Great stuff going back and forth here!
So I will add my two cents.
I am a retired Audio consultant and an Audiophile and I believe that what everyone has to say is of value to us all.
However when setting up an Audiophile system everything that goes in the system is vital to the sound of the system, for example I use a glass toss link optical cable from my Lexicon RT 20 to my Lexicon MC12 because after all was said and done this is what sounds best to me others may think that a digital intercont is the better option for there system.
Speaker connections from the amplifier is a big issue for sound quality and ofcourse there is the environment acoustics and after setting up thousands of systems I can say with confidence that good equipment sounds good in rooms with good acoustics as this is a huge factor in sound quality.
In my opinion all of you are right and it really depends on what you invested into your equipment and connections of the equipment and the room acoustics all of this is a factor in the sound quality.
Everyone has their own taste and all room acoustics are different so there is no absolute when you say that KEF or monitor audio or paradigm or focal audio is the absolute best because in my opinion their is many ways to tune your system to find the right balance that hits you between your ears in just right way that you believe it's the best to your taste and I truly believe that all of you are right in your opinions but taste counts for a lot along with all of the above.