Wasted Years.

A solid system should be able to make the music come to life and I agree that musicality and realism should be more important than things like resolution and perfect playback.

I've also found myself in the trap of listening just for sound purposes.  It is part of our minds getting into habits when we are auditioning gear and trying to find what sounds the best.

Best advice I can give you, which I give to myself, is if you find yourself listening more to the sound than the music, take a deep breath in and out while trying to focus on nothing but the music itself.  Then do that again.  If you get distracted, let that thought pass and continue to breath and listen to the heart and soul of the music, stretching your mind into it until you become totally entranced.

This can be done at any point during one's audiophile journey.  Breathe and let the music speak.

Continues to baffle me how audiophiles seem to want to deny they are in fact audiophiles. I know I’m going to repeat myself. But why on earth would I want to deny I listen to the sound quality or qualities produced by this system I spent so much effort and funds to amass? I absolutely notice and admire very certain and specific sonic presentations offered by various recordings. And I also experience the same sensations with the wide variability of presentations I can achieve by mixing and matching my various amps pre’s, dacs. I can both chew gum and walk simultaneously, why should I deny myself the pleasures of sonic excellence.

Agree - there is this nasty trope that enjoying hifi gear and pursuit of elevated sound quality is somehow inferior to and less virtuous than "pure" music listening & the pursuit of large music collections (frankly it gets obonoxious to browse / search past a certain point). And also, that the former somehow precludes (partially or wholly) the latter. It’s not true at all. I proudly enjoy both. 

My other least favorite corollary of this is the implication that you’re some kind of rube if your gear collection totals more $ than your music collection. What?!

There is successful audiophiles and obsessed audiophiles...

If you had learned how to optimize a chosen synergetical system in a room for your ears you are a successful one..

If you are more obsessed by the gear design pieces and price  and goes around in a wheel of purchase, you are an obsessed audiophile...

I am a successful audiophile...( my limited budget helped me here putting me in the obligation to learn more than purchase ) 

i enjoy what i had optimized successfully ... (a low cost system but give me the money i will optimize a costlier one; but we have all our needs, budget, room limitation)  What matter is knowing how to optimize any system at any price ...

Acoustics is the root ...(not mere room acoustic but acoustics with an "s" )

Acoustician are always successful audiophile...

Gear obsessed people generally dont use acoustics concepts and experiments... The objectivist use electrical specs, the subjectivist use "gear tasting", the two groups are focussed on the gear...

@mahgister 

While I largely agree with your post, I’m skeptical that acoustics expertise and an affinity for high-end gear are mutually exclusive.

I like gear. I appreciate rigorous engineering and elegant electronic design, I see beauty in impeccably laid out PCBs, in spotless soldering, in the tactile feel of an otherwise alarmingly expensive analog volume control, in aesthetically pleasing industrial design, in the heft of a massively well-built component, in how precisely components and panels fit together, even in a designer’s electing to eschew ICs in favor of rows of discrete semiconductors.

I hope to learn more about acoustics, but until then I agree with you that merely throwing money at an audio system is counterproductive and gauche.

@mahgister 

While I largely agree with your post, I’m skeptical that acoustics expertise and an affinity for high-end gear are mutually exclusive.

I like gear. I appreciate rigorous engineering and elegant electronic design, I see beauty in impeccably laid out PCBs, in spotless soldering, in the tactile feel of an otherwise alarmingly expensive analog volume control, in aesthetically pleasing industrial design, in the heft of a massively well-built component, in how precisely components and panels fit together, even in a designer’s electing to eschew ICs in favor of rows of discrete semiconductors.

I hope to learn more about acoustics, but until then I agree with you that merely throwing money at an audio system is counterproductive and gauche.

Acoustics concepts are necessary to understand what we hear and how...

It is never exlusive from Gear design expertise at any price...

 My point is people underestimated acoustics  versus gear design...

Price dont matter, what matter is what can we do to optimize any system at any price ...

How can you decide what is best if we dont unbderstand  the acoustics concepts  of Timbre for example or the acoustics concepts related to spatial sound many attributes and how to use the associated parameters? Most decide by purchasing costlier components to change the place of hurt...They dont study sound parameters  with what they already own...Marketing conditioned the mind not sciencve and experiments..

Anyway we are on the same opinion : 

I hope to learn more about acoustics, but until then I agree with you that merely throwing money at an audio system is counterproductive and gauche.