Warm vs Revealing—the struggle for balance

@ghdprentice thank you for the thoughtful response. I’ve just ordered The Complete Guide to High End Audio. Great suggestion. Take it slow is a good idea. I have the Amati Traditions— great speakers — and I think are good match with my Mc gear.

I like the idea of going to a city to listen to a variety of gear. It’s a journey and that is part of it.

Getting to see some live music would be a good baseline for sure because it’s been a long time and honestly I have no idea how it is supposed to sound.

@Carlsbad2 - The issue is to avoid always chasing revealing.

Having a ragged upper end, which is different than another ragged upper end, makes a new (to you) tweeter sound revealing, in that it will accentuate things you didn't hear before. So it's a merry go round.

Before determining speakers are too warm, too bright, too something...toe in, toe out. 

OP,

‘Thank you for your response. 
 

On the subject of the sound of music. I grew up with cheap systems of the 70’s and live concerts… The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Moody Blues…etc. in really good venues and towers of amplifiers and speakers. I actually thought cymbals sounded like tsssshhhhh, and that correct treble was mostly (now that I know) high frequency hash and distortion. As my systems got better the high frequency got quieter and quieter and from amid the tssssss emerged the sound of touch of a drums stick hitting brass and it resonating resonating. 
 

Well, if you have got Amati’s… then great place to start. No need to go for different speakers.

@jji666 glad you mentioned toe in as this can be a great way to manage overly strident treble. This has definitely been a tool I have used to manage my system’s treble.
 

I’d add managing a big window behind my listening position has been important. I’m working with a studio design engineer and he showed me the treble spike the uncovered windows was creating. When we covered the windows with a pile of pillows the spike disappeared and the SQ was much more measured—working on getting some window treatments that are acceptable to the family. The room definitely is a part of the equation as we tweak our systems to our liking. Lots of hard surfaces are going to increase fatigue but a well treated room presumably can handle more detailed speakers with causing harshness.