Is live reproduction the goal of audio?

The goal of individuals is different than the goal of 'audio' because part of the goal of audio is to sell equipment and make a profit.

Lackefrontroad, what I think Boa2 is meaning to say is that we as people who enjoy audio find the route we like when it comes to its reproduction. We all like different sound qualities and natually gravitate towards those products which produce those sounds which we like.

Personally, I think that the goal of audio reproduction is to:

in the case of classical music, give a production that is as close to a live listening as possible. Not only this, but give this reproduction from the standpoint of the conductor's ears.

for other types of music, give an a real-life image of what the ensemble sounds like, be it a rock group, jazz or any other ensemble. I also believe that the audio engineer should do everything in his/her power to place the artist as if they were playing in ensemble accross a stereo soundstage.

Natually with these beliefs, I tend to gravitate twards products that produce what I think to be a completely un-biased un-colored reproduction of sound...So I guess my answer to your question would be, yes, live production is the goal.

the 'ultimate' direction of electronics is to sell more electronics...the 'ultimate' direction of the consumer is to find enjoyment with what they have purchased.

Interesting question and responses. I think that equipment designers fall into at least two camps (I'm sure others can add more). There are those who strive to build equipment which accurately reproduces/decodes the signal being fed to it, so their response would be that they will leave it to the recording engineer and producer to get that live performance onto the recording, and they'll take it from there. However, there are also designers who appear to intentionally design their equipment to reproduce an emotional response from the listener, and perhaps part of this is an attempt to recapture the essence of a live performance that often seems to get lost in the recording process. I cite as evidence of the latter camp the large number of pieces of high end equipment which measure poorly but nonetheless have been critically acclaimed and have their ardent supporters. These designers might tell you, though, that their purpose is to bring out the best in the music being played through the system, not necessarily to reproduce the original performance. I guess my goal as the obsessive compulsive neurotic that I am is to assemble a system of components that gets me closer to the original performance if possible (I know that's never going to happen, particularly with full scale symphonic repertoire) but above all communicates the composer's/artist's message and the emotion of the performance and music being played.

I guess my goal...is to assemble a system of components that gets me closer to the original performance...but above all communicates the composer's/artist's message and the emotion of the performance and music being played.

What exactly entails "getting closer to the original performance"?

I've been struggling with this concept myself, and while I have owned components that have been technically superior in accurately reproducing the recording, my present gear clearly communicates the emotion of the performance in a more effective manner.

I'm not sure which of my several system iterations gets me closer to the original performance, but I tend to favor my present, less accurate system.