pooh poohing music/sonic guilty pleasures is a bit snooty i think. there are many paths to musical maturity, and spots on the path. and even end points preferred. my sonic reference points have always included my listening 25 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and 5 years ago.
i just think this line of discussion is not friendly to the community here. get's people defensive about what they like or don't like. makes WBF a less welcoming place. today i had a WBF member visitor and the first call for a vinyl cut was Thelma Houston. that did make me smile.
i can like Bartok string quartets or Charles Lloyd......and Diana Krall. or Eva, or Allison.....i have 4 reels of an all analog Diana Krall 'Live In Paris' that sounds amazing.
OTOH i do respect comments about hifi show musical choices. but that's different.
we should not have to defend our musical choices. but it is an easy target for those needing one.
The thread is about recordings and system quality. There’s a place in the discussion for “audio file recordings“. Some people love them, some people hate them. They do tend to make mediocre systems sound better. It’s interesting that people are talking about Diana Krall and not some of the golden age recordings of great classical music.
Really good systems can play a large variety of recordings and musical genres, and the more difficult the music, the more the capabilities of the system come through. Most of the music in system videos on WBF is not very challenging.
The issue is not people’s taste in music. The issue is the quality of the recording and what the recording tells the listener about the capabilities of the system. I am interested in what I can learn about the music on the recording and what I can learn about the system. For this, the choice of music and quality of the recording matter.