Neutral electronics are a farce...

I'm also a pro sound dude (recording, live sound mixer, musician, bon vivant, lazy older person trying not to seem creepy) and I agree that no gear is "neutral" really, but if you can cobble together a system that demonstrates the differences between things and makes music enjoyable for Active Engaged Listening, that's all you can ask. By the way…ever actually hear what "rich sound engineers" listen to for mixing? It's shocking I tell ya…Yamaha NS10s…man…it varies wildly but often it simply comes out just fine.  And what does "bon vivant" mean anyway?

I am thinking that pro-sound guys, listen, to their studio consoles.

Those damn Yamaha NS10s are everywhere, and Auratones (!) are still around, to mix singles for Radio play (they sound like car speakers). I've been seeing Tannoys in studios lately, but never, ever, audiophile type loudspeakers. Pros use a completely different kind of speaker, and EQ to make music sound "good" on them. Wonder why their recordings played back on your home speakers sounds "wrong"?!

Some studio consoles are excellent and others not so good.

I do a lot of listening on Grado headphones; they are trustworthy.

We built up 6 channels of vacuum-tube microphone preamps which are wired directly into the tape machines- no intervening mixer console; no EQ, nothing but the mic. Our monitors are made by High Emotion Audio and are very fast and revealing. I don't think there is any Yamaha gear in the entire recording chain...

^^^ ... I agree bgp24.  

The proof of what you're saying is when you hear a CD that's been ripped right off of the master tape with no added digital reverb and very little or no EQ. Just a flat recording one step from the original source. When you hear a great CD like that, one can clearly hear how so many of the recording engineers really foul things up. Totally unnecessary too. Amazing.