Musical Speakers - If you like that sort of thing.

The longer I'm at this the more I could care less.about neutrality.

I want it to sound good to my ears at even the loudest volumes.

I want my music full, rich and never thin and fatiguing. Full bodied and room filling are also a must.The bass can be little loose or the highs a little rolled off etc...

In the end it better sound good to me even if it has to add or subtract from the recording to sound pleasing.

We have similar wants. I've been swapping in and out various bits of gear over the last year, always dissatisfied with what I had heard. I began to realize what I really wanted, and thankfully my last two or three moves are working out well. Full bodied sound that projects forward towards me is a must. I like lots of detail too, or perhaps that's clarity. But to me it is a must that I be able to follow every instrument's line. If instruments bleed into each other than how can the melody of a song come through? It'll just sound muddy.

But I do value neutrality. The best speakers I've heard achieved what I wanted, but they were also quite neutral. At least when it comes to highs. I don't like elevated highs that become edgy and shrill. But generally I like knowing that my speakers are relatively neutral, as speakers that have large dips and peaks I'd imagine can really make certain albums sound poor, depending on the levels used on those particular songs.

But of course many things are important. Another big one is driver integration. I think it's the main strength of my Quad 12L2. You don't hear two separate drivers, but rather one piece of music where everything fits together, and the various instruments sound like they are playing off each other the way they should.

To address the OP, musicality to me means whether I am moved or not. Some speakers sound boring. Those that do not are what I'd call musical. Does the emotion, rhythm, and melody come through?

What exactly is meant by accuracy? Is it simply timbral accuracy? Is it the fleshing out of all the details in the music? Is it separation of instruments so that you can hear all those details clearly? Is it flat frequency response, and full range sound?

Is musicality what is known as PRaT? Or is it a warm, rich sound (the tube sound, for example)? Tune vs. tone. I think everyone's definitions are slightly different - for me I think a system should be able to do both. I don't want music that sounds lifeless and slow, nor do I want music that sounds fast but also thin and distant.

If these are two extremes along a continuum then in the middle lies a compromise. Maybe solid state gear that leans to the warm side of neutral, with speakers that do the same and use soft dome tweeters, cabling is all copper. Maybe insert tubes somewhere. Or an all tube setup that leans to the brighter side, and uses speakers that measure flat and have lots of pace.

There are so many combinations of gear, and so many different kinds of rooms you can put them in, that I don't think it's one or the other, accuracy or musicality. I've opted for a solid state system like I've described above and I feel like I've got a nice mix of both. It's not the best system by any stretch, and it may not do either thing to it's fullest, but it somehow manages to not embarrass itself with either. It only took a year of trying various components to get the mix right - frustrating for sure, but worth it in the end.