Neutral or warm? Which do you prefer?

Neutral.

Once you have distortion you can't get rid of it - if you want warmth you can add a warm source and/or amp.

Thanks
Bill

Neutral for evaluations and vinyl and warm for long term listening and digital. Jallen

I have to challenge all of these calls for 'neutral', as to me, 'neutral' is an ambiguous reference. However, many times on these boards, 'neutral' is used to refer to gear that is 'transparent', or gear that artificially brightens the upper midrange and lower treble region.

In my opinion, I also like a 'neutral' sound, a sound that is not rolled off, or darkened, but also a sound that is not artificially highlighted, or lightened. Many times I listen to equipment that some folk refer to as 'neutral', and it is obvious that the equipment has emphasis in the 'presence' range, to help highlight detail. In my humble opinion, this is NOT neutral.

I have nothing against folks that enjoy a tilted up high frequency response, but I do wish they would stop referring to it as 'neutral' sounding. Neutral gear should sound neither rolled off nor lit up, it should just sound relaxed and natural.

I'm one of those folks who can't identify with the use of the term 'neutral' as applied to live music, and as a result do not find it particularly useful in describing audio outside of the ideal (to some) of reproducing in your room exactly what was put down on your disc in the recording studio. (See threads mentioned by Bryon above.)

I want my recorded music to sound as 'natural' as possible, which considering the nature of most sources emphasizing the upper frequencies and concurrently a tight bass, understandably results in my choice of a system that reproduces a more warm tone to compensate.

Chauk me up for 'warm' if you must, but I really want a balanced and 'natural' sound.

I have nothing against folks that enjoy a tilted up high frequency response, but I do wish they would stop referring to it as 'neutral' sounding

I couldn't agree with you more. Evertime someone has reccomended a "nuetral" speaker to me, all I hear is a tilted up design, actually nothing but nuetral. Please don't take this personal if you own these but Usher Dancer is the most guilty of this "trick". Excellent cabinet, good components sounds almost brittle.
If by nuetral you mean uncolored I think we want that as a starting point but the poorer the recording the more we try to make it sound "better".