You draw the correlation to photography

In the world of high-end audio speakers can cost over $50,000, tube amplifiers rule, and turntables are often regarded as making more listenable music than $20,000 cd players. Go figure.

In that world, a lot of attention is paid to reproducing the original music in your home or listening space. Various theories hold sway but one enduring theory is that the original music should be reproduced as exactly as possible. Even though it may be possible to make the reproduction more enjoyable to listen to or even more exciting than the original, one school of thought suggests that high-fidelity means being as true as possible to the original music.

In the quest for this musical enlightenment, some high-end hobbyists really lose track of the music and get overly involved in the selecting or pairing of equipment. The music is sort of a side benefit. For others, the music is the thing. It may be imperfectly reproduced but the music is regarded as more important than the system which reproduces it.

Some people have no ear for music per se, but have an ear for equipment. For those people the equipment is an end in itself. The equipment is a hobby. I find no problem or reason to judge anyone over the issue. We won't all be magnificently expressive in the traditional artistic sense. We won't all be great leaders or insightful business people or great parents. In audio, it seems that most people could benefit from a bit more of each camp, one that regards the music as the primal vital interest, and another that regards the equipment, room and set-up as a critcal reality which is rewarding in its own right.

I will leave it to you to see the obvious correlations to photography, the Zone System and the expression of photographic ideas.