FrasSSS.
Your right all the time we take to find perfect sound will never exist, never did, it is something made to get us all to continue buying gear and try to find the absolute sound. That is never going to happen, what can happen with our system in our "own" room is a sound we find enjoyable. Change one power cord and the system charge will change as much at times as a new piece of gear. Change an equipment rack, or amp stand the sound will change. Tweaks of all types (Including AC wall outlet and even the wall plate that covers the outlet) will change the sound also, not to mention acoustic panels and so on.
From 40 years in this hobby, I have learned that when it's good it is good, after that you just change the sound for the sake of having a different sound, perhaps like me a new speaker, going from Quad's ESL 63 that was totally rebuilt including power supply by Electrostatic Solutions, to the Sapphires M3's which in turn caused me to rethink my cables and power cords due to what I purchased brought out the best in the Quads, which did not have the deepest lows or the highest highs like the M3's. So what I had used to bring the Quads out was not a match for the M3's, so after burning in happened, my goal was a complete one brand loom of power cords, interconnects, and speaker cables, and I tried AQ power cords 1st, and when they made such a great improvement, I purchased interconnects and speaker wires. Even then finding which gear worked the best with the power cords due to having one level different than the other 3 due to budget. So 3 Tornado power cords and one Fire power cord. With speaker cables and interconnects being the Fire level. Do I have the absolute sound, hell if I know, but for my room and system, I would say yes. In your room and anyone else who owns the same speaker, I could not say how the sound would be.
So we can all get as deep as we want and make it super complicated, but in the end what we all do in this hobby is get our system to sound the best it can to "our" tastes in what we feel is correct, for me I like body and weight to the music as well as transparency like I hear with live music, which is never hyper-detailed and in your face. I heard the Cleveland Orch, and the sound life was laid back and relaxed and never over loud or in your face at their home Severance Hall in Cleveland Ohio 3 years ago and I said to myself that is how Quad speakers reproduce sound, they had the same sonic reproduction feel. So Peter Walker's design and what he tried to accomplish was dead-on correct for natural music, Clayton speakers do well there also, but can rock out more, go deeper and higher, and I always say the music sound like they are in your room due to the dynamic and that is unlimited in scope. Both take a different approach, with wonderful results for each of their designs and each can bring much enjoyment, and both kill many other speakers costing thousands and thousands more, and I know because I tried to replace my Quads for 2 years and heard speakers in the 20K and up range that could not do right what the Quads could. My Sapphires M3's make me want to listen to music, and that when you know you hit the home run, beat all the other speakers I heard at my local stereo store, for 1/4 the price.
