Your last comment is great! I have an uncle who is a hifi fanatic. Ive done enough recording over the last 15 years, along with knowing how a lot of his "holy g

Your last comment is great! I have an uncle who is a hifi fanatic. Ive done enough recording over the last 15 years, along with knowing how a lot of his "holy grail" albums were recorded to know that they are completely at odds. I think I have really just come to the conclusion that if a mix engineer can separate the soundstage and create a mix that sounds like there are several people playing in separate spaces then it is "reproducing live" music. The nit picking about turntable tone arms, different preamp stages, and all the other audiophile stuff is just silly when you think that most music is being recorded on mediocre quality IC based transistor gear and processed with DSP based effects and nary a tube has touched much of the audio signal.