Fidelity vs. Musicality...........Is there a tug of War?

@oregonpapa “When you go to a live, unamplified performance, of a small jazz group, or even a symphony orchestra, do you sit there and say to yourself ... "Oh my God! ... listen to that detail?"

Great way of putting it. That was actually one of my observations… I can hear incredible detail… the wall reflections nuance of the acoustic space… but they are not stuck in your face. 
Oregon Symphony… Oregon PaPa?

douglas_schroeder has it right.  Fidelity IS musicality.  Musicality in this context is more than only the purview of musicians; it is also a component’s ability to more faithfully reproduce the details of what comprises that purview.  Some gear does this better than others.  The closer the sound of a component or system gets to the true sound of music (fidelity), the more musical the sound is. 

Fidelity to what?    There is no definable entity out there to be faithful to.  

FWIW.

Prat, beat, rhythm, foot tapping or whatever to want to call it. If that is not present, it is not musical for me.

After that, as I journey on, I am finding that detail adds to this and makes things even more musical.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

Years later, the Eagles in Seattle, another almost equally bad audio experience however this time so greatly overshadowed by their "musicality" I honestly couldn’t have cared less.

Reminds me of John Lennon all those years ago when he said the quality of the recording didn't matter, it was the quality of the performance. Some of those 7" singles sound dreadful especially when played with a worn out stylus on substandard equipment. (He was probably comparing the sound to studio monitors.)

I couldn't agree more, the performance is crucial.

With today's equipment, those days are long gone and poor sound quality ruins any performance. Screwing the volume up to absurd levels so you hear nothing but pain is absurd.

A well produced recording played on a high end system cuts it for me.

Perhaps you could say I like it both ways.