OK, I'll bite. What's a valve amp? Sounds like some kind of
water-cooled equipment. :-) I wasn't considering components, if
that's what that is, nor tube equipment. I don't think I really want
to sink a lot of time, energy and capital into finding the perfect
sound system. So I gather from this thread that we really can't
reproduce "realism" consistently, so just find something that you're
satisfied with. Maybe in 100 more years or so, technology will have
advanced far enough to be able to consistently do what I'm asking for.
Just tell your holodeck "I want Diana Krall to sing to me" and it
happens. I think I'm living in the wrong century. ;-)

Anyhow, since this is an opinion group, I'll give my opinion about
music reproduction. I think we are so used to heavily processed,
and/or badly recorded or played-back music, that we as a culture have
almost forgotten what live music sounds like. Live music was the
*only* music until about 100 years ago. But we've become so removed
from the performance that we're satisfied with the electronic version.
Geez, even live concerts are heavily processed though electronics.
That's OK I guess... until holodecks are invented anyway. :-)

All of this stems just from my own preference to acoustic instruments
and vocals. I understand that people like synthesized music -- and
after all, music is music no matter what the medium. I suppose I'm
just complaining that those who like synthesized music have an easier
time than I finding a satisfying sound system. ;-)

Bryan