Good post, Jim. I often have very musical experiences with poor to middling stereos, even sometimes with my girlfriend's dreaded Bose Acoustimass, and certainly in the car. The sound gets out of the way, and I hear the musical line, the gestalt of the song or whatever, if you will. And then I scratch my head and wonder WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING with the home system. :-)
Rock and Roll Snobbery
Can anyone explain why otherwise high end, musical systems might "not be good for rock and roll?" Or why a system that sounds fine for pop and rock might not do justice to classical and jazz? It seems to me that a great system should sound good with all types of music and that a good for classical system might be deficient in bass which is not exactly state of the art.