Describe your preference in a single sentence

Musicality.

It will never sound bloated, slow, and warm.

But if I have to describe it in a single sentence, it will be "thou shall never ever sound lean!"

great clarity with rich/full/natural tone, yet plenty of speed/impact when the music calls for it

to me, that is live music (largely unamplified) sounds like

imo @ghdprentice’s one very good word is a shorter (if less descriptive) way of saying the above i think

Clarity and life.

Not too much, not too little.

Being that I am a true audiophile...

"If I liked it I would be disappointed."

DeKay

Straight 

Once you hear it you'll realize what was missing, until then you just don't know what you just don't know.

Clarity, attack and detailed.

It will never sound like I'm listening through 3 bolts of cheesecloth.

I like a 75% musical/euphonic-to-my-ears to 25% accuracy ratio.

Strong, undistorted, right.

Sound of Thorens is extremely addictive to the point of wanting only better Thorens than current!

To quote a line from an NRBQ song:

"Take me to your secret place."

Goldilocks - Not too *hard* and not too *soft.*  Juuuuust right...  :)  

To feel and be moved by the music, hearing it all without being overwhelmed with the volume. 

Fast, warm, sumptuous, impactful, detailed, easy highs that are still detailed as all get out. Really hard to get everything I want and maybe not even possible. Also want my old rock cds to sound like a million bucks! That’s not gonna happen without some Vegas! Lol

I’m not in the stratospheric budget on price by any means but to get texture and warmth on some tracks seems really hard to do while still having the blazing speed and impact other tracks would require to be “perfect”. I think dsp will get more and more transparent accepted and easy to use. 
 

Many layers,like a nice pan of lasagna. 

transparent, clarity and ultra resolution, and at the same carries weight and body and richness 

@rocray

you’re making me hungry

@arafiq 

turning out to be a nice thread...  👍

I can do it in one word:  Smooth

I can take bright, dull, bass limited, poor imaging but it has to be smooth.

Accurate, not warm.

Medium to short height, redhead, fluent in Fletch-isms, quoter of John Hughes films and lover of the Jesus and Mary Chain, Sisters of Mercy and The Smiths. 
 

Oh you meant audio-wise….

Honey, How do these speakers look?

Funny jp!!!

I want to be immersed and engaged.

ACCURATE reproduction of the source, good or bad=Magnepan.

I'm with @jjss49 

great clarity with rich/full/natural tone, yet plenty of speed/impact when the music calls for it

To those who call for "accurate" or "straight" etc. all I can ask is, what is your access to the original/pure/true version? If it wasn't live music (and even that is plagued by particularities and imperfections), then the standard for "accurate" seems like a prayer to see things from an impossible perspective. Of course prayer is free...

Give me detail and slam wrapped in a gold velvet blanket.

Get the "RIGHT" soundstage for youself.

Straight wire with gain 

Make the system "disappear" and allow one to "get lost in the sauce"...

I like ‘em articulate with a little meat on the bones. 

As I’ve upgraded, I think one of the ‘measurements’ that has been most meaningful to me is that the listening sessions get longer, and it’s harder to hit the ‘power off’ button. Music is about emotion to me whether it be ethereal or jamming out, so the better my equipment can draw me in emotionally the happier I am. 

Detailed, deep, wide and warm, with texture, tone and timbre.

concise

Seduce me, baby...... then SLAM me

Carnegie Hall center stage 17th row

The things that jjss49 and knighttodd mentioned describe what I'm looking for the most.

If I were to add anything to their statements, it would probably end up looking like this:

"Music reproduction that has great clarity and precision, a rich/full/natural tone, realistic articulation, plus the ability to immerse me into a believable 3-D listening experience - and on top of all that, to do it all at lower volume levels."

Hello Joni, Nico, Grace, Stevie, Chrissie! Thanks for coming over. 

Natural sound when listening to Joni Mitchell

Not good for classical , great for pop,too good for rock.

Intimate, Trio, Quartet, or Quintet.

Love the responses. It shows the incredible variety when it comes to listening preferences. I can imagine how difficult it must be for audio equipment designers to settle on a specific set of attributes. It is quite obvious you cannot design something that would satisfy everyone equally. If I have to guess, and at the risk of gross oversimplification, designers roughly fall in two overarching categories:

Category 1: Straight wire with a gain. Neutral. Accurate. Excellent 'slam'. Great dynamics. More focus on accuracy while only slightly sacrificing musicality and tonality(?)

Category 2: More focus on tone, timbre, maybe at the expense of dynamics with some coloration(?) Musicality as opposed to ultimate accuracy.

P.S. What do I mean by musicality? See @jjss49 definition please :)

full-frequency neutral clarity combined with mellowness, airy spaciousness with instrumental placement independent of listener position relative to speakers, an utterly undistorted and unfatiguing ease to the presentation that allows for unself-conscious listening for hours and hours to where one loses track of time. 

Sound that moves me…

Loud enough to bother my wife, but good enough for her to take notice.

Enough transparency, detail, resolution, layering, natural timbre, soundstage size and accuracy, depth, bass/mid range richness, separation among other qualities that result in an emotionally engaging listen. 

If the end result is that the music doesn't move you emotionally, it doesn't matter how well your system does one thing or another.