What does “musicality” really mean?

@deep_333 

+1

To me, a "musical" system should have you dancing and air-conducting, not analyzing.  I don't care if it's Beethoven or Chuck Berry. ;-)

Have you ever heard an incredibly built custom acoustic guitar by a reputable luthier? The tone woods of the back and sides, the sculpting of the bracing, proper setup that guarantees optimal playability and intonation across the entire fretboard, the final touches all working together to create a coherent sound with sustain, decay, balance, clarity, complexity and separation of the notes, and responsiveness. It's lush,  rich,  deep and intoxicating. This is what a great sound system should convey. This is musicality.

Musicality - highly subjective.   To me, it is an emotional connection to the recorded piece that is as much a product of the composition, interpretation of the composition by the conductor, the performance of the musicians in executing the conductor’s vision, and the recording engineer’s ability to archive the performance and venue acoustics as it is a quality of the sound reproduced by the system.  It is herewith my contention that while some systems may be more forgiving than others, this is the foundation of musicality of recorded and reproduced music.  
 

From a systems perspective, musicality is also the ability for the system to allow for an emotional connection to the composition and performance where the factors I list in my order of priority facilitate a response that touches the soul:  

• Timbre
• PRaT that is established by micro and macro dynamics, and transient response especially the leading and end edge, without ringing. 
• Detail where most important is the ability to reproduce harmonic decay and hall (or studio engineered) ambient effects.  To me, this contributes to the quality of bloom and natural dimensionality.  I find this the area where there is the greatest difference in listening to a live acoustic performance in a good hall where there is a detailed, sweat tonal characteristic emanating from a point source and expanding and decaying into the venue as the concentric waves generated from dropping a pebble in a still pond. 
• A natural, sweet, and liquid midrange.
• Highs without harshness or sibilants. 
   

I realised that many reviewers use musicality to describe a warm system

@hkcharlie When was the last time you demoed modern high-end audio systems?  If you do not have a sonic knowledge on what’s available, it’s difficult to understand a component’s “musicality” with mere words.  How to convey the sonic improvements and increasing engagement in digital audio? How to explain a Dynavector vs a musical Koetsu stone cart.  Or how to convey the difference between a more neutral Magico vs the more musical Sonus Faber?  Volti vs O/96?