Fidelity vs. Musicality...........Is there a tug of War?

The best systems make everything sound better, everything. When confronted with a system capable of the absolute sound everyone will think it sounds great. Everyone knows what "right" is when they hear it.

RE: not mutually exclusive, it seems to me that, with all due respect to those whom have much more knowledge and experience than I possess, 
terms such as musicality and resolution are frequently bandied about here as though we all define such terms the same way. Judging from posts on this thread, we clearly do not!   

One can put together a system that measures really well but in the end, it's not an oscilloscope that's going to listen to the system-- it's individual human beings, whose perception of sound and aesthetic preferences can vary considerably, to say the least. We are all wired differently and it's not uncommon for reviewers to profess they enjoy a particular component in spite of less-than-stellar measurements.  

It's my impression that many audiophiles are fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea of simply pleasing their own ears. They somehow feel they must utilize objective baselines to justify their gear choices. As a creative person, I find this distrust of aesthetic judgement both very alien and very puzzling. 

 I've played guitar for many decades but I do not require that my system precisely replicates the sound of my Martin or PRS or any guitar for that matter.  What I require is that when I hear a recording of a guitar, that it moves me, physically and emotionally and this has far more to do with what the guitarist is playing than SQ. However, this is clearly not the case for everyone. There does indeed appear to be a divide of sorts-- on one side, those whose enjoyment of music appears to be largely determined by SQ -- how the music is presented-- and on the other, those of us for whom music is a vital necessity and who'd still listen even if we could only hear music  on a transistor radio. The bottom line is, we are all wired differently and there's little we can do about it, so it's not a case of one approach being superior to the other-- to suggest that would be as ridiculous as asserting that blonde hair is intrinsically superior to brown hair. 

Whether this divide can accurately be described as a tug of war between musicality and fidelity, I'll leave for others to decide. . . what does seem true to me is that, in the end, each of us has to please ourselves.

@stuartk perhaps you speak of musicianship?  I'm not even sure that's a word.  I am inclined to mostly agree with you.

Many recordings from many genres and cultures from years long past sound as if they were recorded in a less than optimal environment.  It has not stopped them from having a profound influence.   Many examples, but as a guitarist you may be acquainted with folk including Robert Johnson and others similar.

Anyway, back to first world issues of great import...

"You better come on in my kitchen
Well its goin to be rainin outdoors."

@stuartk, you will know it when (and if) you hear it. 

A great system makes everything sound better, like an antique photograph looks better in focus. Even if it is black and white it can express a thousand words. Music is more than sound. It captures a moment of history. It's a long way to Tipperary.  

I should have said “Fidelity is Musicality or Vis-à-versa”.
I like the metaphor that improvement in SQ is akin to focus of a camera. When things sound clear, the focus of the SQ is “right”.