Perhaps we should stick with midfi...

I think it helps to have a sound you're trying to recreate in your head. You may be unaware that you are sensitive to missing high end information in a perfectly acceptable sound system until you hear it and it bothers you to the point that you'd rather not listen to music at all as long as the offending sound continues. I was like that when I finally switched speakers after 17 years. The new outrageously well reviewed pair I bought had excellent defined bass, good dynamics, very nice incisive midrange--BUT the highs were closed in like a slightly padded object was covering the tweeter and no matter the position of the speaker, messing with the considerable adjustments one could make on the outboard crossover, I could not get rid of the slightly to markedly closed in highs. I didn't know this even bothered me until I heard it. Others may be bothered in various other ways--lifeless dynamics, not enough or tubby bass, dynamics constricted, etc. You may not even know that it bothers you until you hear it. Man, I'm glad I took a chance on one more set of speakers after that disappointing venture on what I thought would be my last pair from reviews I'd read. Same thing happened with speaker cables. When it's right, it's enjoyable and you can quit anal/oh, analyzing your system and just enjoy the music. After reading another OOH BABY review of some outrageously good cables, I bought a used pair and inserted them in my system. The joy was gone, even after running the system for 2 straight weeks non-stop. Put the other cables (cheap, but also well reviewed) back in and the smile returned to my face. Same thing happened in my basement built dedicated room. I had stuffed the ceiling with 6" fiberglass batting that was a good sound absorber. The sound inside that room was incredibly the moment you walked in the door, clear with zero recognizable defects to my ear, anyway. My brother, in the trades, told me to get glacier ceiling tiles for that room and it will sound even better. I put in a slightly angled drop ceiling where behind the speakers was a little lower and sloped slightly upward to behind my seat. I laid all the glacier tiles in the grids and turned the music on. All the live illusion of music diasppeared and I was left with dull, flat, uninvolving music like a cheap table radio. I couldn't believe what those tiles did to the sound. I replaced most of the glacier tiles with Armstrong's highest articulation tiles that you can only get if you know someone it the trades and 98% of the magic returned like before I put in the ceiling tiles. It's a woefully long post and I'm sorry this lasted so long, but my main point is you'll know when something really bothers you. Try to fix the problem and also, when your system sounds great to you in all areas, QUIT reading about new stuff and just enjoy your system and the fact that you have been fortunate enough to take many different electrical devices connected together so that a very pleasing approximation of live music is coming out and you get to enjoy it most any time you choose. Reading the high fi rags just gives you the itch, the desire to acquire. Then you stay on the neverending treadmill of upgrades and ultimate dissatisfaction that goes with it. Music truly soothes and stirs the soul, wanting something more only stirs the wallet and your degree of unrest. Right now I thank God that I've been one of the lucky ones in this hobby to assembly a reasonably affordable system with outstanding sound. I intend to be very content for years to come and maybe help others reach their lucky point, also.