It is a complex relationship between sound quality and enjoyment and I do not intend to exhaust the topic here. I have posted before that I was 'converted' to classical music by the arrival of a great sounding piece of stereo hardware in my home. Suddenly the sensual nature of the instruments took on a life of their own and I have not found this richness in 'electrically' generated sounds in pop, and then ceased to try. It was from the subsequent years of listenting and learning about CM that I developed an ear for the 'musical content' and now enjoy scratchy recordings solely for the sake of the performance. I especially enjoy vintage clips and performances in radio shows like the intermissions from the Met broadcasts, Jim Svjeda from KUSC and a host of other sources. I consider live performances to most fully realize the enjoyment of both the purely sensual and the performance characteritics of the music, both realms which I feel are compromised, by definition, in recordings. Recordings, even lo-fidelity ones can, however, capture and convey incredible music, performances and interpretations, and are to be enjoyed. It is hard to complain about having so much of a good thing (fidelity and richness) that this abundance inhibits concentration on the 'musical content'. but I have raised the question many times with myself: "what is it that you are enjoying?" It is this checking myself, and hopefully correcting my focus, which is one of the duties of being a careful listener. David Robertson