What does “musicality” really mean?

To me musicality means way more than warmth in a system.  It means an involving clarity and coherency with lush timbre and vibrancy, and an easy to listen to natural quality that reminds me of real acoustic instruments and voices.  Free of the box noises and other aberrations that draw attention to the system instead of the music.  When the system can trick my mind into thinking there's music in front of me, it's musical. 

The music either sucks you in or not. 

Musicality needs to start with the recording.  If a recording is not good you end up focusing on the sound and its imperfections more than the music and it’s distracting.  Assuming a good recording, musicality to me means getting effortlessly lost in the music and the performance.  Balance is key — if anything sticks out it detracts from believability, naturalness, and ultimately musicality.  That said, I think this can vary greatly by listener and individual preferences but the goal remains the same — the ability to get effortlessly lost in the performance.  To me, that’s the Holy Grail of high-end audio and ultimately what it’s all about.  So a system that sounds perfectly musical to me, using this definition, might sound overly warm or sterile to someone else, but that’s what makes the audio world go round.  That’s my take on it anyway. 

Sounds like music, not like a hifi.