Describe your preference in a single sentence

I prefer my system to sound as close to live acoustic music as possible within my room dimensions and budget.  

Rip my britches off bass, and tease me with the treble!

Accurately musical — what does that mean?

hi people,pure sound is on my mind...no bs with hall sounds or depth of field i dont hear anything when im listening  just pure music thats what you all really want!  creek voyager  best you will ever hear. even $100.000 systems have flaws,,,,u will never be truely happy

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Accurately musical

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.

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

Sound that moves me…

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. 

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 :)

Intimate, Trio, Quartet, or Quintet.

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

Natural sound when listening to Joni Mitchell

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

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."

Carnegie Hall center stage 17th row

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

concise

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

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. 

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

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

Straight wire with gain 

Get the "RIGHT" soundstage for youself.

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

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...

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

I want to be immersed and engaged.

Funny jp!!!

Honey, How do these speakers look?

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….

Accurate, not warm.

I can do it in one word:  Smooth

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

@rocray

you’re making me hungry

@arafiq 

turning out to be a nice thread...  👍

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

Many layers,like a nice pan of lasagna. 

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. 
 

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

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

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

To quote a line from an NRBQ song:

"Take me to your secret place."

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

Strong, undistorted, right.

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

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

Clarity, attack and detailed.

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

Straight 

Being that I am a true audiophile...

"If I liked it I would be disappointed."

DeKay