How serious are you?

@ghdprentice nice!  I may be ready to retire sometime not too far ahead as well.   Still mulling over what I might do then. 

When I had my house built I had speaker wires run in wall throughout the house and the room my gear is in fully insulated with solid wood door.  Maybe that bumps me up a point or 2?  

I am not a hoarder but I do have a spare amp or two, extra preamp, extra tuner, extra DAC , extra speakers ,  back up sources just in case something dies or needs service.   Can't be without music , it's a major way for me to unwind.   

I would normally be about a 7 or 8. Currently however I am designing and will be building a listening room in my basement that will take all of my attention for the next 5 or 6 months. Once the room, the electrical, the networking, the sound proofing, the room treatment, etc. are complete; I'll see how my system sounds and figure out what to upgrade.

I currently think I'll be in the market for a higher end streaming set up, and trying to fit my tube amplifier in with my other solid state set up.....haven't figured that one out yet. Eventually I will add higher end speakers, but I don't think I'll ever get rid of my Buchardt Audio S400 MKIIs.....I LOVE those little speakers.

Warning: I drank a bottle of champagne as I cooked dinner tonight, as the following may make obvious.

We all started out first as music lovers (I myself bond with other humans first and foremost in terms of being fellow music lovers), eventually becoming audiophiles in our need to be afforded a deeper immersion in and appreciation of recorded music (I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious). If we are not careful, the pursuit of sound quality can become more important than the music itself (I speak from experience). That’s why many serious Classical music lovers view audiophiles with contempt.

The pursuit of high fidelity is a noble endeavor, assuming one keeps the ultimate objective in mind: the music itself. At a certain age---with the benefit of accumulated wisdom, one may feel freed of the pursuit of the highest fidelity as the great beyond approaches, realizing that the recording and reproduction of music is inherently limited, and that the hearing and appreciation of music should be one’s focus, whatever the quality of the sound.

Which brings us to the old basic tenant: Are you first and foremost a music lover, or an audiophile? Some of my favorite recorded music suffers from mediocre sound quality, yet still manages to thrill me. The quality of the system it is played on is immaterial.

So what is the point of assembling a high performance hi-fi system? To do as little harm as possible to recorded and reproduced music, within reasonable expectations. The definition of reasonable is the trick.