the circumstances and equipment invoked in the recorded process are (mostly) unknown, I appreciate recordings and systems that can reproduce realistic dynamics. As one poster mentioned above, instruments coming at the listener at the same volume denote either compression during production or lack of fidelity in the reproduction.

I've played in orchestras and bands since 6th grade. However my experience mirrors Wolf's regarding how it sounds when I am playing as opposed to when someone else is playing.

Musicians are frequently more interested in the notes being played than the actual sound, but if given the chance most of them I have met would love to hear things on a good system...

...I'm not so sure..... I've been sitting in symphony orchestras for many years, and for ME....the sound of instruments are vastly different between on stage and in the audience perception. My violin sounds very much more harsh and noisy when I play it right under my left ear, than the way it sounds on my recordings. Instrumentalists all know that....just the other day, the oboe player was choosing a new instrument for himself. He had two different brands/models, that felt very good to him, and asked me to sit in the auditorium and give my opinion on my more favored sound. Needless to say, they both sounded like oboes, but the difference between them was astonishing.