The Forest for the Trees

Like edcyn said, there's something about certain recordings, call it clarity, that really grabs my attention and takes a song to a different level. To me, it sounds like you could hear a pin drop in the recording studio. These recordings share instrument separation and zero muddiness or thudding base line. A few examples:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
Rhythm of the Rain - Dan Fogelberg
How Do I Live - LeAnn Rimes
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
Ride Like the Wind - Christopher Cross (listen to the clarity in the backing vocals by Michael McDonald)
Ribbon in the Sky - Stevie Wonder

Yes, several of these are very mellow piano based love songs which likely leads to clarity in the recordings, but the vocals are also extremely clear and unprocessed. For me, that "clarity" takes these songs to a different level and it's easy to get lost in them.

O   M   G.............

Damn...I've lived long enough to witness Clarity smite the 'Audiophiles'.

Y'all been cooped up long enough to get bored enough to 'zone out' and actually enjoy your stack o'stuff...

...without excessing over 'what doesn't seem Right'....

Whatever you're drinking/smoking/ingesting, or creating this level of existential ennui...keep it up. 👍👌😉

Enjoying On Every Street by Dire Straits tonight. Toes are tapping and I’m really looking forward to My Parties and Planet New Orleans!

I like this thread - I do like listening to music and one of my drivers for investing money is because I listen to music loud.  (I really was a field artillery officer).

Some things such as bi-wiring, balanced inputs and optical vs digital coaxial insights and encouragement for testing has been really useful.

Some descriptions of sound have gone over my head - yet I can appreciate the folks who want more watts or monoblock amps!

The problem is, the quest for perfect sound Is so voracious that it devours any enjoyment of music.  
After you’ve reached a point where you can enjoy music on your system, no more tweaks are necessary. Any further improvements are superfluous.  The problem Is, if Hifi is your hobby you want to actively involve yourself in it.  You can’t sit back and leave it alone.  If you stop twiddling with it, it ceases to be an active hobby. That’s where the contradiction is.  The enjoyment of music ceases to be the goal.  The “hobby” predominates.
If you can listen for the music, everything falls into place.  The work you’ve done assembling your system has paid off and you can revel in how beautiful the music is.

But, your hobby is over.