"audiophiles listen to their equipment"

I can enjoy how it sounds and listen to music at the same time if I'm listening to my main system with all the right pieces in place.  When there is a suboptimal component in the string, it is easy to become less engaged listening to the music.

When I get bored after a long stretch of swapping different components in/out just to see what changes for better or worse, it's another trigger to stop and revisit other hobbies for a while. Stepping away from it for a while helps to hit the reset button in the brain for me.  I've found this to be necessary to appreciate the system more too. I've learned swapping components may not always be better, just different types of sound. A good friend convinced me a while back it's all about personal preference and your mood at the moment.  Stop and revisit later if you need to.

When the desire to listen to different music kicks back in, I restart for another stretch to simply listen to lots of different music again, and let the components be.  

... And what of us who listen to our equipment to better hear the music?

Having designed/built my own speakers, I’ve spent years developing the crossovers to attain the sound as close to as I desire from the set of components at hand.

For example, I can spend hours instantaneously A/Bing conjugate capacitors of just a few mfd difference, or even different architecture, to listen for a difference, and if so, which I prefer.  And because tracks vary so widely, it takes a lot of tracks to decern if there is an audible difference and which is preferred.

BTW, for those out there that like to tinker, or are just never quite satisfied with the system, by all means build your own speakers and you can spend years tweaking the crossovers at very little cost when compared to swapping out components and/or cables. 

@unreceivedogma 

If the system is incapable of reproducing it, then you are correct: there will be none to be heard. 

 

You've misunderstood me but your condescending tone doesn't incline me to try to explain. 

@stuartk 

no worries. 

I'm both an audiophile and an amateur musician. I've studied harmony and counterpoint and I do a little piano improvisation in classical styles. I only have a digital piano at home, so when I'm improvising, I'm focusing on the notes and chords and a rough sense of the rhythm.

If I listen to a recording of Glenn Gould performing the C# minor fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, even on an iPod with earbuds I can tell the notes he's playing and his rubato, so I can enjoy it to some extent.

What does my main headphone system give me? All the qualities beyond notes and rhythms! For example, beauty of timbre. And especially microdynamics. In classical performance by the best players, there's a sophisticated use of small dynamic changes. So much more of the performance comes through in a system with dynamic resolution. It's worth sitting for a while and doing nothing but listening.

Why do musicians care less about home audio quality? I think it's because they are so connected in body and mind to musical patterns that they can sense them and feel moved by them even in poor reproduction. 

They invest their money in their instrument.

I've noticed when driving home from an L.A. Philharmonic concert, listening to classical KUSC on the poor quality car system, I am transported back to the beautiful sound I just heard in the concert. If I hear horns on the radio, I think of how beautiful and powerful the live horn sound is. I used to be a brass player, so this is easier for me than if I had had no exposure to live sound. Now just imagine being exposure to live orchestral sound every day. I'm sure that simple systems will sound very evocative to you.