"have you ever listened to a product which measured as being the one for you, but on hearing it you were disappointed? Have you ever listened to a product which you hadn't seen the measurement for, or it measured as a "lesser" item than the first example and found it to be a better experience?"
I have not been intrested in measured results long enough or owned enough products to answer that. I used to buy products based primarily on features, positive reviews and price. My mission 731i speakers and cable talk 3.1 cable had good reviews in what hifi, JBL MR Center was reported to be a good match to the missions by some magazine, Rega Vulcan subwoofer had a good review somewhere can not remember where and was made by REL which was highly regarded, Sony STRDB930 Receiver good review in home cinema choice, Sony HX525 HD/DVD Recorder was cheap and had favourable reviews on the net, Manhattan XT-F good review in What Satellite Magazine.
It is only since I became intrested in video that I have developed a preference for facts and figures and specifications. Video has standards for reproduction and competing technologies, understanding how they work and compare is useful in making a choice. I bought my projector after reading about how they are designed and picked it for its specification and then took it apart and diy modified its color wheel, light box and internal iris to improve its performance. Then calibrated its settings. I likewise picked the screen and did the room decor and layout for the projector based on alot of reading and specifications - measurements.
What I applied to the video side, I now seek to apply to the audio side. In video accuracy to source by meeting specifications for image reproduction is the aim of most videophiles. With audiophiles personal preference still rules, despite audio fidelity being measurable.
If the specification, measurements do not validate my observations, but disagree with them. I would first suspect the measurements being wrong or not representative, you could claim greater accuracy overall be being massiveley more inaccurate in a critical area, but very accurate in all other areas, or the figures may purposefully excluded certain types of inaccuracy or distortion. Next I would suspect it was source-disc dependent, it might sound or look better with this disc but worse with others, then I would suspect it might be a temporary effect, it stands out as more dynamic but in the long term looks/sounds less lifelike. Having ruled out the above I would go with personnal preference over measured results, ultimately standards, specifications and measurements are a guide - roadmap to get to a destination, they tell you when you have arrived and validate your observation, but you might prefer a slightly different destination.
"major question about what people are expecting the hi-fi to be faithful to. knightout - you talk about accuracy to what the producer heard, but surely this in itself relies on the producer's own ears and the studio equipment being used. With the producer being sat in an acoustically isolated control room, it certainly does not relate to the live sound of an acoustic instrument within an acoustic space"
Studio equipment and setup have I believe standards they attempt to adhere to. The idea is when they are mastering it they are not listening to it being distorted by the equipment or room. Studios use reference monitors instead of speakers, and the rooms are treated for good acoustics. If you mastered music using bright sounding speakers while sitting in a room mode that was nullifying bass or muddying treble and midtones, all the stuff you produced would sound odd.
The acoustic isolation I understand in terms of the recording booth in which the artists perform as they want the microphones to pick up the individual instrument, not reflections of the sounds of all the instruments or room harmonics. The producer who mixes the sound should be hearing it in an acoustically ideal manner, except possibly for lack of sound diffusion and size of sound stage due to the size of room. Sound diffusion adds ambience to the music with out distortion, it is dictated by the listening room, without sound diffusion stereo sounds artificial, lifeless, dead. With surround sound formats room ambience is part of the recording programed in to give the listener audio clues for position of effects. Soundstage is dictated by speaker placement and listening position so studios are usually limited by room, for representing its size, but not for mastering the tracks so instrument placement is well defined.
For listening environment it is my understanding you ideally want refelections of treble and midtones within 5ms to be absorbed as they do not sound like reflections they sound as if they are part of the original note so they muddy the sound reducing clarity. You also want bass response to be flat, to not suffer from one tone or boomy bass caused by the room modes reinforcing bass by reflecting it onto its self or be in a bass null where bass reflections are cancelling out the original bass. Sound diffusion, reflections over 5ms that are quieter and seem to becoming from many directions so are hard to pinpoint are desirable as they create ambience, warmth. A wide cohesive soundstage is likewise desirable.
"Furthermore, what the producer has heard, and the way in which it has been recorded, don't always necessarily correlate with the intentions of the musician. I know several professional musicians who feel that, at various times, their recordings have been compromised by the work of the producer/engineer"
I think the musician should hire a different producer or/and consumers buy the discs that are better mastered. Second guessing musicians intent and producers competence and altering the sound does not appeal to me. Besides if the sound you here is primarily dictated by personal taste and room acoustics, I do not see how what you hear is going to be very representative of what the producer mastered anyway.
"Ultimately, do we want accuracy to the studio environment and the influences of the equipment, producer, and/or engineer"
Yes I do. But with more sound diffusion, ambience than in most studio environments and a wider soundstage. I do not want to listen to distortion, I want fidelity to source. If my components provide music fidelity it gives me a good starting point. I can improve soundstage size and imaging by using good speaker and listener positions. I can remove first order reflections of treble and midtones muddying the sound so improving clarity by using sound absorbers and good speaker placement. I can remove bass reflections from my walls casusing bass reinforment or nullfication to improve clarity by using bass traps and sitting in a area with a flat bass response. I can improve ambience by increasing sound diffusion usually behind the listener making the sound more alive-natural.
"or are we looking for something which gets us as close as possible to the feeling of a musical performance within a real space?"
My room is too small to accurately emulate a live performance in real space just by choosing a good cd player, amplifier or speakers. They do not make sound reflections and diffusion that add the ambience of a larger listening environment reflections from lots of different surfaces. They also can not prevent the sound reflections of the real listening environment from muddying the sound. If I want to emulate different listening environments I need a setup an environment that is not reducing clarity and then to use dsp modes that add reflections.
"But what about the majority of recordings which don't do it, or which suffer from less impressive or less natural recording techniques? Isn't it beneficial in those circumstances for the equipment to be minimising some of the less attractive characteristics of the recording?"
How? By having a non-flat frequency response? This can be done with speaker placement or amplifier controls. How do you know the less attractive characteristics of the recording are not due to the setup distorting it. How do you compensate for these less attractive characteristics in some recordings while still being able to produce better recordings in all their glorly.
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