What Is This Hobby?

Onhwy61, first I want to apologize for such a long time span between your question and my answer. I was obsessed with critical listening. Now I realize that was foolish. Imagine a plane that overshoots the runway by 10 miles. I should have stopped a long time ago and listened exclusively to the music.

It's an obsession because of the undefinability of it all. It's impossible to figure out what's right, what's wrong. You can't SEE music (unlike art or a car) and is constantly changing so how do you hit a moving target?

an attempt to attain the "highest" level of sound quality within some budgetary constraint.

For me this hobby is playing around with the gear. Listening to music is an activity, not a hobby. That's like saying "my hobby is watching TV."
I do not look forward to the day that I look at my system and think that I've nailed it, nothing more to do. Right now I'm looking at my DIY amp with 2A3s in it thinking I can slap a switch and a resistor in it and make it 45-tube friendly. Not because I think 45s will sound better (they may), but because I want to hear how 45s sound. That's the hobby for me. Changing the system and listening to how the music changes. Not necessarily getting the best sound from my system. Certainly not assembling a system that's the best I can afford and calling it a day.

Judging from the posts, "Audiophiles" can be divided into two groups; equipment lovers and music lovers. By necessity, we all have to begin as "equipment lovers"; there is no other way to get the sound up to the very high level that audiophiles demand. I am a music lover, and I have ceased that never ending quest for the ultimate "audio high"