How Revealing Should a System Be?

Brucegel,
Thank you for distinguishing that musician (drummer) in me that wants to hear it all, from the sustain of guitar strings to the creaking of the piano bench. My SET-based system answers to that desire.
And Simon, thank you for reminding met that each of us not only hears differently, but that each of us also looks to hear different things.
Great thread, everyone.

i think plato hit the nail on the head. there has to be a balance between high relsolution and musicality.

that is where the real challenge is- is finding that synergistic combination.

mike

Different audiophiles have had different experiences with discrimination/detail rendering. I believe most go through a phase where they have achieved lots of detail by changing, cables, sources etc.. only to have it sound clinical or harsh, but all the details are there. This leads many audiophiles to believe that its not such a good thing to reveal all of the details, when in fact, it is. As a result, many of them buy DAC's or tubed equipment that tends to roll-off or compress the high-frequencies in order to eliminate this harshness that they believe comes with the detail.

The real solution is to eliminate the harshness from their front-ends without sacrificing the detail, dynamics or extension. There are two ways to do this: 1) buy EMM or other very expensive gear 2) mod your gear