What kind of listener are you?

Don't we all!

While I have finally developed an ability to discern I also have lost a lot of my snobby ways and love listening to all kinds of systems. 

I've always enjoyed listening. One time in Costco the JBL system they had set up playing sounded so good I bought one just for the guys at work. Well the endo cases last an hour, you're sitting there doing x-ray nothing to do the whole time but listen to music, and it was only $100! But those JBL engineers were smart. Can't make detailed for $100 but you can make warm and if you get the balance right it can sound pretty good. And it did. They were so thrilled they reimbursed me, even though I said consider it a gift. 

That's the cheapest system I ever did. Only I can't take credit because the speakers, amp, wires and power cord, everything was JBL. All I did was listen. Which in the end is all that matters.

Hence the thread.

Good stuff guys!

Yeah its Origin Live came up with this. One thing I find interesting is my Origin Live Conqueror arm does a better job of balancing these three pillars than most other components. Synergistic Research wire is a little more skewed to Clarity and Dynamics, my Herron is a little more Tonality and Detail, and so on. Not a lot, I just don't go for anything very far from optimizing all three. 

Its a small sample size. But it is interesting to note the one manufacturer who breaks it down this way is also the one to achieve the best balance across those criteria. Well maybe not so much interesting as expected: Plan your work, work your plan. 

Yes that sounds like a good idea to me. Inefficient speakers require more power, and amps that are powerful and involving are few and far between and tend to be very, very expensive. Low power amps on the other hand that are emotionally involving are common, and range from very affordable ones that sound quite good to expensive ones that are utterly captivating. So its no contest.

That said, the first component to make me realize the importance of Feeling was the 150 wpc McCormack DNA1. Back in those days I was very methodical in using my favored test CDs with tracks selected to help me run down my audiophile checklist, all of which was analytical. It was only when I caught myself lost in the music totally forgetting about the checklist that it dawned on me, this is what its all about. That was my first real high end component, and while it definitely passed the Analytical and Thrill requirements it was the Feeling (pleasure) that really reeled me in then, and has ever since.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ndZrj7DSmk00WIORrcS_siKnUK_kj3SrFFamrWJxGh8/edit#heading=h.q7dek...

Before auditioning a speaker at one of the dealers I visited in my search for a new pair of speakers, the salesman asked me if I preferred "analytic" or "musical" speakers. For me the choice was "musical"

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Dealers approaches are all over the map. Given those options I would probably make the same choice, even though musical to me is a movie with a lot of songs in it.