Music first or sound first?

Good sound is useless without good music. Not so the converse.  

The left side of the brain listens to the gear, the right side to the music. Turn off the left side, relax and enjoy the music. That said I'm always on the hunt for new gear. Which is why we're reading this blog right? Looking for ways to improve our system. 

When your system achieves that astonishing level of realism, you're  content to listen at lower volume levels. Turning up the volume is to compensate for lack of detail and involvement. You're trying to get your emotional fix through volume alone.

Have you ever been surprised to find that dawn is breaking because you put a new piece of gear into your system and it made such an improvement that the music just sucked you in and you've pulled another all nighter?

e.g. Oracle 6 with ET2 arm and Benz Gullwing cartridge into MFA SuperLumi. Also the Nagra CD Player.

Would you rather listen to a great recording or go to a concert to hear the so-called absolute sound? So-called cuz live music is a crapshoot. Sometimes the conductor gets an astonishing performance out of the orchestra but other times they just seem to be phoning it in. 

Like a great new piece of gear, great recordings can keep you up all night too. Richter's recording of Bach Cantatas makes you realize why Bach has such a rabid following. 

My next new piece of gear is a dedicated listening room. Always wanted to hear what a golden ratio listening room sounds like. As I've never come across one, I'm driven to build mine own. System will be a Studer A80 feeding into Nagra HD Pre into Manley Massively Passive EQ into VTL Wotans into Klipsch Jubilee with Fostex 31.5 inch subs. With a concrete slab floor, I'm expecting bass even God has never heard.

It’s such a pleasure when you put the music before the sound. 
You stimulate a whole different aesthetic, and often you can then really enjoy both

Music is most important, and the best is when the stereo enables you to hear more of it or hear it better. There is nothing better than noticing something in a song or album you've listened to hundreds of times that you never heard before.

I can like a song in the car, on the bose wave in the garage or on the stereo, but I like it most on the stereo because I can hear it better and more of it. The fact that it is vinyl only is not coincidental.

I’m just now realizing how far down the rabbit hole I was.  Whether consciously or unconsciously, the quest for good sound dominated my choice of what music to play.   
That very impressive, expensive behemoth (my rig) standing in front of me was just too much to resist. 
Now, thank the gods, the music is first.  Hopefully it will remain so.  
I really envy those that are not seduced by the glories of their system.

Sound first is a dead end for me.