Do you listen mainly to Audiophile CDs and records?

http://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/forgiving-resolving/12570/

The blog, "Forgiving or resolving" by Paul McGowan (PS Audio) at the above link might be of interest. It definitely relates to the OP’s question.

From it, comes the quote below:
"If you want your system to provide extraordinary performance levels you need one that’s highly resolving: capturing the best and the worst of every recording. The more forgiving your system, the more you’re trading extraordinary for middle of the road."

I get the point being made and happily disqualify myself from Audiophile-dom as defined by those terms. The system exists to facilitate the enjoyment of music. Reasonable compromises that provide a good measure of resolution yet still allow a wide range of recording quality to be enjoyed seem worth pursuing.

For classical I like Telarc, Naxos, Chandos, Hyperion and Mercury Livinvg Presence.

Like all forms of music jazz, pop or rock, the performer is key - I like Benjamin Zander, Lorin Maazel and Sir Chris Hogwood in particular.

wtf 
+1 I listen to every possible  source to find new and exciting music and then play it on my good sound.  I look for every genre and every style .

I think the post “forgiving vs resolving” misses the point. At this level (let’s presume a well put together six figure system) resolving is a given. The choice is between resolving in an analytic versus musical sense. The former will render your poor recordings “warts and all” and what you focus on is the wart. The latter lets you hear beyond the problems and focus on the essence of the performance. If you want to test what sort of system you have try playing a noisy LP pressing. Do the crackles and pops lift out and separate from the music, or are they all you can hear?

Al:

I, too, have found that as I have made improvements to my system, overly bright recordings (especially with high strings) have been made more listenable.

I don’t think record companies go out of their way to make a poor sounding recording. After all, we can assume they have engineers with ears.
Generally, they have a philosophy which varies from other companies.
I feel the better resolution my system displays, the closer to the philosophy of each individual company is revealed.