Mid level listening

In my world, if I want to critically listen at lower levels, I have to use cans. But for 65-75 db with 75-85 db peaks, my system does just fine.

I find the extent to which I am drawn into the music versus the system is the result of the sonic character of the sound. The higher the rhythm and pace, midrange bloom and the lower the unnecessary emphasis on details and artificial transparency, the more the emotional connection and your mind is simply drawn into the music... your analytical side is bored and your emotional side draws you in. 

I talk about this in different ways, since, in part I am still trying to figure out exactly what the variables are and how to talk about them. I have been auditioning a number of components recently. They conveniently fall into the two ends of a spectrum: sound spectacular or musical - natural category. In the former my head moves around the huge sound field that stretches floor to ceiling and out along the side walls examining all the holographic areas of sounds, It is amazing, my mind is drawn to examine each instrument the texture, its edges. My analytical side loves this.

On the other hand, a warm and natural rendition literally has my analytical side poke up and try to examine some instrument and my emotional side just says... NO, I just don’t care, go away. Allow my consciousness to get lost in the music. This is what my system does now. So you draw in one side or the other, or a combination. 

I have owned systems from one side to the other. It is a characteristic of the system. When you assemble all parts that are natural and musical... you get pulled into the music... when all are of sound spectacular variety, then it’s like going to the... what was that Omni Theater.... the big dome theater. It is incredible... your head cranks all over the place to see everything. 

To me building a system brings out my analytical side. But for listening I want a musical system. So the trick is to tell your analytical side to build a system for your musical side... and you will get sucked into the musical side when you listen. 

Both my headphone system and main system are like that now... geez... took me decades to figure that out. 

+1 @ghdprentice.  I've spent decades building 4 different systems (one of them still in progress).  I optimized them for a specific set of applications:  A primary system for audio with a very strong 7.2 surround capability, a second system for my office where near-field monitoring, headphones and unattended use are key, one for outdoor listening & viewing and the last for general purpose background entertainment covering both audio and 5.1 video.

Every time I use any of them, I am always amazed at how I learn new things about the material they're presenting.  Sure I can hear the technical differences, but I can't call them weaknesses.  They all do what they were designed to and do it well.  It's the material that matters.  I'm always carried away and that's the whole point of this hobby.

I doubt an audiophile can ever get entirely away from the analytical perspective of listening. Last nights listening session veered wildly in both genre and recording qualities, I can never get over how widely variable recording quality can be, for instance I was listening to some big band music from the likes of early Count Basie, mono recordings with relatively small sound stage and lacking transparency/resolution, most would call these rather poor recordings  (not to say some 40's, early 50's recordings can be quite amazing), and then I went into some experimental electronica and contemporary  recordings of  northern European primitive music, sound quality amazing, huge sound stages, virtually no compression, just so alive!

And so the above listening session par for the course in that I can't help but hear so much recording quality variability, my mind can't help but process this. But then I move on from this moment of initial analysis nearly instantaneously into the pure enjoyment of  music mode. Between having built a system that is both highly transparent/resolving yet forgiving enough so the blemishes don't grate and training my mind to free itself from judgment and comparison I find myself enjoying far more variability in both recording quality and music genres. Having a quality streaming setup has completely changed my perceptions and enjoyment of both recording quality and music, I often let music play randomly from my huge library, seems crazy but I like everything the robot plays, I'm always highly involved in the music. hard to end listening sessions.

@kofibaffour 

Thankfully I have a setup that lends itself to just letting the music shine and that is all it does.

What do you have for a system?