Top two most important sound qualities

@skchun 

Me too.

For me instrumental tone/ timbre/ textures is both 1 and 2.

Everything else ie dynamic range, transient speed, lack of sibilance, lack of overhang, full range bandwidth, image depth are all of far lesser importance.

That's why I can sometimes prefer a $40 portable speaker which has a vivid tonal palette to a $4000+ Hi-Fi that doesn't.

Seriously, it's inexplicable to me just how so many of these so called 'High End' systems fail miserably in this regard.

Getting the most accurate instrumental tone would always be my first priority as a manufacturer.

This is a good question and one of crucial importance in determining the relevance of the various responses we often read here.

I tend to skip any published review that does not offer a few words about tone. Strange as it seems, it would appear that, for far too many people, precise instrumental tonality seems to have little or no relevance, whilst to a few others it's almost everything.

Dynamic contrasts within a 3d soundstage. Tom

Soundstage realism and instrumental identity.

Like my handle dynamic linearity is fundamental. And I don't mean playing loudly cleanly although that would be true with dynamic linearity. It means linear level changes, no compression no matter how small or how large the change in level. It's one factor that doesn't change when listening to live sound when you change your seat or even leave the room and listen out the door and you still know the sound is live.

You cannot be serious! A checklist makes no sense whatsoever.

Just listen and draw your own conclusion based on what you hear.