Hi Mrtennis,
supposing it is me, Detlof whom you attach the name of "Dave" to: With all due respect, no, I don't think that I misinterpret you. I agree with you, that our hobby is based on taste and opinion. But only in part. The other part is, that quite a number of us strives for a sort of absolute in trying to come as close as possible to what we hear in real life music. That what HP of TAS called the "absolute sound" in his early beginnings. If that is folly or not is not the point of the argument and of course "absolute sound" is only a phrase, because there is no absolute "absolute sound". Every seat in a well known concert hall will afford a subtly different perception of the live event. But all the same, many of us carry a perception of the gestalt of live music around with ourselves and try to emulate that at home. Oddly enough, this gestalt in all its intricacies is often shared very precisely by others, say within an audiophile society or a group of interested friends who are also concert-goers. In this way an approximation to an absolute is created, which tends to lose the subjectivity of just "taste and opinion". Point in case:
Goers to live concerts know something about the aura around instruments, how that blooms and spreads. Very difficult to reproduce that at home. There are some chains and rooms that come close, many don't really. Now if you take that as one of many benchmarks there are, comparing live events to home stereo reproduction, there bad, good or better do have their place. You are right of course, the use of right or wrong is in ONE SENSE irrelevant to " the pursuit of enjoyment of music ". You can be enchanted by music through a simple radio with a tiny built in speaker. But there are some of us who try for more, who will enjoy music no matter how it is reproduced - and I think I do belong to this fold - and who at the same time try to build up a system within their means and possibilities that comes as close as possible to the facsimile of a live event and here value judgements have their place. Here it is about an absolute, which has been formed by many exposures to all kinds of live music, which, especially if shared by many others will attain more objectivity, than you, dear Mrtennis seem to be able to see. Of course it is still a perception, and hence subjective, you might argue. And yes, still close even here, it is all the same, especially if shared by many, removed from the mere realm of taste and opinion, which you solely seem to base our hobby on. In my view, this is just a tad too narrow. There's more to it.
