What do you LIKE BEST about your current audio system?

This is a nice idea for a thread, elizabeth.

At first I'm tempted to say I'm most satisfied in the way my system seems to be good at almost everything I care about - organic warmth, timbral accuracy, great soundstaging and imaging, dynamic.   As close to an all-rounder system as I probably have owned.

But if I'm going to zero in on one aspect, my mind goes to the density of the sound.  (I'm using Thiel 2.7 speakers/Conrad Johnson tube amps).

It's not simply that the imaging is precise, it's that unlike other more ghostly versions of imaging I've heard, the sonic images seem dense, palpable, THERE.  When a drummer starts off a piece, the density of the central image is like a drum set has suddenly been set up between the speakers.  Same with a sax, or vocal, or whatever.  Wherever the sound source is in the soundstage, all the energy seems aligned so it's moving real air in the room, which connects me to the music.

Not saying my system is the last word in this respect, there is always "better" to chase.  But this is a feature of it's sound that I find particularly consistent and satisfying.  

The 3 dimensional imaging. It may not be pinpoint down to the millimeter but when I shut my eyes. It's as though my imagination sees the drummer in the back 15 ft (if the recording allows it) behind the lead singer who is in a 40' by 20' by 15' room so on and so forth. On some recordings and not all of them are recent. (late 50's early 60's) As far as I'm concerned record producing /mixing is still an art. I can hear the squeak of the stool the singer is sitting on, people are either running or walking up or down the isles in a classical recording. When it's just right I can truly get lost in the moment. AHHHHHHH!

I started building my retirement system about 6 months ago.  So far, the parts I enjoy most are streaming Tidal masters and playing hires music using my Innous Zenith MK2, and listening to vinyl using my Technics SL-1200G.

With this new gear, I’ve been hearing my CDs and albums again for the first time.  I’m hearing subtle background music, voices, and instruments with a clarity that I never heard before.  I get lost in the voices and music when listing to Randy Crawford singing “Imagine” on the “Casio Nights” album or Stevie Wonder on the “Songs In The Key Of Live” album, etc., etc. I just love the sound of vinyl in my new system. 

I am glad that I can play my stereo (hate the word 'rig') as loud as I want, rather than having a bad case of stomach backfiring, and people three units down the hall hearing it.

I think the best thing about my "rig" is that I can listen to it for hours and not think it needs to be better somehow...I don't listen to my favorite music and think, "Should I reverse the fuse? cover the walls with foam panels? look up what Nelson Pass is thinking about? buy tube dampers?" Nope. I might swap out something someday just for fun or if something dies, but for now...it's utterly dialed in to my tastes.