Do most people prefer tight bass or non tight bass?

I want my bass to sound accurate.  I want a well recorded string bass to sound what I can hear live sitting close to a jazz trio, I want an electric  bass to sound like an electric bass, I want a pipe organ to sound like a real pipe organ in a real hall.  

Other than that, we are talking damping factor/speaker interaction.  They need to be matched perfectly whatever the combo.

End of discussion so far as I am concerned.

I prefer bass that is accurate to the recording.

The problem is you can't tell whether or not the recording is realistic.  You can only tell if the sound produced by your system is realistic.  And that means compared to live.

The problem is you can't tell whether or not the recording is realistic.  You can only tell if the sound produced by your system is realistic.  And that means compared to live.

When you compare it to "live" to see if it's realistic, are you thinking live from the front row, 7th row center, the back? Big hall or small? How can you decide which of these versions are best? How can you know what the actual conditions of the hall were like in order to know if the recording matches up and is realistic?

@theaudiohiffle This is true as far as it goes in reference to bass on any one particular recording. Playing a multitude of recordings over a relatively long period of time will expose tonal imbalances, non pleasing tonality will rear it's ugly head.

As for comparing to live, I'd suggest timbre is likely the only non variable we have for a reference. And even this problematic, what about amplification and sound reinforcement. And then we have synths and even analog instruments may have unique sound qualities, for example the woods used on any particular instrument, and this goes on and on. How about aural memory. I don't think many use live music as a reference anymore, home audio is far more about pleasing oneself.