Reconciling conflicting listening interests?

On the occasion of popping a resistor in my VT100, I'm pondering the way my equipment/listening tastes have changed. I'm a pretty addicted listener, so keep "spare" gear around for when repairs become necessary. (Hate system down time...also may be turning into a gear collector.) My current system is pretty euphonic and soft around the edges--more mid-hall than up-front.

So, when I took the busted amp out of the system, I started playing with other aspects as well, putting a transister amp in, different speaker cable, etc, till suddenly I had more of an up-front in-the-same-room sound, and pulled out some pop and jazz favorites, and had some fun. A couple of years ago, I would have called the more up-front system sound "more accurate." But I listen to a lot of classical music, and found the up-front sound all too frequently fatiguing, with orchestral music especially. And, indeed, after a bit, I put things back more or less the way they were, to my mid-hall sound. The pop and jazz discs don't sound as exciting with the mid-hall system. But the orchestral and other classical material generally sounds very nice (like a warm bath), and rarely fatiguing.

I pondered how exciting the up-front sound was in the shops and my house, but how it doesn't work for everything (and can even be fatiguing, though also still fun), and how difficult it's been to find a way to the mid-hall sound (which you never hear in shops), and trying to juggle various listening needs, and just thought this might be worth reflecting upon with my Audiogon friends.