Do most people prefer tight bass or non tight bass?

Actually, this is a very cool bass track that "stacks" an acoustic bass on an electric bass.

https://youtu.be/oG6fayQBm9w

@gbmcleod 

I don’t disagree with your post, mind you; just to play devil’s advocate though, I’ll say that digital instruments allow us to hear sounds and orchestrations we’ve never heard before. I’d say that’s a good thing, and I respect the opinions of those who think otherwise.

I listen to a lot of electronic / digitally produced music. One day, it struck me that the music to which I was listening had never vibrated air until my speakers reproduced it. Think about that! Pretty interesting, isn’t it? 

Yes, it is!

I suppose digital instruments reproduce some things correctly, but when they’re trying to reproduce the sound of an acoustic instruments. Well, they do a good job. Just not the whole enchilada

By that, I mean "as well as analogue." When I hear a french horn on vinyl, I know instantly it is a French horn. When I hear it on some digital recordings, I can hear that the tonal quality is not the same. I can’t say that I hear that on vinyl. At least, not the records of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

When I listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtsTT-vJ9M4&list=FL8xpTP3iFfuJnnEXYYR5UGQ&index=3

I hear the brass, and  they are recognizably the instruments I hear in the hall. The performance appears to have been VERY well captured, and the tonal qualities of instruments are there. When I hear this piece through digital (usually, a CD player), the tonal richness is less "there." It still sounds good, but it is not quite all the way "there."  (I’m talking about this performance AND on other recordings.)

And I haven’t found digital - in the past  - to be fully likelike enough, that it is indistinguishable from the actual instrument in life. Many, many people who do not listen to classical, opera, jazz or blues will never miss this. But it is on  some  recordings, whether they "care" or not. And if it is there, I want to hear it reproduced accurately (aka: LIVE).

I don’t mind people who say, "Well, I don’t care about that." That’s their right; it’s their preference. But when people then say, that $20K CD player is no better than my $1000 CD player, and start bashing others (with better systems than them, usually!), I wonder: what kind of music do they listen to?

Because it’s patently untrue that a cheap dac will usually match one of the "giants." I’ve owned excellent,  VERY top-of-the-line digital DACs, and they sounded....Excellent. As in: precise. Great Bass. Great Treble. Great midrange. But it did not always come together as a musical experience. Unless, of course, one doesn’t have a lot of experience with the real thing, and then it’s easy to think that you’re getting "everything." And again, someone whose diet is pop and rock is not going to hear  what the best dacs do. There is not a lot of harmonic information in the typical modern recording. It’s mostly fundamentals. So, for those who don’t care, that’s fine.

And your point is very valid.  

It is fair, I think, to say that our listening habits and musical tastes dictate the composition of our systems.

Yes, of course they do.