What is Musicality?

My personal and real world example:

Audiophile System - I go maniacally from CD to CD and track to track to hear how cool the bass sounds or how brassy the trumpet sounds........

Musical System - I start the same process and am so captivated by the beauty and magic of the music that I let the record or CD play in it's entirety

Musicality was either
A) a late 60's or early 70's group that sounded great live yet no matter what or how they recorded and no matter what or how one tweaked one's system, it just couldn't produce the same effect. or
B) a long lost lamented company that produced a string of products that no matter what it was or inserted into it's proper place in the chain produced an effect so great no that no more was needed.

a lot of systems make musicality a music casualty but some who care about the way sound moves them and not the way sound is supposed to be are already there and no more is needed. If the music moves you its there and if it doesn't it doesn't matter what else might be.

i believe music can be experienced on as many different levels as there are levels of consciousness pertaining to our 1.senses 2.our cognitive ablilities as well as 3.our emotional perceptions. while reading these responses to the question i thought about my tivoli radio vs my "audiophile system". the radio sounds unfailingly musical, especially on jazz broadcasts- smooth with a nice beat and great texture throughout the midrange. it lacks extended high frequencies BUT OTOH there is rarely any harshness to the upper mids and treble. In the living room there's my Stereo System with tremendous dynamics, loads of detail, very low distortion, but thankfully with a good measure of emotional content as well. trouble is, with SO MUCH GOING ON, EACH recording PLUS my RECEPTIVITY at the time i am listening becomes part of a much more complex set of reactions and affects how much i am really getting into the music. for example, i have been playing around lately with some new SACD'S i've acquired and have to admit they are really very good. some would even say that once you've heard HI-REZ that "there's no going back", etc. BUT yesterday i "went back" and put on a Mozart piano concerto played by V.Ashkenazy, whose playing is so inspiring that i was, after the first few minutes of criticizing the recording quality in one part of my brain, got subsequently swept away by the performance. and after all, the cd didn't REALLY sound that bad- just not as good as some other material that i have. Of course if you ask me on another day i might go on and on about how good some recordings sound over others. BUT hey, i am just happy that, at the end of the day, i don't have to "sweat" whether or not i am having a good time.

An audio buddy once said to me long ago that someone with a large record (music) collection that overshadows his system is someone into the music. Someone with a stereo system that overshadows their music collection is into the electronics. His record collection was enormous. His stereo also sounded very good. He must of had an oil well somewhere (just not in the Gulf). No reason to disdain one type of person or the other. I enjoy the music very much, but I also enjoy the hobby/art of reproducing music. Over the years I have trended from one side to the other. When I get the bug in me, I start analysing the music and generally walk away from my system unsatisfied because I didn't hear the music, just the bass, imaging, highs, soundstage, etc. When I get through those phases and back to just enjoying the music, then the stress from work goes away and I finish the evening with a smile and the anticipation of the next listening session.
I remember one time years ago wandering around a nice stereo shop wondering why I was there. My system sounded good and was giving me musical pleasure when listening to it. Nothing in the store sounded better to me than what I already had. Then suddenly, most of the stereo shops disappeared. It makes it hard now days to listen to different systems to compare and contrast how my own stereo is doing.

Isn't it Pace, rhythm, and timing? I'll add tonality to that.