The great myth of the XlR

The Sonus Faber is a good speaker. Expensive seeming for what you get but decent non the less. They do have a "Warmish" sound and are not the last word in inner detail. I have had the good fortune of having a local dealer with a good friend who sells Sonas Faber. I have listened to them many times.
Vandersteen is another speaker that comes to mind with phase (and time alignment.) I'm a big fan of the Quatro and 5A series speakers.
BTW, it takes more than just a 1st order crossover to do the trick. B&W uses a first order on the tweeter but a higher slope on the midrange and woofer.
Sonas faber is not a time and {phase aligned speaker} in the truest sense. They do have a first order crossover which is good but some of the other required elements are missing.
Now, with CD players, part of the problem is in the mastering of the discs. A lot of the producers don't give a crap about time, phase or anything else. When you send a signal through an equalizer, you change its time and phase characteristics. A single capacitor will have an effect!
It doesn't have to be deliberate, it just turns out that way because they don't care for the most part. The are processing the signal to get a desired sound and in this process destroying the time and phasing of the original master recording. This is why a lot of people like vinyl. Some of this issues are removed. (I will add though that not all vinyl is good either.)
I thought the SACD format was a step in the right direction and still do. It was much closer to analogue and for the people who couldn't hear the difference, well maybe they needed a serious equipment upgrade. The differences were readily apparent. Some compared the hybrid discs using CD vs SACD and I agree, sometimes the differences weren't there. I think there's a reason for that but that's for another day. However, if you took a copy of a single SACD vs a CD, it was apparent WITH well recorded material to start with.
Then we get to the CD player itself. My God, how much does the signal travel through till it gets out the other side? They're some really crappy players that cost an arm and leg!
It still all boils down to what the individual likes and wants. It has nothing to do with High Fidelity. That is one of the most overused words around. See, now we need to define High Fidelity! Obviously, it means different things to different folk.
If you are truly happy with your systems performance, pat yourself on the back. You're one of the few! But don't think for a minute as the years go by that your taste and wants will not change. You'll get on the rat race at some point. I just got tired of the rats winning!!!!!

I am a dealer for deHavilland electronics, perhaps the finest sounding single ended amplifiers and preamplifiers available.

You have got to be kidding on the preamp!

Regarding speakers discussing wich one is the best makes as much sence to me as argumenting on what is best a blond girlfriend or a brunet.

We agree on that recordings can be very faulted but the aswer to why some recordings sound bad or unmusical is a more complexted matter.

Getting to the bottom of what neutrality is.
You described that you have not heard a system that can reproduce the sax in a beleiveble matter.
This infact has very littel to do with pitch and timing isue its in audioble noise and glare.
The less noise and glare the more you hear the detaljs and there for the instrument.

What got me into thise fully digital tact amps was it was the most detajld amps you i could buy.
The are basicly a dac with power the will only accept a digital signal from a transport and the signal stays digital until the speaker terminals.

Jean yves kerbrat is one man that searces for the truth and if you vissit his hompage you will see 5 tact 2150 amps fully moddified replacing cary triods driving a five way hornsystem using the digital crossovers .

He takes getting rid of audioble noise to the extreme having his own powerplant for pure audio and people working on his amps reguarly.

His goal is purly to reproduce have a instrument sounds in real life.

My tact millennium is the reference amp in the tact audio family and it has been moddified to the limit .
It is in another league then eny of jean yves amps.
Feet it with a equal kvality source and it will take you all the way down the rabbit hole.
Its the only amp i have heard that can reproduce the timbres of a acoustic guitar in a beleiveble matter.

Stock it was very detajled but after the mod what happent was the noise and glare where audioble gone making it even more detajld but at the same time more smoth.

What that did was making every thing sound real , scary real .

This is one type of neutrality you can athive where all glare and noise is gone leaving only pure sound enhancing the hifi parameter like soundstage seperation and detajl extraction.
But this has nothing to do with neutral musicality

There are much more to it then that.

Pitch and timing has nothing to do with noise or glare , infact hearing it done better or worse might not even be heard with a solo instrument.

But when the music startes and all the littel rytmic changes , basslines instruments , different frq all have to fit in as perfect order as possible it will become very clear how important this is.

This is the other kind of neutral
if a system distords thise musical clues its not neutral no matter have noiseless and transperant the sound may be.

The best gear or precerving this is i have heard is linn klimax gear,
It just gets the bass and rythme right , its also the most mucial neutral hifi i have heard it simpley gets out of the way of the music or in other words destord it to a lesser extend .
It really needs to be heard to be understood, I sure did not until i got exposed to it.
Linn fanatics swear to the this and treassure it namly because of the pitch and timing correctness, and there ingeneeres feel very strongly about this matter.

Regarding sources im am a beleiver in the source first theory.
The speaker can only reproduce the signal its feet.

The company that moddified my millennium also specilizes in being on the forthfront of digital sources having esoteric ,wadia , dcs , and the likes in there hall of fame latly its a northstar heavily moddified and a slimdevices also moddified on the top of the list.
every thing gets decussed to great lenght on there forum.

The real next level of digital playback will ironicly not be from the cd but from a hardisk.
Because music played back as a file can be in bitperfect kvality where a cd drive playing music in real time simply dont get everything right.
however the most importenat part still lies in where the digital signal is converted into analog signal

The nova physics memory player that uses this tech is said to be the best transport today.
What reviewers and people say above all is have musical it is.

I have a slimdevices transporter that uses the same basic technology but it also has a great dac in it.
In the add the say that the soundkvality will supass that of even the most excotic cd player , the say this because it has a bit perfect audio circuit and also xtremly accurate in pitch and timing.
In reality it really dossent mostly becaus perfect timing and bit perfect siganl goes right out the window when you have noise and glare fron the powersupplyes.

Mine dos not have the glare or glassyness
the lyngdorf cd-1 it replaced had just as big soundstage and just as much detajl but then the compariosn ends the transporter has a ease and musicality that makes the cd-1 sound like a machine instaed of a music.
Its just as detajld if not more but its all in perfect order and nothing stick out using a simplyfied term.

Hifi as a hoppy is a journy and i sure havent seen the best yet but i do know now that musicality lies in the pitch and timing.

There is not rights or wrong some like it analytical some romantic but pitch and timeing done right will never be a bad thing , if it was then the person dont like music pure and simple.

thanks

Jafox

Sorry guys to interrupt!!!

Not kidding at all. Now that I am in my 60's I have given up the fantasy or should I say the "hype". I just want music to sound like live music. I gave up being a would be reviewer and analyzing details. If you have a chance to listen to one for a week or so you might agree. Short term listening might lead you to think you were missing something, long term listening might lead longer term listening.

Well, I think we've gone full circle here so I'm bowing out. Enjoyed it.