spatially -- the ability of a recording to convey the space in which the recording was made and the placement of the images within the space. A good recording played back on a properly set up system will produce focused images placed in a definable space. Such a recording and setup should have any music lover saying to him or herself "Who needs video?" For headphones, Jude Mansalla, founder of Head-Fi.org , offers a similar opinion for what matters for headphone sound: As for sound, I don't have just one sound signature preference. The sound signature I want at any given moment may vary with mood, or with the music I'm listening to. If I'm listening to well-recorded music (regardless of genre), I tend to reach for my most revealing, most accurate gear. However, a lot of poorly, harshly, recorded 80?s pop and rock might have me seeking a more forgiving (usually warmer) sound signature. When I don't know what I'm going to be listening to (or when I know I'm having a day where my music preferences are all over the map), I'll generally reach for my rigs with sound signatures somewhere between the two. The key similarity between both of these ideas is the sound emulation. To get the most accurate sound from your stereo, you want to reproduce the situation it was recorded in. Let's look at the ways hardcore audiophiles do it. The Main Components of an Audiophile's Stereo An audiophile's stereo rig is often a