Quote Originally Posted by blackraven
I think you'll find that with most higher end speakers poor recordings sound poor, and good recordings sound good. To me, speakers that make poor recordings sound good are coloring the music and not giving an accurate reproduction. I guess its a matter of personal preference, thats why we have so many choices.
I agree with what you're saying to a large extent... based on my experiences listening to more expensive equipment.... For example, I found the B&W 800 series peakers to be exceptional on high quality recordings but utterly brutal on mediocre to average recordings.... Now this may appeal to some fans, but not to me....

IMHO people who seek absolute accuracy and faithful reproduction of the original source material are more in love with the technology in this hobby than the actual music (Please note that there is nothing wrong with that, so hopefully no one will attack me for saying it)... The reason I say this, is that if you buy a speaker that will make the 5% of your music collection that is extremely well mastered sound fantastic, but will make the other 95% almost unplayable, then you are more into seeking perfect faithfulness to source than just enjoying the music....

My Primary love is music, and as fascinated as I am by the equipment, it is still only a very distant 2nd to enjoying the music.... So this is something anyone reading my mini-reviews of the speakers I've auditioned should keep in mind....

Anyway, your point reminded me of this excerpt from a review of the Magnepan 20.1 in Soundstage last September:

We reviewers can be a self-absorbed lot, becoming lost in our own world, forgetting that the kind of audio gear that helps us write reviews is not necessarily what everyone should buy for long-term enjoyment. Do you want your audio system to be a tool? Heck no! It's a source of peace and participation with music, not something with which you do work. The MG20.1s are not for would-be reviewers or equipment jockeys. Other speakers, some that cost far less, can tell you more about the other products with which they are used. As transparent as the MG20.1s are through the midrange and especially the treble, they still present music their own particular way, taking over your listening room more than giving you a pristine view into everything upstream and each recording.