Do you listen to equipment or music.

The music sometimes isn't "right" (meaning meeting my personal criteria of rightness) due to weird recording engineering or strange production preferences, and that's only clear because the equipment I've fussed over reveals it. 

Asvjerry..."audiophrenology"...is that the act of using audio to explore the bumps on your head? If so, I'm all for that.

I will note that audio equipment doesn't work without music, although test tones can be utilized even though they're often difficult to dance to. Anyone who fiddles with their rig (you know what I mean) compulsively isn't necessarily gifted with "Golden Ears," that person is likely simply compulsive and may have an ear wax issue...and that's OK also, although I've found those people to be disturbingly less fun, and, after all, the world is there to provide me with fun...it just is. The "imagined tweak benefit" crowd of religious zealots are also less fun due to their zealotry, but they have the swarming buzz of hyperbole festooned fellow Seekers to provide the necessary backup, bolstered with 30 day return policies...otherwise most just like and trust the sound of whatever base they landed on and can't be bothered with "Quantum" magnetic place mats, or compulsive fuse direction swap stress...and those Lumpy Head explorers are always more fun.

The audiophile community is NOT composed of simply two subgroups, it seems more like wildly varying shades of both camps at once. I keep things in my gear heap until something dies or I actually feel like something needs improvement, or I just WANT a new thing...that's rare, but hey...it happens. I have a friend who spends piles on what I feel is unnecessarily expensive redundancies, but he's wound pretty tight...and my rig sounds better...HA...it is all about the music, I sit in the sweet spot for hours mesmerized by it, and mix live shows for brilliant musicians from time to time (trust me...get into THAT biz...it's worth it). Buy stuff, listen to music through it, and calm down DAMMIT! (breathe...I gotta breathe...)

As a sideline...I'm involved in live music as a musician and live sound engineer. Talk to the sales people in either of the High End shops I live near and not only do they not do little "house concerts" at their shops (ask about that fact and note the bewildered response), they're generally unaware of live shows nearby, and often have very narrow musical tastes as if actual live music doesn't matter much.