@ghdprentice - thank you for your observations : ) - I’m so glad and fortunate to have found the same path as you, being as recent an audiophile as anyone could be.
In truth, I did not mean the use of the term lazy to belittle - I am myself lazy in so many things! There are human traits we all have, perhaps especially as men - a certain laziness; superficiality; impatience for the immediate spectacular; the need to persuade others we have already tried everything else or that anything else will not matter; ultra high definition TVs…..the list goes on.
Like you, I’ve discovered the realism to musical reproduction that can only be gauged in relation to those few attended live recordings which best capture the experience. Like you, I’ve found that accuracy in the playback does not bloat, or cause anything in the soundfield to be larger than life, but true to live. And like you, I’ve learned that every other recording we have no datum for comparison with will find its place, once those few that we do have been used as the measure for the systems we build.
However, I have not found Burmester or Wilson speakers to have had problems with image bloat the way you have. That could possibly have been issue with amplification or preamplification or perhaps cabling upstream? The problem I’ve had with Wilson and Burmester had to do with the specific colour introduced by the mere fact of them being traditionally boxed speakers - their enclosures introduce a tiny character to music reproduction that very subtly homogenises all played tracks, rather than accurately distinguishing them apart, aside from the quality of openness being somewhat lost. I do know you have Sonus Faber Amati’s, and these do well in limiting cabinet colour. Regarding image or detail bloat specifically, the Kharma Enigma Veyron, Avantegarde trio, Cessaro Liszt, are three of those that qualify. That diamond tweeter of the enigma veyron especially, tends to drill tiny wood screws into one’s already high frequency challenged ear.
I like very much the way you put it, about your system being impossible to listen to, as the music just sucks you in. I spend between two to five hours listening to familiar and unfamiliar music every night - we are very very lucky people.
And yes finally, you are right about whatever driving one to perceived happiness mattering most - it is the reason why preference and accuracy are used simultaneously and almost interchangeably in our hobby: who in their right minds would want their preferences to be inaccurate? : )
In friendship - kevin