So it's 10PM, the wife's asleep and I'm bored... sounds like the perfect time to start a crazy new thread... so here goes:

Often we hear HiFi enthusiasts claiming that the ultimate goal of HiFi is to recreate the live experience in your own home... But is that claim true? How many Enthusiasts would actually find a truly accurate system appealing? My theory is that a stereo truly capable of simulating a live performance is probably the most boring HiFi setup available and wouldn't sell very well... simply beceause it would draw no attention to itself whatsoever... there'd be nothing to praise or complain about and it would likely just be overlooked in store auditions...

All this led me to pondering the difference between tubes and solid state and I came up with this theory -

Tubes are like an airbrush (I think one of the members of this forum normally says this, maybe Feanor)... Essentially they make the music sound better than it would in real life... much like an airbrush makes the model in the magazine look flawless and beautiful... My theory is that the best tubes are such masters at airbrushing that unless you did a direct comparison with a live performance, you wouldn't be able to realize that music had been touched up, sugar coated or otherwise improved...

Solid State on the other hand, is like a magnifying glass... it peers deeper into the mix than what you'd hear at a live event... which is why it can sound harsh and overly analytical to some people... Just as the more you magnify an image, the less smooth and appealing it becomes... the same occurs with music... dig too deep and you start hearing every manner of unintentional background noise and minor distortion, instead of just hearing your favorite song...

And while I'm tossing around my crazy theories, let me mention something I read in a cable review recently... the reviewer said that he had avoided reviewing cables before, because he found them to be little more than expensive tone controls... I find that particularly funny, especially considering how many enthusiasts would never dream of using tone controls on an amp (if they'd even purchase one with them) much less an equalizer, but will spend thousands on cables and every manner of room treatment to alter the sound to their liking...