Transparency doesn't mean a whole lot with Rock and Pop music. It's not recorded to sound like a live event. And I don't expect it to. You can listen how you like and I'll listen how I like. I don't feel the need to sell my equipment every time the latest equipment comes out with a noise floor of -140db. That cycle will never stop.
Like I posted previously, buyers now want to coloration to those "transparent" amps and DACs with different input buffers and "tube-like" settings. Why is that? Is that filtration?
I don’t think anyone is objecting to your preference. The question is-is there a more efficient and flexible way to achieve the same colored result, so you can adapt your colorations to the recording.
There is, and it is a lot cheaper and more flexible than boutique tube amps: EQ/DSP plus any number of effects processors you can buy from Sweetwater (the same ones used in the mix of some of your favorite recordings even) So for a few hundred bucks you could dial in those pleasing colorations to the exact quantity desired, instead of dealing with the unpredictable interface of low-powered tube amp to speaker, and the variability of recordings vs the static effects of your components. This is a point I’ve made to a number of dealers-swapping pricey colored amps and speakers is a really expensive and back-breaking way to EQ your sound. it’s not in the consumer’s interest, but it sure is in the dealer’s interest.
This was essentially what Bob Carver was getting at with the “Carver Challenge”.