What music is your system setup for?

IMHO (ONLY)-
mid-fi systems are helpful in masking many rock (as well as many other) alblums' distortions and mixing errors. these distortions are, again, to my ears, EXTREMELY distracting on a high-resolution system.
example 1. Jefferson Airplane- Surrealistic Pillow (std. cheap pressing)- forget about it- on my VPI/Fancy Rig the sound is thin and noisy (aside from surface noise). i always loved to listen and relax to this record over the years- what happened? example 2.a reel-to reel tape of HAYDN'S london symphony (#104-my favorite) made from an "ok" pressing/thorens turntable- on a less resolving system this tape sounds fantastic, with a pleasant bump in the midbass, some scratchiness in the strings but a pleasant overall sonority non-the-less. same tape on my fancy rig- now the bass bump and the distortion become more artificial sounding and the treble sounds closed in, so i am now wanting to get an SACD version to listen to instead- the economy 2-cd Haydn set i bought for $12 is lacking realism as well.
i even have a JVC boombox which, i swear, will amaze alot of people when i put on hendrix, csn&y, airplane, etc. even cassette tapes sound fine. something happened years ago when a thorens or a dual turntable (garrard, bsr, whatever), a receiver, and a nice pair of acoustic suspension speakers, would sound utterly convincing on rock, pop, classical, virtually anything you could throw at it. but now, not that it's all bad of course, but high-resolution/high definition sound is available but complicated and expensive to acheive.
"okay" sound, whether it's due to the vintage nature of the source, or new compressed formats, are usually (much) better off experienced on a bose radio, a car stereo, or inexpensive headphones. i just get nostalgic when i remember how nice my records, all my records (except for the scratched ones) used to sound back in the 60's and 70's,
on good, affordable equipment. and all through little skinny cables thrown in for free...

Chadnliz

Hey Albert your gear cant play Polka or Celtic? Say it aint so!

I forgot to add those, provided Van Morrison, Enya and Loreena McKennitt qualify for Celtic and Brave Combo for Polka :^).

Thank for all the responces to my question now and in the future, even the sarcastic ones. Just thought I would explain how I put my always changing system together.
My system is setup for rock for the most part. That is the music I listen to the most. I do like some blues and jazz. When I buy a new piece of equipment, I usually play rock to see if I like the item. My system does play all genre of music well. But I hope as my tastes change, I will continue to enjoy it with what I have put together. If not it will be time to upgrade yet again. I had to integrate HT in the room also & that work out okay. I have to find a better way to eliminate the problems my projection screen causes but I do have it under control for now with a tapestry I put up while listening & remove for movies. This is a pain but worth it.

Hevac1,

Just so you know, Audiogon members like to have a little fun now and then. The posts to your topic are not meant to be disrespectful. My own personal system thread has many jokes and jabs, including those I've put there myself.

What's distressing is the opposite reaction. Put in the work to post a new topic and NO ONE responds. At least you got answers, serious responses and some fun comments that everyone shared.

For what it's worth, my reply was serious. I do play all the music I listed as well as others I've probably forgotten.

I love rock and roll, I grew up listening to it on the radio and have tons of it in my collection today. As I got older I discovered other worlds of music that were worthwhile and as I learned about each new exciting type of music it opened me up to reach for another to add to my collection.

If a stereo has very low distortion, enough power to avoid clipping at all your listening levels and is reasonably flat (or runs toward the warm side), lots of types music works, or is at least pleasant.

That's what I strive for with my own system and although it's impossible to get every album tonally perfect, it's a goal worthy of pursuit.

The more kinds of music that sounds good on your system, the more likely you are to included it in your collection, adding to your enjoyment and choices.

Albertporter
Life is too short to take things like this personal.
Like I said thanks for the responces.
hevac1