Hi Bill

My answer would have to be the same for most of the questions, freedom. My experience is probably different from most audiophiles as I have been all those positions you mentioned in the list. Performing, running live sound, acoustical engineering, control room, mastering and as you guys know me as a playback designer. My passion has always been music in general whether it be making it or playing it, and with that I have learned one major truth "music is far more involved than we think it is". The audiophile experience covers perhaps one of the widest spectrums of any hobby out there, as to say music and audio is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum.

Music is attached to us like growth and age, and each step of that growth is a new finding, a new truth of arriving, until the next door on our awareness journey opens us up to yet another level. The greatest thing to discover about this hobby is "it never stops". We can try to make it stop but music itself is something that is bigger than our lifetime will ever be able to reach the end of. We will never stop saying "I've never heard that before", and never run out of ways to get closer. And when we think we are there, we learn that this journey is to be started all over again with a fresh piece of music.

:)

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

What audiophiles really want is sound that reminds them of cereal, that's right, cereal. Like Rice Crispies - SNAP, CRACKLE, POP. And Cap'n CRUNCH! And the liquid, sloshing sound of the milk in the bowl. Um, good! I want to also add the squeaking and squealing sounds like the ones you don't get with most digital, but I can't think of any corresponding cereal names. If you can get rain and audience applause to sound real you're doing quite well. And there's a thin red line between have sound that sounds undistorted and sound that is actually threadbare.

Cheers,

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

But, I sure as hell know what "it" isn't.

JGH coined the phrase, "jump factor" in describing what I think "it" is for me. He described that sound as being akin to hearing something that causes you to perk up and look at a sound that is spooky real as though someone called your name or made a noise that warranted your attention. The sound immediately suspends your disbelief that you are hearing a reproduction as opposed to a live, real sound.

The closest I've ever come to hearing an audio system that could continually recreate the "jump factor" for me was at a demo that David Wilson was giving when he introduced his Alexandria and Duette speakers. And, it wasn't the Alexandria that made the hair on my arms stand up, it was the Duette.

I had stepped out from the demo into a corridor just outside the room while they were playing and that sound that you get when you are just outside a venue playing live music was in full effect. It was a pretty wow moment for me. Of course, he was using top flight gear and his own recordings for the demo, which were stunningly capable in their own right, but it was as real as I suspect my ears will ever hear.

Easy- for me, I look for timbre, air and PRaT!