Do you listen to equipment or music.


This Blog got me to thinking about the subject:
https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=6484902156509233383#editor/target=post;postID=191909277...
In the past I have spent hours listening to the same part of the same song just to fine tune various components of the of the audio system. I even move speakers and listen - move them again and listen more. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing. Whatever it is, when I get into this mode, I am not listening to the music.  It would be nice how the community feels about listening to music or equipment.
johnspain
Again..tenured music lover.  As a hobby, it's natural to want to move on and "get closer" over time.  For me, the home run is the music, and no nostalgia to what gets me there.  I don't marry the gear.  I'm fully awakened when a tweak or gear improvement "freshens" your entire collection, yet again!  Nor am I saddened when things seem to get a little tired and boring.  It simply means it's time to get more creative somewhere in your system.  There is ALWAYS something one can do, even if it simply means turning your electrical panel mains and circuits on-off a couple times every 6 months.  Loudspeaker placement and DSP adjustments also can freshen everything without cost...sometimes I prefer more center-fill, sometime more depth of field or stage-width.  It's all an amazing illusion, after all, play with it!  More peace, Pin.
Ok, this may be a little off point, but you'll see - it ties in.

I have a sister that is clinically OCD. She will sometimes clean and re- arrange her house until she literally drops from exhaustion. She got this thing, awhile back, about collecting rocks to line her driveway. After collecting a good number of various sized and shaped rocks (on every walk she took, on every ride she took, from neighbors wanting to get rid of their rocks, etc. etc.) ranging from 20 - 40 lbs. she got enough to nicely line her driveway. Her OCD would not let her stop at that, now she has a one acre sized yard covered with pile after pile of rocks. I jokingly told her that she should contact Mr. T. and offer to build his wall and could even bring her own rocks - don't think she appreciated the humor.
My point is that, we as audiophiles, may get a little OCD and let a continual need for upgrades, tweaks and changes, take the place of periodically just sitting back, for a bit, to enjoy the music.......Jim
may be a bit simplistic but don't we all do both?
Otherwise I may as well have stuck with my National Panasonic Transistor 8 from 1968.
Sometimes, like most of us I'd imagine, something might not sound quite right to me (equipment listening) but then the next album or song sounds sublime (music listening) and I know that it is more of a recording short-coming than anything.

Yes, I upgrade but tend to keep using components for years until they fail or I hear something radically better because of a known and acknowledged weak link - like replacing my PC with an Antipodes server/streamer.
Johnspain, if you have used a good set-up disc/LP to attain good stereo imaging etc and are repositioning speakers during a listening session, it is more likely a recording fault imho.


I'm a little late to the party, but I was so impressed by elizabeth's response, I had to chime in. She is absolutely correct, you have to listen to the equipment to get the system dialed in. When you catch yourself engrossed in the music, that's when you know the equipment is right.
s2000cr
I got "Bitten" in 1952, just before Stereo entered. I can recall my first
experience at Audio House (Detroit) in 1954, listening to an RCA tape
of Alzo Sprach Zarathustra on Berlant Concertone deck, 2 Mc 50w
monoblocks, an two Stentorian (west coast) speakers. We kept repeating
the 22(?) hz organ pedal intro in utter fascination.
Battle? No contest. Even mid-fi in stereo won out. As for Consoles vs.
Separates? For the expanding number of true Audiophiles, Consoles
were a commercial cop-out. 
There's this: some Consoles sounded OK by themselves, but head-to-
head with separates ...?  To Audiophiles, not radio-phono customers,
no battle whatever.
Think of the effort and design that went into a 1960 preamp: The
top-line equipment compensated for the disparate recording curves,
provide recording inputs, "loudness", etc.,etc. 
Lord, it was exciting to have lived thru all that audio emergence. Some
of that tube equipment, lovingly up-dated, is still highly prized,
and by some very critical Sound Nuts!