I am listening for the joy of listening to music. Part of that joy lies in
parts of the sound that is often lost in bad recordings and playback. none
of
it is ever completely captured even in the best recordings and playback.
You
may hear the inflections and other important aspects of a vocal performance
but
it is affected by the poor recording. It changes the affect of the
performance.
It changes the affect of the music as a whole. That is why the art of the
music
and the sound of the playback are inseperable.

This is only true for the tiny minority of music lovers in the world who are
audiophiles.

I think you are quite wrong. It is easily testsed. Every time people come
listen to their favorite recordings on my system they thank me for the uniquely
wonderful experience. They often say it is like hearing the music for the first
time. I haven't run into anyone whose response to music isn't affected by the
medium.

The vast majority of music lovers do not find mediocre sound
reproduction to bother them in any way, or to detract from their
appreciation and enjoyment of music.

I think this is totally false. But if you have any evidence to support this
assertion feel free to cite it.

For them, art and sound ARE quite
separable, and they care far more about the former.

If you feel it is acceptable to speak for unnamed masses of music lovers I will
do the same. For them the two are inseperable and they care about the whole
created by the two.


Perhaps they are the
lucky ones.

Perhaps such people are actually very rare.