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In reply Paul,

My original post specifically mentioned that my comments perhaps did not apply to you. I am well aware from reading many of your posts that you have reached a level of maturuty and experience to be able to identify nuances(vectors) in your reproduced event and have the knowledge to change a piece of equipment to suit. Unfortunately for many audio enthusiasts they do not have this ability. I was perhaps trying to make a point to the more general population of audio listeners. To use 
Romy's analogy on food, what if a plate of food was given to someone who had no language. No way to describe whether a taste was acidic or fatty or many of the other words used to describe the event. The taste of the food elicits an emotional response and the experience does not have to be put into words, it simply exists. Until that person can be educated how to change the taste of the food it would be foolish to try. This is what happens in the hifi industry. We have a whole bunch of self-appointed uneducated experts expounding and teaching their opinion on sounds.

It might be better to get in touch with the emotion of each particular event before trying to change that event to suit. This concept of filling in gaps is an interesting one. Why even bother trying to fill in the gaps or have an imagination as to how a piece of music is to sound. Why not simply listen to the event.  If music is a state of mind then your state of mind before listening is vitally important. For example, let us say you have an emotional reference to a piece of music and that every time you play this music you want  to re-enact this feeling. You play this music and it doesn't happen. Your next reaction is to spend countless hours and many thousands of dollars in pursuit of this feeling. Occasionally you get it right but more often than not it is just not there. So you finally identify the problem but cannot resolve it. Where to now? Does this mean you are now going to be less than satisfied every time you play a musical event because you cannot elicit this feeling you so long for. 

Total immersion in an event is not an ideal, it is only your opinion. You do not have to fill in gaps or use your imagination, you only have to accept the inevitable. If you have no expectation of how will feel about this event then your only choice is to experience it. 

I see the purpose of this site to firstly teach people about music. After that education we then can use audio equipment to build an enjoyable system. You do not need to know anything about music to get an emotional feeling from it. This is a crass and elitist attitude. If you want to build an audio systen you will need to know more about what goes into making that music. This is now where all the problems start. Every event is a different reference so what reference do we use. There is no point in using live events because a hifi system cannot copy this. Our only reference can be a present emotion we are feeling when listening and to try to identify what is causing this feeling. Is it the sound of the cello? Is it the way the instruments are communicating with each other? I love this in Mozart's music. How many times has an audiofool changed a piece of equipment to get better bass only to destroy the midrange which was perhaps the part of the music giving enjoyment. We must be very careful when changing that it is indeed for the better. Upgraditis I think is the word used. We listen to to sales hype and expert opinions and wonder why we waste money.    

A buddihst monk was teaching his student how to make chapatis. Every time he made a chapati he would look at it and say, "Perfect". The student asked, "Master, how come every chapati is perfect, this cannot be so". The Master answered, "Every moment is perfect if you accept it as such". Does your hierarchial levels of playback include the philosophy of acceptance. Another advantage of using this concept of acceptance is that I will warrant that the more a person gets in touch with their feelings of each event, the easier it will be be to discern what is causing that feeling. Whether it can be changed or not may not make a great deal of difference to our overall enjoyment.     

If this place is about making hi-fi that makes the most of the Music then it would be wise for anyone visiting to understand what is interpreted as music. Most people ending up here have pre-conceived ideas and without an open mind will find Romy's ideas difficult to understand. What is the point in changing hifi equipment without musical knowledge. My ultimate point if I have one is that I feel it is important for everyone to continually question their own convictions on the audio search for the holy grail. For me personally it is the acceptance of each event. No pre-conceived ideas on how the evnt should sound and watching carefully my emotions. 

regards,

Gordon

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