Somehow, mention of “Musical Potency” has gotten buried in thread after thread, even those that started with the idea of laying it out for discussion in simple terms. The basics of “the Third Way” include the idea of “getting at” Music by listening with self-developed, targeted hi-fi systems, and there is a lot more to the idea than maximizing emotion, although that is no small consideration. Among the breadcrumbs Romy recently dropped is a fact that ought to be highlighted, IMO, namely that success in getting to a targeted part of the Music often leads to success in getting to “other areas” as well. An example might be getting greater “macro dynamics” from Bruckner then finding it “opens up” other Music, leading to greater Musical insight and enjoyment than one initially aimed for. There are a host of examples I might put down here, but I also want to re-mention the part about system topology, which comes and goes as a central theme here. Going back to Bruckner (though one might say, Mahler), one simply needs adequate headroom to “get to it”, if to get much from it. Sure, there is more than one approach, but some topologies just aren’t going to do it, whatever else they might do. For those who care about tonality and timbre, more headroom must include tonality and timbre, and now we begin to separate the audio wheat from the chaff. As everyone knows, no one gets everything, and every step on the audio path represents a compromise. What we settle for on balance is our own personal expression, even if we had someone else do it for us. The third way is simply a way to take the audio bull by the horns.

Paul S