Hey, great analogy, sound and photography! Kind of like an audience or soundboard tape of a concert you were at- the quality isn't going to be the same as the official live release you bought, but just like a bad photo remembering a certain time in your life or memory you cherish, it is cool cause you were there!

And great point about having to mix for the masses and listening on a variety of sources. "authentic-sounding" was probably the wrong choice of words- what I meant was, was there a plug in that added warmth without sounding cheesy, you know some of those shared or dirt cheap bottom-feeder things (from what I've heard) are kinda fake sounding. Probably fine mixing a huge-bottom dance thing with a lot of layers, but nastier sounding when used in starker acoustic formats.

Cheers!

Jim