In fact, let me use a better analogy. We take two recordings of a vintage piano
artist - Schnabel, Edwin Fischer or whatever. We can chose between the
following
a) A Pearl transfer which retains some of the hiss of 78s but is closer to the
tone of the piano
b) A Naxos transfer Cedared to remove most of the hiss but leave a more plummy
piano sound.
If you asked a bunch of listeners what was more faithful, non musicians are
likely to say 'b - it hasn't got any hiss, and live piano recitals don't have
hiss, do they?'. Fair enough. A pianist may say 'a - the piano tone is more
realistic'. Fair enough. What is different is:
a) the primary focus - instrumental timbre or general lifelike factors
b) the recognition cues - the pianist is using timbre, the casual listener is
using general acoustic parameters.
I'm saying that valve users may be using different kinds of primary focus
(liquid midrange or whatever) and different recognition cues.

=== Andy Evans ===
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