What is your audio axiom?

Appreciation of the performance, together with sound quality of system and recordings is not mutually exclusive. To presume music appreciation transcends sound quality of our systems and recordings is to diminish audiophiles and our pursuit of SQ.

The point of this pursuit is to enjoy and/or appreciate these three components of musical recordings when played on high end systems. If you can't have appreciation of all three things simultaneously you have issues with your system and/or perspective. I don't need perfect or even high quality recordings to appreciate both sound quality and musical performance. Flaws are ever present, the secret is to have a system and mindful perspective that allows one to accept these flaws without judgement. To ignore the qualities of sound both the recording and my system delivers would be a negation of everything I strive for as an audiophile.

When I built my first pair of speakers, I was at the JBL profession dealer. I was purchasing upgrade components going from Two way, to three way speakers. The manager was with a guy dressed in a suit and they approached me in conversation. The suit asked me why I don't buy better speakers than building them myself?  I told him,  "You have never heard my system, or speakers I built." Being a young, proud collage man I was proud of what I made, and had heard many systems costing much more than mine, but was 10x more invested to sound better. So my response back to the man in the suit was " I bet my JBL 14" aquadag woofer, my LE 20 which I am upgrading sounds better than anything you have! 

 His response. I am the JBL district manager, and I commend you on your great skills, your love for Hi Fi audio at its finest using our speaker components, and I bet they sound great with that LE 14 as the foundation. May I suggest the components best in your price range for the upgrade? And away we went.

Wow!

Let the music be your guide.
It’s the surest path to ultimate satisfaction.

@mylogic + 1 - Indeed, I enjoyed music no less when I was a teenager listening to it on a transistor radio. A new Beatles song was every bit as thrilling on that. It's a different experience today, but enjoyment of songs is the same. 

I have three.

1. Don't get married.

2. Don't tell anyone about your audio hobby.

3. Don't ever think you can get "just a little closer" to your speakers when            vacuuming...