It's all about personal preference and interpretation, as stated. What makes the audiophile community even richer with character is that many of us don't settle on one preferred character of reproduction (I.E. the two most obvious of characters being SET driven vinyl vs. SS driven digital) but rather multiple styles. The warm, airy nature of my tube+vinyl 2-channel set makes me just as happy as my bassy, and slightly analytical nature of my Yamaha driven B&W 5.1. I find that it's important to establish multiple concepts of preferred sound to be able to appreciate different factors of sound rather than to simply understand and be able to differentiate them- liking different styles of sound for different reasons.