[W9TR]

Problem that I see, is that speakers/rooms for audiophiles are no less Wild, Wild West... Tom. Certainly a Martin Logan sounds different from a Harbeth while the XRT2K sounds much different than both... There is no golden standard.

Of course mastering/mixing should be done with as close to your own system as possible but we know that is not possible.

All these mastering guys have uber-tweaked rooms and systems and seldom travel to other venues. So they know what their systems sound like and can perform their magic knowing the result will meet a high standard.

Here is a link to Bob's mastering studio. It would be at home here @ AA custom room treatments, dedicated AC power, big Dynaudio MTM monitors (to reduce room reflections) big power amps, JL Audio subs with proper time-aligned crossovers, custom tape repro electronics, etc.

https://www.digido.com/studio-a/

The problems with headphones are adding back the inter-aural cross correlated time delay info that comes into play using speakers in a room. These timing cues are responsible for imaging width, depth, and height. But he does use them, and I am 100% onboard with his choices.

Auxiliary monitoring is with the world’s best headphones, Stax 007 MkII and Audeze LCD-4, each driven by its own DAC and headphone amplifier.