Imaging and Detail.

Detail and warmth are not mutually exclusive. Its not a contest. I like systems with both best. In fact I like systems that do it all best, but others can still be listenable.

What about clarity, air, space? Where do these reside for you. As long as the flow is not broken up being able to hear it all is what drives me.

I was in the same boat as you. All my rock recordings from the 70's and 80's sounded like crap. I was using Vandersteen speakers, switched to DeVore speakers with a sub and still wasn't satisified and had sesigned myself to the idea of not playing any more rock on my system. Blues, jazz and classical all sounded wonderful. That is....until the day I took delivery of a pair of Odyssey Kismet Reference loudspeakers off of Audiogon for 1250.00.

I just now finished my listening session which included "The Yes Album", "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, "Led Zeppelin 4", Santana "Abraxas", "Mott" by Mott The Hoople, "This Was" by Jethro Tull and "Demons and wizards" by Uruah Heep. Up until 2 months ago (when I aquired the speakers), all of this music was totally unlistenable on my system. Today, I couldn't get enough of it, the volume was loud and the sound was so clear and right sounding.

Now, if I only had some of that stuff I smoked back in the 70's....................

Bob

I prefer and have a speaker and cable that is detailed and images well(Thiel/ANTICABLE) and love tight lows that distingush the bass guitar from the bass drum(JL Audio Subwoofer) and a warm sounding amp/preamp(McIntosh MC206/MX118/MX134