Many very observant and relevant comments here.
"Fishboat", I especially liked your following comment:
If you can eliminate desire, or keep it in it's place (a desire in itself...hence the difference between "try" and "do"), then one can be a much happier person.
And "Nosusaural": very practical and useful information contained in your post.
After attending RMAF last year and recently listening to several audiophile buddies systems, I've come to believe that the neuroticism associated with all the very fine details of this hobby have a way of hampering our enjoyment of why we do all of this the music. I enjoy music at my local audio store, no matter the setup and my buddies audio rooms sound quite good, so much so, that when I'm there, I don't miss my setup.
My rig is quite resolved. Could it be better: yes; do I stress over the whether the cables are off the floor or not, or how I hold my mouth when I set my Tri-Planar/Dynavector XV1s down on a slab of vinyl spinning on my Galibier Turntable, heck no!!
What I'm trying to say is that I have come to believe that we audio enthusiasts stress too much over subtle changes/gains that we oftentimes express as being huge -- notwithstanding many of the postings in Audiogon and we fail to enjoy the music because we're listening to our amps measurements, our systems cables, and fretting over whether our stands are handling acoustic energy properly, or whether we believe our latest new toy is up to snuff, or not.
I really believe that most of us that have been immersed in this hobby for at least a few years, have much more in common in terms of what we believe is "right" than otherwise. Far too often I feel we're disagreeing about nuances rather than really meaningful differences, or as others have said, are chasing the holy grail of audio, when there really isnt one.
For example, my son and I recently went to a buddy's house. He collects & repairs early 20th century radios. While at an event involving like-folks, he acquired a pair of 1950's NOS raw 15" drivers with a tweeter mounted in their center, with 1 capacitor apparently acting as a crossover. Not having a clue about speaker design, he quite randomly mounted these drivers in the first enclosures he found in the Parts Connection catalog & did no tweaking. Surprisingly, they did more things "right" than otherwise. Hes driving them with a pair of Fisher tube monoblocks that he acquired for a song (no pun intended). My son & I focused on the systems positives, which were much more than its negatives and enjoyed the music.
This whole hobby should be more right brained than left. Most of us arrived here from a great love of music. We simply want to have the performances be as believable & emotionally moving & involving in our homes as we can make them. Measurements & other's experiences help designers get close to that end, but our ears and emotions are the final arbiters of what's "right". Can what we have be better, you betcha'! But that defines the human condition doesnt it -- always wanting more.
There is a fine line between constantly chasing "better" and being satisfied with what we have and experience. I really believe we get much too caught up in the chase because that's what we find easy and fun to do, but we also need to focus on simply enjoying what we have and in the case of audio, the beautiful sounds & music that most of us are presently experiencing & enjoying!
