Certain music produces physical discomfort in some people: things that seem perfectly normal and are eminently satisfying to us, in percussions, tubas, and piccolos, in timbres, the position of chords, and tabu intervals. The less the interpreter meddles with the composer, or the engineer with the interpreter, the greater the profit for music. The recording should be a reproduction- that is all. Too often it is merely an interpretation of an interpretation, which is not right. I have in mind the overamplification of certain recordings. You really cannot amplify, beyond a certain degree, without distorting. Most phonographs err on this side: they give too much. Therefore I always listen to my own records on cheap machines, in order to be sure that the records convey the essentials of the message even under adverse circumstances. << less