What Makes your System Special?

Nice topic, mapman!

For me, it is that my hodge podge of components, wires and speakers all work together synergistically to make music I love listening to, even when the source material is not up to audiophile standards.  I have heard many systems, at shows, stores, and homes, and the only time I have any envy is on rare systems that cost multiples of what I have spent on mine over the years.  

@hilde45... I have 6 foot ceilings in my man cave, and although it's hardly ideal, I have done only a little work on the room acoustics.  I think my quasi omni speakers have helped in this regard.  And since it's a super quiet basement, I can crank it without disturbing the rest of the house or the neighbors.

Most of my electronics are in a pine cabinet my father built around the time I was born - 1954 - for our family's first TV.  It used to have a front panel with little cut-outs for the TV's controls. I've removed that, but otherwise the cabinet has been in more-or-less continuous use for nearly the whole history of home audio-video systems.

One of my sons crashed his trike into one of the cabinet doors about 25 years ago. We repaired it. Between the floor-standing speakers there's now a gorgeous coffee table he (my son) later built from African mahogany.  Payback.  

The listening room is in a log structure that dates back at least to the Civil War (based on a newspaper fragment found in the chinking).  The walls are about a foot thick. The floor slopes down slightly; the walls aren't perfectly straight and parallel.  This probably is a good thing for acoustics.  REW shows a nearly flat FR from about 15 Hz to 15+ KHz, without any room treatments other than furniture and carpet.

My Tannoys make it special. I love looking at them and listening to them, they speak to me so to speak, lol. What else? My hana el cartridge, tavish tubed phono preamp and the Jensen step up, just a great combination with out mortgaging the house. I’m amazed at what can be had for the money today. Lastly, the environment I listen in is a real world room. I'm surrounded by things of which I love. I'm at peace in this room.

One of the things I haven’t seen mentioned (unless I’ve missed it) is the sentimental value.
When I look at my almost 40-year-old Klipsch Cornwalls, which I found on Craigslist, I remember the three-hour, one-way trip the kids and I made to Kansas City in the rain (both ways!) to pick them up and eat at a Waffle House (note to Waffle House: add more franchises further north). It was probably the best rainy day I ever spent.

When I look at the McIntosh MX110Z preamp, I remember all the years longing for a McIntosh tube preamp and wondering how I could ever afford something so expensive. Then after my grandmother left me a few thousand dollars of inheritance, after paying off a few bills, I finally had enough to see what all the raving was about. So each time I look at it, I remember the longing and I remember my beloved grandmother.
I hope to some day upgrade my power amp and maybe my turntable, but I’m taking those Corwalls and MX110Z to my grave.

I'm with Hilde on this one, I lived in a house with tall ceilings 24 ft tall or so at the living room area, the living area was 25 ft wide at the speakers wall and 18 from speakers to listening spot, I could move my speakers off from the wall and the tall ceiling made a big difference. The living area opened into kitchen and dining on the sides for reflections to escape. In addition to this less than a mile away there is a hospital and just half mile away or less there was an electrical substation with electrical feed just coming straight to the houses nearby including mine. Sound was magical in that room, no close neighbors,
no buzz coming from my system.I moved to a town home with weird geometry, electric feed passes through 29 other townhouses before reaching mine I have a buzz with 30 dbm peaks at 120, 180, 240 and 300 hz. As good as my system sounds now the old house was much much more forgiving on system quality.
The bright side? I know now how important that is and just looking forward to move to a select place.

All your opinions are valid, in my case, my room and place made it very special.

Nice post mapman