It occurs to me that a system's character could be boiled down into a few categories: two of which might be forgiving or resolving. I've heard (and owned) systems that are truly forgiving as well as those that are quite resolving of details. On the first everything sounds good, nothing sounds great. On the latter, the extremes between bad and great are magnified.
Because I do this for a living I have to have a highly resolving system. I have to have a system that shows off every last wart as well as beauty marks. If differences exist I want to hear them as if I was listening under a microscope. But my system in the car is far more forgiving because I have no great expectations and don't need everything placed under a magnifying glass.
If you want your system to provide extraordinary performance levels you need one that's highly resolving: capturing the best and the worst of every recording.
The more forgiving your system, the more you're trading extraordinary for middle of the road.
It's a trade off, like most things in life.
