Jay,
I enjoyed your monologue. Congrats on your G Mephisto monos which I hope are keepers for you for a long while at least.
Although I value neutrality, it is still subservient to clarity in importance. Neutrality is the absence of favoritism for any freq, but it doesn't guarantee the highest clarity at any freq. Although you said the the M mono has the best bass of any amp you've owned, I'll assume that it also has the similarly highest clarity in midrange and HF, although you didn't get into that in this brief intro.
Likewise, my experience with some Nordost cables is that they have the highest clarity in all freq. Yes, most people including I find that Nordost has a brighter sound than other products, but this is a general characteristic of products that strive for accuracy/clarity. The human ear is most sensitive at 3-4 kHz, and Nordost best reveals everything at all freq. Most other products don't reveal HF overtones of natural instruments as well. It is true that some designers like Pass and the other sweet camp stuff you mention, deliberately give many euphonically oriented listeners what they want. However, Nordost's philosophy seems to be going for lowest distortion with highest accuracy. I don't think they deliberately design for HF prominence. It's just true that Nordost reveals everything with equal opportunity excellence in all freq. It may take you some time to realize that Nordost is doing what you like about M monos, and that they DO work well together.
The risk is that you continue to maintain that there is such a thing as "too much clarity." That idea will lead you to soften the M monos with sweet stuff like tubes, rolled off HF in cables, DAC's, etc. Yes, the M monos will expose the deficiencies of these other components, but this is a great opportunity for you to continue to build on the wonderful qualities of these amps with other similar components. In the past, you have advocated the "synergy" approach, which really is some combination of revealing and warm components that sends your soul to heaven. But you made the giant leap of admitting now that you are bored with that approach, and want to hear more of what your music has to offer, so the M monos is a great step, as were the other great steps you made by getting the XLF speakers and the 725 preamp.
I have known and worked with a few top elderly violinists, and have read interviews about other great legendary musicians who, despite having achieved great fame and wealth, still wanted to improve their musicianship. Maybe at age 80, their technical facility level had declined, but their subtlety of phrasing and timing continued to improve. They never said that there can be too much clarity or sensitivity. They still tried to improve despite their handicaps. I believe that's one of the factors in extending their productive life. Classical music is much more complex than you realize, and no performer or listener has fully re-created and appreciated everything it has to offer, respectively.
