What is a high end stereo SUPPOSED to sound like?

Bryoncunningham, you make some good points. I knew one guy who was all into soundstaging and money was no object. He looked into Audio Physic with their "walk in" soundstaging but ended up with some Brentworth single driver and a Wytec SET in a HUGE room. He had the best "You are there" thing on live recordings I've ever heard as there was little room interaction. I never could reproduce it because my room is too small.

Wow Cdc, I bet that guy's system sounds fantastic!

High end is supposed to sound like real live unamplified music- Natural, mostly free of elecronic artifacts on well recorded material.

Instead what we get(99% of time,regardless of price)is tonal freqency balance that is generally 10s to 100s of Hz shifted to the right compared to the real thing, making sound thinner than actually is real life. Also I notice that the timing is off between fundamentals and overtones/undertones. Combine the two and you have unnatural presentation. I don't know why is that. Is it electronic artifacts that you can't avoid or recording can't pick up everything?

Enter,add/subtract your own colors that makes it as close to 'realistic' as possible for YOU.

There's this guy's take which is as good as any what's been put forth so far:
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2012/07/10/your-hi-fi-sounds-like-crap/

All the best,
Nonoise

If it sounds good, it IS good! - Duke Ellington