When I read that annoying platitude "as the artist intended" I ask myself how Weiss, Bach, Buxtehude, Beethoven and a plethora of other great and true artists through the centuries "intended their works to sound". It doesn't make any sense. And it doesn't even make sense to the performers musicians and conductors, the creators in a secondary sense; and yessss, Stax and classical music is a transcendental partnership, especially the baroque period. It is a misfortune of the laws of nature that electrostatic technology does not allow to manufacture a successful ear speaker model.
This is actually a highly discussed topic but there is an rather simple answer to that, to the surprise of a lot of people.
Well first of all, no recording equipment existed at the time where Bach, Beethoven and so on lived but(!), and here comes the important part, those arrangements of those songs that are recorded, those people are (mostly) alive. So you could ask them, how is it intended to sound. You could hand them over an Hearphone and ask "Is this correct?"
Or even better, in a lot of cases you can attend one of the live plays they recorded and know first hand how it is supposed to sound. I, for example, attended an concert that was recorded (You can even see me on the DVD), so i know first hand how exactly it is supposed to sound and what the artists intention is and can compare it to that.
But it goes even further, sometimes artists themself make earphones that sound exactly how they want things to sound, for better or worse.
For example the Just Ear Series from Sony have several models where the Artist themself tuned the earphone exactly to their taste. So if you buy that earphone, you have the artists intention of this artist. You wan't to know exactly how Eir wants her songs to sound? Buy her Earphone:
https://www.sony.co.jp/Products/justear/limited/XJE-MHEIR/
Last but not least, as an artist myself, also knowing lots of other artists, i can tell you, that most just listen with reference monitors. Sounds boring, but that is actually the case. Most of those reference monitors have been tuned by artists. Not by one artist but with a lot of artists and pa engineers and recording/mixing engineers and so on, because they use it in the end.
So if you buy any professional reference monitor like the IER-M9, TG335, VE6/8, SE846, Mach 70/80 and so on, that is what artists use themself to judge their own performance and use to perfectly tune, how something is supposed to sound in their intention. That is what PA-Engineers to use to define, how the life sound is supposed to sound, what recording/mixing/mastering engineers use to define, how is the recording supposed to sound and so on.
Not every monitor does match every single artists intention perfectly, but you would be surprised how many artists plug in one of these Monitors into their ears and will say "Yes, this is exactly how it should sound".
So if you want to know the artists intention, you would have to get an good reference monitor. But do you really want the artists intention? Its just one (or several) people with an opinion. Artists do change their opinion constantly, from one album to another, between two performances and so on.
There is a reference, these above mentioned monitors, but they are nothing more, nothing less.
So the ultimate truth is, that you are listening to music for your own enjoyment and that might include intentionally screwing the artists intention. If you like more bass than the artist intended, do you really rather listen to the music with the artists intention and not enjoy it, just for the sake of it?
