My thought

Life is all about learning curve, you cannot be too smart all the times. We all get to be learned in due course. But before that, we zig zag, went astray, U turn and retract. That's a part of learning. A mentor could have saved you the wrong turns, but we were too arrogant at times. We choose to believe ourselves. We often think that dealers are always out to get your money, they have obvious vested interest. I'm not accusing all the dealers, no I'm not. It makes sense that you maintain a cold head and hold your horses before putting down your hard earned money. Better be late than to regret.

Audio folks have specific taste in music and that's explain many clans in audio community. Each clan champions either brand, sonic priority and topology. The gap is widen in the eyes of audio folks and thereof labelling. To certain extent, the diversity of audio creates excitement. Please agree to disagree, what more in audio. Don't have to be upset that people calling name, for you're worthy to be called. They couldn't hurt you.

Most systems are fine, the owner's set up skill, his understanding of acoustics and choice of equipment will determine if his system rise above the rest. Set up skill is critical to tone up or tone down the system. By that I mean to highlight the strength, obscure the flaws or both.

Mind you, we learn wrong things sometimes when we were novice. We tend to overhear other conversations and treat them like divine law. This is dangerous because you will draw wrong conclusion for the whole story is not laid on the table. I received my fair share of false teachings, listening to noises. Back then, we know little about tone. We know nothing about balance. It takes some time to learn the essential balance. Once grasping the true meaning of balance, you set to be audio intellect, perfecting the balance of your system.

I know majority audio folks are chasing the succulent tone. I have gone beyond tone, give me unconstrained dynamic after balance. Big boys are going for high SPL (sound pressure level). They pressurized the room to induce an in-room lifelike performance, the surrealism of "you're there" is rather intoxicating.

Thick flesh, thin husk, the best kind there is.

Going loud challenges a system ability to maintain composure and bottleneck-free. 收放自如 which loosely translated as start and stop instantly. It's a tall order. That's a fabulous system in my book, and piano can serve as a good test. Piano is a tough nut to crack though.

With piano, I pay close attention to dynamic, tone, sustain and the airiness. I listen to piano realism from the perspective of an audience sitting at third row as in a capacity of music lover. Audio folks have different interpretation on realism. Close miking allows more resolutions that beyond our hearing from a distance. So do the oral motions, inhale and exhale, that relates to fidelity. Audiophile thingy for the wrong reason. Instead, I would suggest to listen to the emotions of the delivery.

Piano is a fascinating instrument. It is too a complex instrument, what more with multiple keystroke. Every keystroke opens a dimension of time and space, brass like sax and trumpet take it to even to another level. Piano remains my reference to attest a system's resolving power. Chances your system can weather the storm if your system do piano well.

Thus, make perfect sense to have a man cave where anything goes. No wife veto, no interference, minimum lighting, no decoration hindrance but a realistic sound reproduction. Sound is the absolute merit, equipment is a tool getting you there. The rest is immaterial. Merry Christmas.