Timbre is psycho-acoustic in nature? Are you high?
Timbre is a function of the instrument producing it, not the receiver. It is not some mysterious force that can't be captured through scientific means. As Peter noted, if timbre were a product solely of the receiver, then a microphone would not be able to differentiate between a piano playing middle C and a saxophone playing middle C. What about digital instruments? Are they infused with psycho-acoustic voodoo in order to simulate the timbre of a piano, since obviously microphones can't capture it??
And timbre can be very easily read on a spectrum analyzer. The same way that you can differentiate two people's voices through the use of a spectrum analyzer, you can differentiate two different instruments' timbres through it.
