How do you know when a stereo sounds good?

In the beginning (1970's) I listened for tone. I was playing in band- not "a band", High School band, trumpets, French horn, flute, etc- and was listening for that sound. 

Later on, 90's, I was reading and had the usual audiophile checklist of sonic attributes to listen for, with of course my collection of reference recordings to evaluate the list.

Until one day auditioning a McCormack DNA amp I realized I had forgotten all about the list, and was instead just sitting there tapping my foot, big ol' grin on my face. Aha! 

From then on I listen for involvement. Ideally, catharsis. 

I know a system sounds good when I get caught up in the music, swept away, and lose track of everything else. 

Subjectively:

When you forget sound and discover NEW music because the acoustic is so good that you can hear old albums in a new way and new album at the limit of your musical frontiers at their optimal acoustic rendition...

 

Objectively:

1 step in my audio life:

my audio system was not well embedded mechanically, electrically and acoustically, and my gear was average consumer gear (stereo furniture system of the 1960); then ALL my albums sound almost alike one another... 13 years old my first stereo system...All albums are so mediocer acoustically that even the notion of good and bad recordings is not important... Anyway at 13 years old i was listening music not sound...

 

Second step:

Almost all my audio life for 50 years i bought very good gear but it was never well embedded mechanically, electrically and acoustically, then all my albums sounded different in 3 categories: badly recorded , very goodly recorded , AND  between these 2 categories the " mediocre" category  for the most majority of albums...The quantity of the "not so good recorded" or "mediocre" category  exceed the few good one and the few very bad one...The diffference between first step and second step is the ability gained with a better systen to discriminate very  bad recording  from  very good well recorded one....

 

last and third step :

 I only reach this FINAL step  for the last year; BECAUSE i succeeded in using rightfully the CONTROLS for  the 3 embeddings working dimensions , mechanical, electrical and acoustical  with exactly the same basic gear i already owned in the last step.... And  NOW well embedded and well controlled in all his working dimensions, mechanical, electrical and acoustical, all my albums are no more in ONLY  three categories...

They are ALL interesting now, even the bad recorded one are interesting WHY ?

Because i could and will hear MOST acoustic cues worked by the engineer of each recording album , then ALL album are interesting now and because of that i listen music through them and i am no more tempted to discard them because they are not all  so  well recorded...

 

 

 

Dont upgrade anything BEFORE embedding it well in his 3 working dimensions to begin with...

When you can’t wait for some down time to listen to music and have no interest in auditioning equipment that might sound better.   My current state. No pun intended

@sbank 

Good post Spencer

Stereo sounds good If I am engaged with the music, Engaged means, Not reading, Not typing & Not watching a movie, etc. IOW you are into it. How do I know if I'm into it? I move in time. I tap my feet in time. I play drums on my chair arm. If not Its casual which isn't a bad thing. Sometimes I have to do chores.