What makes music so congested?

Thanks all for your replies and Bombaywalla thanks for the technical and links, very educational.

Though I listen to mostly jazz now, it is a shame that some of the rock I still love sounds so bad now that I have nice gear.

Playing in a smallish room, 11x11, Marantz 8B, CJ PV5, Vienna Acoustics Haydns (which are able to keep symphony crescendos very clear). Speakers are pretty much near the middle of the room. Yes, things like Charlie Haden (sp?) and new Stanley Clark are ultra clear but they are not pounding a bunch of electronic instruments frenetically at the same time then getting processed. I guess I just need to try to find the British pressing (and buy a record player). If anybody knows a specific CD version that is better, I could keep an eye out on ebay. Same for early Zeppelin.

Still having recently gotten back into hifi, I find that my two big goals are a good sounding tuning, which ProAc does for me. And clarity/non-congestion. I'm in Phoenix trying speakers again. The Wilson-Benesche (sp?) are truly amazing in terms of clarity, in a way the ProAcs don't approach. But the ProAcs move me more. Arizona Hifi in Phoenix is really a great place.

Thanks for your thouoghts.

Mapman, where did you get the Joe Gastwirt Fragile? I have looked at the releases on Amazon, they just don't provide any info. Wonder if there is a place to buy music that has some respect for customers who care enough to want to know this kind of info.
Thanks...

Ivrobinson...good idea, to eliminate the speakers and room in one swoop... how good a headphones do you think I need? Guess I could play around but never bought good headphones as it seems like it's coming from the center of my head. I remember Headroom did some headphone amp to deal with this but never tried....in fact I don't know how I'd drive them, with my vintage tube gear with no headphone output...

You know listening right now to my ProAc OneSCs in my room, my subjective thought right now is it's a node somewhere in the bass.