Am I an Audiophile, a music lover-or both?

@geoffkait me too indeed unaware, but I'm well aware that Rationality is the art that not too many possess especially audiophiles. 

@czarivey When you hear something new in a recording you know so well, all Rationality disappears from your consciousness.  There may be a correlation between how fast your Rationality disappears vs which audiophile priority has changed with the new/modified/different component under scrutiny.

I'm wondering as I read this discussion how many of us have listened to a particular recording and been unimpressed by it only to listen to the exact same recording another time and really enjoy it?

I had a rather dramatic example of this recently with a recording of Rachmaninoff's Symphony #2.  Based on reviews I read, I purchased a version performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.  The SACD had very nice sound quality but the performance left me unfulfilled.  I was so disappointed that I purchased Andre Previn's rendition, often noted as the standard of performance for this work.  It was great to listen to.  The music was stirring.  A couple weeks passed and I decided to try the Singapore recording again and low and behold I really enjoyed it, both musically and sonically.  The only thing I could conclude that may have led to the change in appreciation was hearing the Previn in between and being opened up to new aspects of the work that enabled me to appreciate the Singapore's perspective on the work.

The nice thing now is that I am enjoying both performances!  Perhaps there is no ideal performance of a work just performances that reveal different virtues of that work.

@james1969 , that's what all typical audiophiles say and therefore my statement about pathological lack of rationality in audiophiles isn't hypothetical anymore.
 

as an audiophile and a pro musician, I can tell you I listen differently.  sometimes I play the same record twice so I can appreciate its different values.