Neutral or warm? Which do you prefer?

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".

"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 totally agree but if lots of people are using "neutral" to describe speakers with a tilted up frequency responce than what word are they they using to describe speakers that do the least amount of tonal shifts either up or down?

05-24-13: Rlwainwright
Smooth, fast, sweet, and clear. If you can check all those boxes you're done...

-RW-

Couldn't be more true