Thanks for the question, CDC.
Several responses more address what flavors one prefers, not what most tests a system. I'm partial to the question because there are a tiny, few genres I don't enjoy. As a result, my system needs to do large, small, intricate, bombastic, subtle, caressing, punishing...well, you get it. Choices are mood driven, in the moment. Surprisingly, the right TUBE amplification, loudspeaker/room provide the best dynamics in my experience. For me, tubes also provide the best holography, harmonic subtlety and "aahhh factor"...the overall sensation that all is well with the system. That last one is difficult to define. With a digital source, there are times when something seems amiss...like a phase issue or some inner distortion. In my experience, digital playback wants tube(s) in the chain.
Very challenging to a system is a full orchestra, not only at full roar, but, interestingly, the softest passages, where one can easily lose interest if not up to the task. Here is an interesting exchange between Transparent Audio's Karen Sumner and Steve Guttenberg:
"Guttenberg: Hey, I'm an audiophile, and I take great pleasure in both music and sound. I believe that the audiophile lexicon—transparency, soundstage, etc.—can raise the listener's awareness and musical satisfaction.
Sumner: I disagree with you. I don't believe that soundstaging, for example, exists in real life the way we hear it in a two-channel audio system.
Guttenberg: Really!?!
Sumner: Really. We don't hear "soundstaging" at a live concert. You don't get pinpoint imaging in three-dimensional space in a concert hall—that's a recording artifact, and terms like "soundstage" are musically irrelevant. In that way of thinking, the recording has become the absolute sound, not the music. Yes, the concepts are interesting from an intellectual standpoint, but those words fixate audiophiles on specific elements of sound, as opposed to the entire musical presentation. I think audiophile magazines have really done our industry a disservice by defining the High End in terms of a "sound" lexicon. For the most part, the press seems to have missed the point—that the sound system's ability to reveal the finer musical details of the performance, the sound of the instruments, the venue, are far more relevant to creating a fulfilling musical experience than analyzing specific sonic qualities."
Yesterday morning, I pulled up Santana's "ABRAXAS," played loud! Some of those cuts are challenging indeed, as are Feat's "Waiting for Columbus" AC/DC Live, organ, the subtleties of Eva and Ella live, Domingo, Callas, and Ellington. Asking one system to do all this with aplomb is an extreme challenge and most difficult to achieve with one person's skills, alone. Many, many audio friends have helped me. Reach out to others. Collaboration has been most important to my journey, creating deep friendships valued as highly as the music we share.
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