I went for accuracy in my system because after all the (lost) years of listening to ‘lesser’ systems, I realized that all-the-while I listened I was filtering the sound through my imagination to render what I heard into what I knew (thought) it should sound like.
So now a bad recording sounds bad on my system; but then, it sounds the best it can sound, or maybe it’s best to say, I’m hearing all of it.
I recall my Dad’s Wharfedale W60Ds and a second-tier Pioneer integrated, and I don’t recall ever thinking, ‘what a terrible recording!”
I enjoyed my Dad’s system; it sounded warm and soft, often quite pretty, and all who heard it agreed.
But that system could not and cannot do what mine does: good recordings sound great and great recordings sound amazing.
It never caused me to search into the soundstage and marvel at the remarkable depth, or to ‘see’ the orchestra players in their correct positions, or to say out loud, ‘Wow!’ as I often do now.