I wouldn't consider myself an "audiophile" by any means.
What I am cursed by is good ears. Yes, I said cursed. I have friends that can't hear the difference between crap and great. I envy them. Would make life so much easier. I could buy inexpensive gear and be happy. I definitely don't listen to audiophile music either. I'm not listening for instrument placement or width of soundstage or any of the other terms used for great systems. But unfortunately, I can hear when they are lacking.
I also don't consider myself an audiophile because I don't think about system design constantly and I very rarely change components. I can be happy with what I have, with one caveat. It has to sound better than what I spent on it...from my perspective. I know this will sound blasphemous to this group, but I went one day about 8 years ago to the Magnolia store when my A/C was broken and it was oppressively hot. I listened to every speaker which I had an interest in and still didn't find any that I liked more than what I already had. Successful day.
I also know how much I am willing to mess with things, which is a lot less than I ever would have imagined now that I have means to do so. I just want to listen and have it not bug me in any way. I go to friends' houses (where stereo listening is not the objective of the visit) and say "How can you listen to it sounding like that? Let me do some tweaking and let me know if it sounds better. If not, I'll put it back." I never end up putting it back. The sad part is they lacked both the ear and the technical ability to get even a basic system to sound as good as it could, which most of the time is still barely listenable after the tweaks.
My best friend lives in Texas, so I haven't had the opportunity to hear his system after he's made some upgrades. But I know it sounds good as he has a good ear...and most importantly, his ear agrees with mine. Maybe it's because we've been listening to and building systems together for so long that we have a shared agreement on what "right" is.
I'm curious if we truly have a particular sound signature that sounds best to us innately, or if it is colored by our learning along the way. I would ask yourself how much of the reading and listening you have done, and who you chose to believe as your mentor(s), accounts for what you feel is the way a system should present itself to the listener? It's almost a nature vs. nurture argument and one that will be very hard to ever prove, but it interests me.
Audio is a very slippery slope. About 15 years ago I heard a HT system with Dynaudio towers (the 6', $50K versions) with the matching center channel powered by Sunfire amps and with Sunfire subs. Was worth about $150K at the time. That system completely ruined home theater for me, but in retrospect, was the best thing to have ever happened. I realized I could never re-create what I heard that day, as I would never spend the money to make it happen. But it felt good to know that there were halo products out there and it was nice just to have experienced them. I love cars as well. I don't have to own a hyper car to appreciate it's existence. Just to see and hear them makes me happy.
Every so often things change and I feel it's time to upgrade one or more parts of my system. About a year ago I did so after downgrading substantially to a receiver from separates a few years prior. I never was happy with the receiver and rarely listened to music on it, but it fit where I needed it to and was simple. Now I have separates again and a much different speaker setup and am once again satisfied. It's not what I would want if I was concentrating on audio, but when I listen, I'm content and not annoyed. And that is a great place to be, even if it isn't perfect.
