Distortions that the human ear likes. Are there any ?


This is based on a post from another thread, where someone speaking to a studio mastering engineer, repeated a quote by this engineer, stating " most audiophiles like certain distortions ", and it quickly started a debate. I did not want to continue this on the other thread, as it had little to do with the OP's direction on his thread. What say you, Geoff, George, Almarq, Ralph, anybody......if this thread goes nowhere, I can always have it removed. Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
The problem is even if there was a “good distortion” it would be drowned in a sea of “bad distortions.”



In which geoff proves all music is distortion, and all distortion music, and human life is meaningless in the cosmic time scale.
Distortions within source material as originally performed, yes.  Distortions from over-saturating downstream componentry or engineers over-fussing with track level gain or EQ boost...no.
Intentional artistic distortion (ie many Beatles recordings from Rubber Soul onwards) = good. That's what the recording artists and their teams wanted.

After market distortion (mastering choices done by engineers years later and those defects added by loudspeakers, turntables, amps etc) = bad. You might like them but the original artists, producers, engineers etc might disagree. 

Or they might not, especially if enough money rolls in as a result. Ultimately it all depends upon what you the consumer wants to pay for.