I'm no audiophile by any stretch of the imagination (and have the system to prove it!), but reading these posts two things occur to me. First (with a nod to Macdadtexas), involving the family can be a great thing; for example, it was my then three-year-old son who turned me on to Radiohead (I bought the cd, but he insisted that we listen to it again and again). Two, I think Jrtrent's post says something important about system synergy. A system that works--and works together--doesn't leave you feeling that you have "work" to do.
Audiophile Addiction
I met a man on Audiogon who had a fairly high-end system and he was selling the whole thing off. I asked him why, which is the purpose of this posting, is that he was constantly trying to find the perfect sound from his audio system and came to the conclusion it does not exist. Additionally, he said most often all of his hours of listening were alone, taking many hours of quality time from his family. In addition, he said he was listening to his equipment vs. the music. He is now very happy listening to background music with his family from his AV system. I don't know, I just wanted to share this story as I myself fall into this trap (made me think).