Changing audio beliefs

I used to pretend - like many others - that it was only the music that mattered. Now I understand and accept that I really enjoy the sound of HiFi. My system really doesn't sound that much like being present in the middle of the audience for a rock or classical concert, but it often does create a reasonable illusion of being in a rehearsal where I can wander up to the stage and find a place that allows me to listen in to the performers. It also can fool me into feeling like my listening room has Bill Evans and a few of his friends in it. In my experience, most HiFi is more "technicolor" than most live concerts, and rather than pooh-poohing that, I can now admit that I actually enjoy it and curate my system around its pursuit.  And here's a truth that felt weird until several of my audiophile friends confirmed that they share it: after a few days without listening to my system, I can get a bit antsy and anxious to do some listening again. There's something in HiFi sound that is literally addicting...

It's quite the opposite for me. 

Those "performance upgrades" from years past still validate themselves each time I listen.  And, I'm fully aware my knowledge base is incomplete and there is more to learn ... and experience.

I used to believe cables and power conditioning etc did not matter.  Then I built a fully treated properly calibrated studio with full treatment (clouds, diffusers, giant first reflections, giant chunk bass traps in a properly sized room with 10’ ceilings) and reluctantly did some demos with a local hifi store owner.

Biggest surprise was USB cabling making a significant difference.  All 1s and 0s right?  Come visit my studio and you will hear every single cable change.  Interconnects are very subtle to me but otherwise they are subtle to minor to pretty significant with each change.  Proper power conditioning was the other thing (Gemini 8 from Shunyata and also tried a Hydra Sigma that was even better) Shunyata and Cardas made a super skeptic into a believer.

I just spent some time trying to think of something that’s changed in my musical beliefs and I really can’t. I have always been open to trying new things and ideas. 
My musical tastes have changed a bit. I still don’t like hard Rap, hard Country and Opera, but now I’m listening to more Jazz than Rock.

Are beliefs not for fairies and Santa Claus? Surely, in audio it is matter of taking a considered view on the basis of experience. When it first appeared, I found CD unlistenable. Then by the late nineties, I’d heard CD players that weren’t so unpleasant. After a decade or so of CD being the main source, ripping them seemed to produce better results. After that, I heard turntable components that made vinyl a wonderful listen. More recently, I have found ways of improving streaming. So over the decades my views have changed considerably, but belief doesn’t come into it. It’s just a matter of what I can achieve with the equipment I have.