It's always good to know who's speaking; I'm a music lover first and foremost, I am not an equipment lover. I mention ARC because so many people are familiar with the sound of ARC; it's highly definitive.
I like CJ preamps, and ARC power amps. Although I mention those names, I wont necessarily buy that brand, but I will buy something close to that sound, the same as a musician is shooting for a certain "sound"; one that will give him the tone and timbre he's looking for.
Newbee's seek these elements, tone and timbre in speakers, but to me, they exist in everything; my rig is tuned to deliver what the musician is saying.
Everyone seems to want speakers that sound like this, that or the other thing. My speakers emit precisely whatever sound the amp feeds them. In the beginning, no one ever wants this, but after many years, you want every nuance the musician is blowing; nothing more or less.
In my beginning, as a young man, I had musician friends I ran with; consequently, I lived the same life they lived (almost any way, I had to go to work in the morning) At any rate, the music I listened to was live at the nightclubs. People who listen to recorded music have no idea how much of a musicians life is in his instrument of choice.
You may not know it, but when you put that record on, what you really want to hear, is that musician, not your equipment. My heightened awareness of this makes it necessary to fine tune all my equipment to deliver the "facts"; "The facts maam, nothing but the facts", inquired Sgt. Friday.
A musician has spent his entire life learning how to express himself on his instrument; do I want to hear Conrad Johnson or the musician; with a little fine tuning, me and CJ work it out. No, I'm not a casual enthusiast.