Analytical or Musical Which way to go?

I agree with the OP`s choice of terms and find them applicable. I`ve encountered speakers/components that do present a character that can be categorized as "analytical". They do sound clinical,sterile,dry.flatten.bleached.Simply amusical and artificial.This sound is completely devoided of the emotion/joy music provides and strips the life from it. Some like that type of presentation others don`t.

Consider this:
I use protective glasses when I ride a bicycle. Thier primary purpose is to avoid damage to my eyex form projectiles like bugs or gravel. They also keep my eyes from being dried out by the wind. They usuaully come with four sets of lenses.
1. Dark shades
2. Clear shades
3. Amber shades
4. Yellow shades

The dark shades are to filter out bright sunshade and UV rays.
The other shades also filter out UV but are designed for low light levels such as clouds/rain and dusk/dawn.
We see then that the shades are acting as filters.
Intuitively we would think that the clear glasses would aas the medium of least filter. That is if we wanted to see things as they are actually are we would choose that one. thhen we choose yellow for early morning light/dawn, amber for evening light. Dark glasses for the brightest sunlight. Nowdays we have glasses thaat automaticall adjust as the light changes.
certisnly then we can us gleasse to ditort our back to 20/20. We can also amplify light or decrease it to bring it back to "a normal range."It would appear then the optimal speaker would be the replica of the clear glasses. How then do we define the "clear glass speaker?"

If we try and transfer this to speakers Ideally we want the that lets the music through. Empiraclly we would

One would think then the speaker that measured best by traditional parameters would represent the "clear glasses" and sound best.i think we can agree this has not been the case.
That would make speaker design by manufactureres and selection of speakers by audiophiles exceedingly expedient.

Just look at the measurements and chose. Other factors suschas compatibility, practicality,etc. would still factor in.

Carrying our clear glass anolgy to its logical conclusion we would expect the least colored spekered to bring forth the most vibrant sound analogous to live music. Yet most frquently we get the exact opposite. The excellent measurements translate t odull, lifelless and analytical.

A maddeneing conlcusion indeed.

How many times have you listened to an analytical system and changed amps or preamp and it was suddenly musical? or vice versa. I can discuss many reasons for speakers to sound the way they do, (time & phase, baffle step compensation, parts count, etc) but normally I find that if you match them with the right electronics, well designed speakers do what they were meant to do.