How do you judge your system's neutrality?

I had a chat to my niece who did a degree in audiology, and she, if anything helped me understand that:
1. what we hope is neutrality in hi-fi may well have been achieved a long time ago
2. psychologically we simply will not accept it
The reasons for this stem from a number of factors.
When we engage in one sense, and that sense over all others we become hyper critical/sensitive to that sense - think of blind people who have astounding hearing. When we then try and reproduce sound we try to repaint a 'hyper' as opposed to high-fidelity. Perhaps the best examples of these are 3D films that have hyper accents on 3D visual cues where depth and width of field are accentuated to make you feel that you are there.
If you have read the Regon Audio website where he tests some MM cartridges he said that the MM's are more accurate and neutral - more like master tape. The MC's were picking up and amplifying background ambiance. It may well explain our love of MC's that may well deliver that 'hyper-fidelity'.
True Hi-Fi was probably reached with components in the 70's and 80's - you know the era of wow and flutter, ruler flat responses. Tubes have never be marketed on the basis of neutrality have they (yes i know some are/maybe more neutral than others) but in terms of accurate reproduction of a recording this was achieved a long time ago. Audio IMHO, and in its current format, in particular the High End is, I believe based on 'hyper-fi'.

Wow that keeps me up all night.

Lohanimal ,Your niece says, "The MC's were picking up and amplifying background ambiance. It may well explain our love of MC's that may well deliver that 'hyper-fidelity'." How do MCs amplify? Should ambiance not be reproduced? Also many MCs recommend rolling off the top end.

I find that most high end cabling has little high end extension. So cable manufacturers are pursuing making the sound less like the recording studio and more like row N or O rather than closer.

I have a pair of Murata supertweeters that have little or no response below 15k Hz. But is demonstration the audience requested that they be put back in to enjoy the music. There is a good deal of research suggesting that human can "hear" somehow well above 20k Hz,

Who knows what hi-fi/ audiophile mean anymore. There are some crazy claims out there.

Ideally speakers would have superflat response curves from 20-20k, electronics would have no distortion and the noise floor would be at -infinity. That would be a perfect "system", however many things fall into play here.

No passive speaker is perfectly flat. No one's hearing is perfect. No electronics are distortion free. Of course a little bit of "issues" hear and there do not take away from enjoyment for most of us necessarily.

I view modern hi-fi to almost the point of being like ice cream, everyone has their preferred flavor, and there is no best flavor. I feel most audiophiles are not going for a perfect replication of the original signal, instead they are going for their preferred flavor. I imagine if a perfect replication were built many people would prefer more colored solutions. It is human nature, we all have preferences and like different flavors.

A good example is the MM vs MC discussion. If you just look at the SNR of those two options, you would see that MC is much worse. I believe the SNR of MC is similar to a 9 bit recording and MM is 11 bit. If you were given an option to buy a digital player than was 9 bit or 11 bit you wouldn't buy either because they stink, but many people are buying TT's and vinyl. Personally I really like the sound of my MC and it maybe because that high noise floor is like a warm blanket, but whatever it is it is not accurate.

Having said that, there still is a nice engineering pursuit that will never be satisfied in making that perfect "system". The engineering is probably already there that is much more accurate than our ears can detect and better than anyone needs but we all like a little different spice in our food.

TBG - it was not my niece that told me about the background ambiance.
It was reading the Regon Audio website page
http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html
you might want to read this first as he develops the point further and better than I have in this thread.
Simply put the bacground ambiance and cues are highlighted and accentuated more than the original mastertape recording. Drawn against the discussion I had with my niece - these little cues and extra ambiance is what I am coining the phrase 'hyper-fi' in the way I explain 3D above.