So you're an audiophile - are you also a musician?

I can't sing or dance, despite a fairly talanted family background, same for my wife. When I waited tables the waiters were reluctantly rounded up to sing "Happy Birthday", the management gave me specific orders to "mouth" the words! As a child I tried to study guitar, I always got headaches from practicing. Those dots on the bars were painfull. I gave it up. Turned out I needed glasses.

I have heard some "musicians" disclaim audio systems because they don't produce sound like they hear on stage. Well, duh, it's not supposed to. I'm sure that horn players have a very different perspective than string players. While not a musician, I've still had the stage vantage point on many occasions and with very little exception I much prefer to be in a good seat with the audience. While musicians like chefs, mechanics and magicians may have insights to the ingredients and operation of the subject at hand they don't necessarily have an advantage with regards to the appreciation of the final results till they join in the more common absorption for which and whom it was intended for in the first place.