Is it ever enough?

Knotscott said it all. It wouldn’t be a hobby if we didn’t like messing around with it for better or worse.

Typical human beings like to *do* as well as *enjoy.* 
"Tinkering" is a perfect word -- it's like "sauntering" or "rambling." It's an activity which produces enjoyment via interaction.
There is an old trope about "audiophilia nervosa" which always gets hauled out in order to diagnosis the "sick" audiophile.
But often, they're not sick at all; they just want to interact with their technology. 
The notion that the audiophile just just tweak until things are perfect and then stop doing anything is almost as perverse as the idea of Heaven -- which as David Byrne sang, is a place "where nothing ever happens." 

Hopefully “it” is never enough.

To me it’s about the journey. When it is enough, then my journey is over. I do however believe that more folks on the forum want to reach the destination, so hopefully they get to a place where it’s enough.

I pray I never get to the perfect system.

My main hobby used to be mountain biking. Until A unfortunate accident four years ago turn me into a quadriplegic. Audio has replaced mountain biking for me.
 When you look at mountain biking as a hobby you have the equipment, which would be the bike and you’re either riding the bike or tinkering with the bike. Having audio as a hobby, you have the equipment, which would be the stereo and you’re either listening to the stereo….or…? There’s really no need to tinker with the equipment. It’s kind of what’s missing about the hobby of audio. You don’t need to tinker with the equipment but that doesn’t stop guys from doing it.

  personally I think that’s what makes guys go crazy about cables, power cords, fuses,bi-wire, interconnects, etc. it’s and easy and cheap way to interact with your equipment. There’s a whole industry within audio that feeds on the need  people have to interact with their stereo. Millions of dollars change hands every year for the tiniest of changes that a product may or may not make in a guys system. it’s easier to spend a few hundred here and there to feed that inner beast then it is to save thousands to buy a new piece of equipment. After being in this forum the past few years I’ve viewed call different sizes of beasts That need to be fed. How big is your inner beast?

Thank you, Ray.For me, your post was moving and thoughtful and insightful. I wonder how many other forum members are in a life circumstances in which audio is much more important to them than it is to me, despite my feeling as though it’s a big priority in my life.