Wasted Years.

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.

@rvpiano nothing wrong with wanting the best sq of your favorite music. For me, it was always about the music, 1st. and foremost. It is a shame how many listeners choose not to listen to music unless it is recorded well. Musicians doing their thing, to compositions created by them. This is the beauty of music listening. Enjoy my friend and stay well. Always, MrD.

@mrdecibel 

Yes, listening to music in good sound quality is the ideal unless you obsess over the gear. 

My best to you as well.