For You: THE most imprortant element...

Emotion. Likewise with live music.

A system that allows for long listening periods without discomfort.

No, seriously now, the most important element to me is that, be it live or reproduced, it touches my heart and soul and draws me into it...so, not different to the posts above.

Aside from the obvious responses above (my ears, the music, emotional involvement...) the thing I need most from a system to be able to sit still and listen... is a very clean (prefer 'sweet') top end, and a clear midrange. Sonics with the high frequency shredded: I RUN away. That's my #1 priority.

For me I think it's TONE that is true to life, so that instruments and voices sound so real you are fooled, if only for a moment. If I have that, I can live without dynamics, imaging, soundstage, bass extension, etc., etc., at least for a while. On instruments with a lot of low-frequency content, however, true to life tone requires sufficient weight. Dan