I think a balance between the two poles is a good thing, but it is easy to find yourself out of balance. I realized recently that for the past year and a half I have not been spending enough on music vs. hardware, so I'm changing that. I have to say I'm pretty tame though, especially when I read threads by guys comparing the minute differences they have observed in 5 different brands of very expensive power cords. That is when it seems that perspective is being lost.
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).