Is This the Essence of "The Audiophile Dilemma?

If you don't know what you're looking for, then you won't realize that you've found it even if you do find it.  A quandary.

Not everybody is on an epic journey.  I suspect many just want to get something that sounds good so they can listening to music.  Every now an then they'll start a post along the lines of "have there been any improvements since 1992?"

Like Hilde I love the journey. 

This is where trips to high end stores are really helpful, coupling with reading through Stereophile, HiFi+, and The Absolute Sound about the equipment you heard. If you have to drive to a city… make appointments… tell them you are surveying different sounds looking for a match. That you want some time with the best they have. Stay in a motel. This is all well worth the cost.

I had gone into a dealer in the late 70’s and heard a system that simply blew me away. It was inspirational for decades to come. You are very right to ask the question… if you are not sure where you want to go, you are never going to get there by accident. It is really hard work to get there (assuming you do not have a near infinite budget) even knowing what you want. Took me decades, as my tastes changed along the way.

@petg60 

Live music is your guide, and patience your friend.

Such a simple idea, a truism that I'd seen many times, and yet one that I ignored for decades.

Only now years later, I can ask myself, why was that?

Well, in my case I think it wasn't always an accurate sound that I was after, but a memory of a particular one that I held in my head.

For a long time.

There will be some who'll say that no system can get anywhere near to a truly lifelike sound, but there's also no doubt that some of them get a closer than others.

As Edgar Choueiri pointed out in his Audioholics podcast, the spatial aspects and imagery, and then timing seem to be the keys into fooling the brain that it's not listening to a live performance.

The very 2 qualities usually found in live music!

As he explains, frequency response, sample rates, bit rates and other ephemera such as jitter etc hardly seem to matter in comparison.