Jazz listening: Is it about the music? Or is it about the sound?

It is about both but when you get the best recordings of really great music the thought about the sound goes away and yes the better the system the more the flaws of most recordings are shown. When you have the best music and it is not recorded or played back well it is a shame because you do not want to listen to it.

@OP,  I get it.  I listen to the Bill Evans Trio, Waltz for Debby, album nearly every week.  Sonically, it still blows me away.  And it's a 1962 recording, made live inside the small Village Vanguard.  

I think MillerCarbon has some good advice about trying to focus in on what's off with other genres so you can improve your system to maximize your pleasure across all music.  Nonetheless, I'm with you--jazz can be so pleasing and its recording quality pretty high, generally, that we can start to feel like other genres are more difficult to enjoy or not as pleasant.  My situation has gotten better on the other genres--yet it cost me a bit to get here.

jbhiller:

I listen to the Bill Evans Trio, Waltz for Debby, album nearly every week.  Sonically, it still blows me away.  And it's a 1962 recording

I think a pretty good argument could be made that regardless of genre, some of the best, most present sounding recordings came from the late 50's and early 60's.  The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison come to mind.

True, OP, very true. 

Great to see us share a passion for quality Jazz pressings. I can also listen to Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans, Chick Corea for hours. Acoustical instruments, especially the Piano, is difficult to sound perfect due to the complex physics behind the harmonics. Some of you have very customized systems to deal with that, based on what I’ve read over time. As of me, I’m still saving-and-trading in this journey of a hobby.