wave a magic wand and poof...the stereo disappears

Wow, no music? That would be unimaginable. I'd have to take hemlock.

Then again, if the best music reproduction system I ever heard was a $350 Brookstone stereo, I'm sure I wouldn't miss it much and could find lots of other activities to amuse myself. Just hissing, snapping my fingers, and banging on some soup cans with a wooden spoon might provide a suitable substitute. Maybe I'd eventually come across a Bose Wave Radio at a garage sale and that would save the day. :)

Mrtennis,

I think your logic is somewhat askew. Just because you've heard expensive systems and they have not impressed you does not mean that there aren't thousands of systems out there that cost a lot less that would sound night and day better than your mini-system.

Probably, your mini has a nice basic midrange, with a hint of bass, and is not too offensive in other areas and to you, that's great. Many of us on this site wish we could be content with such a modest system, but the fact is, that I, and many others here cannot. And if I were a betting man, I'd bet that once you heard a system that walked all over what your mini is capable of (and there are many out there) you'd suddenly get that upgrade fever...

Heck, in fact, I have an old vintage retro system with Altec speakers, an Onkyo receiver and a Sony turntable with a Grado cartridge that I paid less than $200 for and I bet it will outperform your mini. It sounds really "good," to me, but as "good" as it sounds, my other more upscale systems sound appreciably better.

Okay, Mrtennis,

Now I understand you better. I think we are getting to the heart of the matter.

I also have two competent systems. One is solid-state based and uses large floor-standing speakers. The other uses a combination of tube and solid-state gear and nice-sounding monitors on stands.

I know that the larger system beats the smaller system all day long if you take measurements or use a checklist to tell you which system performs better in particular areas.

But although the smaller system with the tubes is technically and audibly inferior to the larger system in many ways, I still get just as much enjoyment out of listening to music on it.

So I have two distinctly different types of sound in the house, and enjoy them both for their own unique set of qualities. And I also realize that one system is more of a euphonic musical instrument while the other is more accurate. If I really want to hear the specific character of a particular recording, I know which system to play it on.

So what is your main system -- now that you've let the cat out of the bag?

Accuracy doesn't have to mean harsh, hard, or nasty sounding. Most recordings are actually less harsh than people would like to believe. That's because most systems have hardness and harshness built in. A lot of it comes from using speakers with passive crossovers in critical ranges of human hearing, but I've also found that certain tubes and even certain cables tend to sound hard or harsh.

And you can have fast loud musical transients that won't hurt your ears. But I'll grant you that there are certain recordings that contain distortion, harshness and stridency that is not pleasant. But I believe there are fewer of those recordings than most people realize.

Wide dynamic swings with fast transients are an integral part of a lot of music and can sound great if the system can deliver what is there -- no more and no less. I can't imagine being content with any system that was so laid back and smooth that it seriously compresses the dynamics and removes/smooths musical transients from the music. I guess some folks prefer that alternative to harshness, but that may be because they haven't heard a system that was truly neutral and transparent. I believe such systems are in the extreme minority -- no matter how much money one spends. A lot of the so-called ruthlessly revealing types of systems are seriously flawed, in my view. The music they reproduce does not sound like actual music played by real acoustic instruments. If you want to confirm that, just go to a live unamplified concert and judge for yourself.