"Is it live, or is it Memorex?" is a question that's been asked since 1877 when Tom Edison recited "Mary had a little lamb" into his tinfoil phonograph and heard the machine repeat back the nursery rhyme. Sound reproduction has improved since Edison's first recording; electronically controlled recording and reproduction, magnetic tape, vinyl records, stereo and quadrophonic contributed to the quality of the reproduced sound. Still, almost one hundred years from that first recording, the "fidelity of sound reproductions is questionable.

The purpose of the sound system is to retrieve audio information, amplify it, and reproduce it as sound; The perfect system should produce sound that's indistinguishable from the original. Every sound is produced by a performance. The fidelity of the sound, when reproduced, to the original performance is crucial to the effect produced by the sound. For one hundred years audio has, been the technology of "almosts": how close can technology corhe, through human manipulation, to the perfect reproduction of sound? Sound reproduction has advanced to the point where we accept the medium and concentrate on the message.. But the rriedium isn't yet transparent; it colors the final effect, often lirriiting the fidelity of the effect to the original action which produced it.