When is your Hifi good enough?

Newbee, we are similar in that regard I would say.

Yeah, it's good enough when all I can afford to do is to listen.

There are moments during certain favorite albums/songs when my heart/head tells me, "There ain't no better than this." But then the next music starts to play and I start thinking, "This would sound so much better if...." and I start fidgeting.

"But then the next music starts to play and I start thinking, "This would sound so much better if...." and I start fidgeting."

Is it safe to assume its not just the variation of quality from recording to recording that accounts for this?  

I find when I think things are good enough,  I can clearly hear the differences good and bad from recording to recording and I am pretty much getting the most I can out of each.   That can be hard to know for sure.  In general,  when I hear only good things happening in the best recordings overall, I tend to conclude that most limitations or issues I might hear in others are the recordings fault, and there is little one can do to reproduce something that is not there in the first place.

As a technically oriented and analytically minded person, I find myself making such determinations in a manner similar to the manner in which the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said he distinguishes between pornography and Constitutionally protected free speech: "I know it when I see it." Or in this case hear it. Although the results of such determinations tend to change every now and then.

:-)

Best regards,
-- Al
 

Al, I am similar I think.

I often say you have to know what your target is before you can hit it.

Once you hit it, what more is there? Until you stop hitting it. Then the question becomes why? It could just be us having a bad day or going through a bad time. Or something with the power, weather, who knows? All the more reason to not jump to conclusions too quickly with this stuff. Its often very nebulous why things sound the way they do to us. The equipment merry go round is never a good answer. You have to be able to get off that from time to time. Unless one just likes to play with different gear, which is fine.

Also I agree with dweller.   I can enjoy listening to anything for a period as long as no audible distortion.  What floats ones boat beyond that is highly subjective I would say.   Many tasty ways to make soup, in either small or large portions.  large portions tend to cost more though if equally tasty.