who wants tone controls on your next preamp?

Carlos, I have been very civil. No need to be condescending.

The pursuit of the absolute sound is trying to recreate perfectly what was being played elsewhere. Nobody has said or even hinted that it has been done. You have listed a lot of reasons why it is at the very least extremely difficult and probably can't be done, but that completely misses the point. The fact we haven't come close to doing it doesn't mean it can't be done or isn't a worthwhile pursuit. A note played on an instrument does create compressions and rarefactions in the air that theoretically we might be able to perfectly reproduce. I doubt it can be and you are convinced it can't be done but you can't logically argue that the sound never existed. It most certainly did no matter what principles you apply.

Herman,
I have not tried to be condescending so don't take offense. The issue that I have with the "note" example that you site is that it is not occurring in a perfect anechoic chamber and therefore is subjected to the forces of it's environment; therefore you must first re-create that same environment in order to attempt to reproduce it faithfully. If we are talking about the "absolute" note. Otherwise you will have the convulsion of the environment in which it created with the environment in which it is being playback. The principles that I sited simple states that in every measurement, controlled or not, there is a certain measure of uncertainty, which therefore does not allow you to be 100% certain that what you have measured in space and time has stayed static during the measurement.

Listen I know the point that you are trying to make, which is that in theory, you should be able to re-create an event. Unfortunately when it comes to music reproduction/playback there are too many variables that make this task simply impossible in the here and now and in foreseeable future.

I apologize if I was out of line, that was certainly not my intention as you have proven to be a worthy opponent.

I will try to find the time to post my system this weekend so that you can see where I'm coming from.

No problem. I'm on the same page with the uncertainty. I work on medical electronics for a living and taught it before that. One of the first things we would discuss when talking about measurements was that in order to measure anything you must disturb it or extract energy from it which alters what it is you are trying to measure.

I also agree that the realization of the absolute sound in the sense that is 100% the same is most certainly impossible. Another factor often ignored is that unless you are blind or have your eyes closed a live event is a visual experience too, not to mention the odors that wafted through the venue when I attended rock concerts in the 70's and 80's and the feeling of being jostled about in huge crowd.. Recreating that would be a neat trick.

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"This hobby is supposed to be about enjoying your favorite music"

There are different forums for that. My late relative really enjoyed the music on really bad transistor radio.

"with or without tone controls is just a means to an end"

That's exactly what Audio Forum is about - "means".