Perfect Hi Fi and people?

Just wondering what makes HiFi so good for some and not others?
eg. many times i have been to dealers and they have used componants which they say sound fantastic and to me have sounded very average or even bad. We all have different ear's and perceptions of what sounds "right" and I suppose designers of Hi Fi have their own ideas of what sounds correct, so what sounds right to you? a smooth warm sounding system or maybe a bright highly analytical sort of sound ?

 

this was the choice i had to make when i last changed amps. the final 2 were a big solid state jobbie with monster power and a clean crisp sound that excelled with some music / recordings but stipped paint with others. the second amp had a valve front end / power regulation and although not weedy (100 wpc) added a very slight romance to vocals and instruments. in the end i preferred the more romantic version than the one that was probably more neutral.
a lot depends on system synergy though.

 

All hifi, even at stratospheric prices, is a compromise; the point is which compromises are relevant to the type of music you listen to; lack of deep bass might be a problem for a reggae fan but scarely noticeable to someone who likes singer-songwriter music.

In addition, a lot has to do with what could loosely be termed 'room effects'; eg what sounds over-bright in a sparsely furnished room might be just right in a room (like mine) choc-a-bloc with furniture, books, piano and stuff.

In the end the only real criteria I would judge any system or system component by is, 'does this system make me want to listen to more music, or less?'

 

I'd like to shout "just give me naked stereo", but ...

apparently, colour is in the eye of the beholder, and how we perceive colour depends upon context (a given colour looks different dependent upon which colour/s it is placed by). And yet there is large agreement about pantones.

different conductors interpret musical scores differently and can have the orchestra play the same scores in different ways, each time with good technique but varying from the analytical/sterile to the emotional/smaltz.

I think that we can agree a lot about Presence, Rhythm and Timing, and about the ability to reveal detail (if we listen for it, as in life), but have preference for the clean/dry -> warm/bloated continuum.

and i do agree about that system synergy thing - altho I still dont see why adding a pre is a good thing? (possible non-sequiteur here)

"I don't like no sugar in my coffee, gonna make me mean, yeah honey, male me mean; I don't want no bald-headed woman, ..."

 

Hallelulljah brother!

Amen.

 

My reference is what I hear in the concert halls. For that reason I'm trying to get my ears more used to concert halls sound and I increased my visits to at least 80 a year without the rehearsals (I'm talking about classical and Jazz music).
I don't like any compromises concerning Hifi so I'm trying simply to go for perfection.
This doesn't anyway bother my pleasure of listening to music.