How do you add color?

"colour" as qualitative word associated with the gear component is one thing...

"colour" as a qualitative concept in acoustic and psycho-acoustic associated with TIMBRE is ANOTHER thing...

I cannot be clearer and shorter...

Confusing the two muddle the problem...

Gear colours as with dac that are of different type or with amplifiers S.S. or tubes is a synergy and design qualitative coupling problem...

"Colour" as with tonal colour associated with TIMBRE experience is the main problem in audio with the spatial aspects of sound independently and this independently of the price tag of your system .....

No recording reproduce a perfect experience of timbre only a specific one in specific recorded location of the musician in the room and with some microphone location and typ;  our room acoustic translate this imperfect recording of timbre and the spatial recorded information  cues into our own room acoustic ...( Speakers crosstalk muddle this information about timbre and location and other spatial acoustic concepts )

The best gear in the world in a very bad room will be less desirable than less costly gear in an optimal room... This is a fact not my opinion...

I know if I like it when I hear it. Could be colored, but my preference is not. 

Totally and absolutely correct. Remove the color of the system to hear to actual colors of the music. @mahgister 

"colour" as qualitative word associated with the gear component is one thing...

"colour" as a qualitative concept in acoustic and psycho-acoustic associated with TIMBRE is ANOTHER thing...

Best gear in the world along with the best room in the world are useless if the recording was not done right. Don't exaggerate the importance of listening room. The room must be alive, that's for sure, the rest is relatively minor.

"It's the source stupid".

@mapman we talk about color all the time in the recording business as well.  Anything that changes the sound from what came before is considered "coloring the sound" .  Some colors are desirable, some not.  It is also true @mahgister that studio monitors are used to reveal information, reveal color, reveal mistakes, etc so the mixer or mastering person can work from a place of truth instead of illusion.   This is the basic reason low distortion loudspeakers are important in studio work.  The dont make things sound better than they are.  

Brad