For me its about enjoying music that I like to the maximum possible level. If I could listen to every song I play at a concert (in a good venue) with non-animal fans showing up, that's nirvana. Unfortunately, many of my records are by artists that are no longer with us, so it's impossible. Other than that, it's how can I come as close to that experience as possible? Most live albums are not recorded well, but when you find them....BINGO. Otherwise well recorded, mastered and pressed studio albums will have to do.
To do that you need an excellent stereo and high quality records (some would say streaming or RTR or HiRez DLs or SACDS or whatever, but that's not the point here) to come as close to that experience as possible.
To the hardware fetishists/collectors, insanely obsessed tweakers, record collectors (or should I say investors) who never play or even open them, constant upgradeitis victims with monopoly money to blow (or sadly not like I was in college), or those who listen to the same thing over and over to hear "the wire" and not the music, I'm not going to criticize you. It's a free country (and mostly free world) so whatever floats your boat. BTW, at times I can be all of the above.
I will mention that my son loves music (he is out of college and off the payroll, so he is in control of his finances), and likes a lot of the music that I like +rap, and just got his first hifi system. It's an $8 speaker he bought at Walmart to play music from his iPhone. He asks me why I care so much about the sound - he can hear the music just fine and it worked great when the had a few people over. I recently sold an older amp and preamp I was saving for him because I knew it was hopeless (he knew I had it for him and all he needed was a source box and speakers and didn't care)....If he does ever become interested in music sound quality and wants to spend judiciously, he can go explore some used equipment. And he has someone to help him.
