Passion, or ..... Precision?

@markprice My apologies -- I think I confused your KEF with a different model. 

markprice

... when I revert back to the music that evokes the passion in me I find that it tends to be of poorer recording quality. I’m 58 now and grew up with the 70’s/80’s Heavy Rock scene with bands like Sabbath, Ozzy, Rainbow, Lizzy ..

Much heavy metal music is by nature compressed and with very limited dynamic range. There are certainly exceptions, but as a genre it’s loud; subtlety and nuance aren’t characteristic. Those qualities are the opposite of what many audiophiles choose for demo music.

Just listened through different recordings of Themes for an imaginary western (Bruce, Mountain, Colusseum etc.) and there are certainly no sonic faults with them. You probably need to integrate your system better with your room. Make use of the eq in Roon. Of course there are always bad recordings.

Save the heavy rock music for when you are in your car, it may sound better to you (without the level of definition at the frequency extremes that your home system provides).

+1 @hilde45 I think the DAC far outclasses the amps and speakers.  I was just where you are @markprice.  I actually owned the BHK monos with the BHK pre and the DS DAC.  I first upgraded my DAC, which gave much more resolution.

But upgrading my other electronics ( I have moved through the Audionet chain) and speakers  (I had BW N802s) to YG Haileys made a huge difference.  The speakers were icing but the electronics made the leap.

Sure some recordings are just not as good, no doubt.  But it can get much better!