how would you describe a system that is musical in nature

@ghdprentice 

Over the decades one by one each of my components ended up being tube. I imagine you could put together a non - tube really musical system. But honestly I have heard dozens and dozens of spectacular systems… I have owned a lot of fantastic component. Great systems… that I loved for their natural sound, imaging , and amazing rendering. But true emotional connection… has only come to me with tubes.

Same....sounds like something I would have written!

@jon_5912

It means it possesses your preferred inaccuracies. I have no problem with people preferring whatever but calling that preference "musical" is kind of silly. It elevates a personal preference to a level it doesn’t belong at.

Sorry....but I have to respectfully disagree. If my sonic preferences for my sound system resemble what I hear when I listen to real music, it seems extremely logical to deem those traits as "musical".

If everything sounds clear and is in the right proportions, but is not convincing enough to provide your brain with an emotional experience, the system is likely analytical sounding. If the system consistently transports you into the performance so that you can forget about how the system sounds, odds are good its a musical sounding system.

I personally think transparency, resolution, and micro dynamics are more critical than perfect tonal balance, because that’s what reveals the space where the performance takes place....either your brain buys it, or it doesn’t, but it’s also heavily dependent on the recording at hand.