Is live reproduction the goal of audio?

Interesting question and responses. I think that equipment designers fall into at least two camps (I'm sure others can add more). There are those who strive to build equipment which accurately reproduces/decodes the signal being fed to it, so their response would be that they will leave it to the recording engineer and producer to get that live performance onto the recording, and they'll take it from there. However, there are also designers who appear to intentionally design their equipment to reproduce an emotional response from the listener, and perhaps part of this is an attempt to recapture the essence of a live performance that often seems to get lost in the recording process. I cite as evidence of the latter camp the large number of pieces of high end equipment which measure poorly but nonetheless have been critically acclaimed and have their ardent supporters. These designers might tell you, though, that their purpose is to bring out the best in the music being played through the system, not necessarily to reproduce the original performance. I guess my goal as the obsessive compulsive neurotic that I am is to assemble a system of components that gets me closer to the original performance if possible (I know that's never going to happen, particularly with full scale symphonic repertoire) but above all communicates the composer's/artist's message and the emotion of the performance and music being played.

Thye point is...your cd disc ,or vinyl records have tons of info in them. You are not getting even 25% out of it ,and I don't care what brand or how much you paid for it.

"The goal of audio electronics and transducers is to sound as life-like as possible but this is not at all the same as "live"."

What music isn't recorded live? How else can you record an instrument if it isn't a live person recording it?

C5150 - that's deep.

To answer your question, Lakefrontroad, I will refer to Jaybo's response: the ultimate direction of electronics is to sell more electronics. And the only goal by which the carrot is guaranteed NEVER to disappear is the pursuit of accuracy. Any other stated goal would send a company down the financial tubes.

For our part, we are more like those people who buy self-help books in order to find happiness, live in the present moment, be satisfied with our system, defend our way of doing the hobby, etc... The impossible aspect of this pursuit is that unlike a 315lb. person who sets their target weight at 175, we are operating in a realm of vague parameters. Sure, manufacturers can give us stats for their products, but how they stand up synergistically with their neighbors is strictly a judgment call on our part. Trust your ears, right? What I would contend--just my opinion, naturally--is that the way that many choose to combat the unsettling, ambiguous nature of this hobby is to search for an end goal of specificity. And the only one that fits the bill is accuracy. To say, "I've found it, the truth in audio." In fact, accuracy is the messiah of audio. And we all orbit that savior in much the same way we do religion itself. Agnostics say its all about the music, right? The devout are quick to "nuff said" others who don't agree with them. And the atheists? Well, they buy Bose. :-)