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

kijanki, lets look at what you said I said  😕

You don't like very detailed sound .. I don't think I said that, I said I don't like the result of combining components that major in detail.

You don't like perfect imaging .. I did not say that either, just that pin-point imaging does not occur at a live event.

You like coloring of the sound by overly warm 300B .. yes, guilty as charged but again not quite what I said. I think anybody present when we swapped amps would have not only preferred the valve amp but thoroughly enjoyed it.

I played one of my favourite and best recorded albums which I recommend to all. It's Christina Pluhar's Los Impossibles where we could clearly hear the size of the recording venue, where the baritone voice was cleanly separate from the other voices in the choir. Another acid test is 10CC's I'm not in love. This is poorly recorded and what was heard that day was not a magical transformation but it was rendered in a way that brought back some strong nostalgia. I was able to listen and enjoy and this to me is all that matters.

For a system to provide a sense of space fine detail is required. For a piano to sound like a piano the fundamental and all the harmonics need to be cleanly produced demanding detail. When harmonics are missing the ear/brain relationship has to work much harder leading to fatigue. Taken to the extreme, if we deliberately remove all harmonics we are left with just the fundamental frequency and if middle C was struck all that would be heard is a 261.6 Hz sine wave. We heard piano sound beautiful and I grew up with piano being played and though I don't play do know what a piano sounds like. For that piano sound we enjoyed that day I did not analyse, did not need to, it sounded glorious. The detail was there but just presented in a civilised manner.  😁

I use a Balance of Both according to my Hearing ability and Knowledge

Timbre perceptive experience cannot be reduced to a mathematical additive bunch of frequencies and harmonics only ... Acoustic of small room play a great role more than the new hype electronical gear....

Then if separating fidelity and musicality is not common or possible in the musical world.... In the artificial audio engineering world it is possible ....

To equilibrate then these 2 perspective, the musical and the audio world, acoustic experiment is the golden way....

@douglas_schroder, 
"charles1dad, the performance spectrum is VERY large, and some audiophiles either are only vaguely aware of superb sound at the other end of the spectrum, or simply do not care and declare. It is a sideshow around here watching people argue preference. We see declarations in regard to vinyl/digital, genres of speakers, amp classes, etc."

A good summation. I often think that the vast variety of options offered in High End audio is underappreciated. Each listener has their own unique hearing ability, ear-brain processing of what they hear and then add personal taste and objectives to the mix.

With the incredibly large choices amongst speakers, amplification, source components and then cables to tie it all together the possible end result audio system is as individual as one could imagine. I believe that this is a fantastic opportunity to exploit.

It genuinely does not matter what someone else thinks of another’s choice of components and audio system construction. It only matters what each individual music lover decides which is the best music reproduction and sound that suits them best and sounds most correct.

High End audio is a tremendously rewarding endeavor if one recognises the outstanding opportunity for individualism waiting to be expressed. Depending on the listener in question, Benchmark can get you there, or 300b and all stops between.
Charles

Individual choices so good they will be cannot replace simple acoustic controls for example...

No dac, no amplifier and no speaker can beat the room....Especially if we think with S.Q./price ratio in our perspective...

Saying that high end audio is unknown and inacessible for most of us is not false, it is worst than a lie, it is an half truth claimed by sellers....Or it is a common place evident fact... There is always "better" than what i own....

Of course there exist many better audio system than mine....But the goal is to reach optimal S.Q. not perfect S.Q.....With many low cost embeddings methods controls: mechanical,electrical and acoustical....

The only one who will speak otherwise are snobs or sellers....Or a mix of the two....