Charles, well said. As I have grown, matured, and become more experienced in the world of music reproduction in the home -- isn't that better terminology than audio? I have noticed that I tended to agree with certain reviewers, tended to like certain "house sounds" and found myself tending to "nod my head and smile in agreement" with certain audiogon posters. I hear as these people hear and I value what they value. These are the people whose ears I trust.
I'd love to get together with about a half dozen or dozen of you guys and do a Cleveleand Orchestra concert in Severence Hall, then do a night in a Jazz venue of similar stature. I would expect extraordinary insight with respect to performance, but I might be most interested in your take on the sound. Stage, timbre, decay etc, as compared to what you hear in your home systems. I'd expect that you and I might find similar attributes of a particular performance notable.
I had a long, long, discussion with a member of my local orchestra once. He was trying to convince me that I should buy tickets in the dress circle, and forget about the main floor 5th row center seats I have loved for so many years. I tried to explain to him that while the dress circle might make sense from the perspective of the composer, a professional musician, or a professor of music theory, I was looking for a different experience. I wanted the upper harmonics of the cello, I wanted to hear the conductor instruct the principle cellist "non troppo, non troppo!" I wanted to watch the drops of sweat fly from the conductors face and see the fatigue in the faces of the violinists as they labored through LvBs unreasonable demands. I explained to him that I could get the dress circle experience at home.
My point is that even amongst those of us that favor acoustical instruments, there is a fairly wide range of preference as to what music reproduction in the home should sound like. It does not surprise me that a jazz aficionado should share a great deal with a lover of chamber music/5th row center guy like me. Accuracy of timbre is essential for lovers of acoustical music, but that is just the first layer. As you peel the onion, the dress circle guys will differentiate from the main floor folks, the main floor front folks from the main floor rear folks, etc. For those who are fans of electronically amplified genres of music, I'm sure the same is true.
The coincident line is going to appeal to a certain value system. As an owner of the Franks, dynamo, CSL, Triumph Extreme IIs, and having auditioned the PREs, I find a remarkable consistency running throughout. As I added more pieces, I got increasingly closer to the listening experience I sought.
Like you, I have walked away from some pretty well regarded and very expensive gear that just didn't do it for me. I could hear far too much that wasn't going to wear well. I'm in a very agreeable place with my system right now, finally, at long last.
