Hehe... Arny, I like you; you're a literal as I am. :-) You're right,
to get every nuance of say, a solo violinist, you would want several
microphones picking up all of the hamonics, the player's breathing, the
rustle of his/her clothing, the fingers on the fretboard. Of course in
a live performace you'd have to be nose-to-nose with the player to hear
all that. OK OK, I give... let's get realistic. :-) I don't want
"in-your-face" as much as I want "in the audience."

I think what I meant to say by "assume as perfect a recording as
possible" is just that. Assume that I have found the best recording
available of what I want to listen to. This may be a 5.1 Dolby
DVD-Audio recording, or a mono vinyl LP (yes, I still have my Dual 502
turntable!). I don't want the sound system to add or subtract anything
from what the recording engineers created. How's that? :-)

Are there any web sites that have suggestions/recommendations of setups
for people who desire to hear a certain kind of sound, hopefully
bracketed by budget levels? Thank you MINe for the stereophile.com
suggestion.

Bryan