Live music and recorded are both valid and both fun. You can't go to enough concerts to get totally fixed if you are a serious music lover. A decent stereo allows greater enjoyment of recordings, up to and sometimes even surpassing live concerts which if amplified have nowhere near the resolution or balance of a quality recording. Some recordings are artwork in themselves, with no chance to hear it played live, some genres are dead and no chance to hear someone play live like that ever again. Getting the most enjoyment out of these is important. But that's the limit for me.
Obsessive chasing of increased resolution, extension, power is emotionally stimulating. It allows the muisc to have a stronger emotional effect on you. When you felt it once, you want it again. But you can't just rewind and do it again... Like every emotionally stimulating experience, the brain downregulates the response so that you don't become a crackhead from hifi. You get used to anything, no matter how incredible. But like a crackhead when it wears off you want it again. A pleasure fix at the push of a button, what could be better? That's what I think drives audiophiles to continually upgrade and let the music itself fall to second fiddle. Or those that use 10 discs containing a thrill to be played with ever more intensity. If the thrill was coming only from the music itself, any adequate system would do, because we all got high on recorded music using far lesser systems than now.
I guess there is a point where the system is giving you enough out of the music. You can hear enough to get the thrill on most music. Some people want more, some less. Some happily drive Yugo some NEED a Ferrari. Mfgs happily provide to each his own. I'm headed back toward simplification, having finally realized what is important and which equipment delivers it. It is a fun ride learning and trying everything, but boring after a while, compared to the thrill of music listening, even on lesser system. Kenny Dorham solos are almost all shitty recordings by today's hifi standards so an ultra low distortion "audiophile" system makes no difference, and usually makes it sound worse than that old record player with the built in paper driver for which the recording was intended. Tubes, paper mid driver, NOS dac and a quiet room are all I need. Lots of effort and money to find that out though. Nice thread Frank
Rich
