What Is Most Important?

"And that was your Conan moment, brought to you by John K..."

To respond to the ops actual question, for ultimate enjoyment, being able to share it with other people. When you are your death bed, are you going to remember back fondly to that time you were sitting in your basement, alone, listening to a great track?  Unlikely and I hope not. Sitting with a good friend, sipping some premium Scotch, and enjoying tunes .... quite possibly.   I would rather make memories than pass the time.

Clean ears and don't expect too much.

small pre-birthday dinner party last night

5 of us actively picking favorites from my cd/sacd collection for 4 hrs. what a mixed bag, what a blast.

am I the only person who mentioned sharing the music with friends? (as produced by our wonderfully assembled systems).

my new to me Sony xa5400es player sounded awesome, and, I pushed the speakers back to make more room around the table and 'found' a very nice l/c/r distribution for several off center listeners. today I will compare it to my prior 'two person' toe-in position.

The media is the largest changing variable in how any system performs. IMHO