Vinyl. Years ago, I used to listen to the equipment as some records sounded excellent and some were not good at all. So I was always avoiding the lesser recordings. This scenario is extremely common and is a symptom of an immature system. My systems have slowly evolved and everything sounds great. I don’t even think about what I play, or what condition it’s in. It's all about the beauty of the music, and the magic of the old technology reproduction chain.
Mid level listening
I think that when listening to music it’s best to intently listen for the music rather than to the beauties of the sound production. In my opinion that is the most enduring pleasure you can get from your system. Unfortunately, for whatever reason it doesn’t always happen. When you can’t seem to get fully into the music there’s something I’m calling mid level listening where you listen for the enjoyment of both SQ and the music itself. I know ideally that should always happen to a great degree but it doesn’t always, which leads us to be dissatisfied with our rig.
What do you think?