Passion, or ..... Precision?

Hey @markprice

Nice speakers, I have the same😁. You said you are using Qobuz. Listen to the first couple of tracks of, Diana Krall, The Girl In The Other Room at about 75-85 dbs. It’s a simple three piece band with a female singer. Poke around for Chesky Records. They are usually well recorded.
Speaking of the Ref 5’s, what port tubes are you using? How far from the front and side walls are they? How far are you from them? I can’t use points on mine because they muck up the wood floor below, so I got a couple of pieces of granite from a kitchen store.They made a difference .  I also bucked up for some Gaia 1’s and they made a surprising big difference!

All the best.

This just reinforces to me that The Absolute Sound was right in that the true measure of a good system is to replicate the sound of unamplified music, but that puts it somewhat at odds with almost all current music production.  Something put together in a studio on a 128 channel mixer or mic'ed off a live Marshall stack may be interesting but it's an artificial reality. We listened to 70s rock for its visceral nature and not for its sound quality. Ozzie didn't care either when he put out the record.I have never once pulled out an Old Stones or Zep LP to test how a new component sounds but I have plenty of 70s jazz or vocals on LP or CD that work fine, because that is what i value more. If i want to rock i just crank it up and dance the room, not sit in the sweet spot. If you mostly listen to loud pop or rock or heavy metal your system is going to be tuned different than mine. No judgements as to who's system is "best". Fretting about imaging or sound quality on an old recording WILL remove you from listening to the music.

+1 on this subject. The thing to remember back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s the sound engineers were producing albums cassettes and 8 tracks so they would sound good over the vast majority of systems (bad car stereos, boom boxes, and Walkman bud headphones). If they produced the sound for a high end system it was bad over the radio. They tried to find a middle ground for this. Unfortunately now when you play this on your reference system and I will say the exact same it is just bad. Good part is with Qobuz I can discover new music that moves me. White me I find myself listening to the older bad produced music in my car as it is acceptable there. There is still old music that sounds great on reference system you just have to find it. Pink Floyd for example all sound great on my main rig.

Yes a good system can be very revealing and rewarding at the same time. Perhaps there’s a synergy problem somewhere in your system but more than likely it’s the recordings. I’ve had the same problem but either I move on or find another recording of the same music that sounds better ie: digital is a great format for that. I have found vinyl can be very inconsistent in sound quality. I previously found that with cds until I started ripping them. The only advice I can offer is to keep trying, and I think we’ve all been in that same boat a time or two. I can tell you your system really makes a difference, as I’ve improved mine over time with better components and ones that pair together better things sound more consistent. Good luck. 

I’ve the same issue but find I’ve an entire collection of great sounding music I can now listen to!  The trick may be to find some current recordings with a similar rock content to that which we grew up with.  Evanescence has some decent studio recordings (there are certainly better) and a high rock quality!  Also try TOOL’s Pneuma and Ployphia “playing god” those are favorites for me when I want to Rock!