How can anyone want more......Just a very happy listener.

Because its a hobby and they can.
If I had unlimited funds and time to do nothing much else, I might even be crazy enough to do it but meanwhile I sweat out every dime I spend because like you what I have fits my quite demanding needs in most every way these days and its hard to justify spending more what with a kid to still go to college and all.
Still it did take me many years and over 5 digits invested in hifi gear total to get to my current happy place, so there you go.

prof, what ? I listen about an hour a day. I listen to the music, and my system allows me to, happily. My system seems to not be there. I have a nice chunk of change if I wanted to get more expensive gear. As I said in my post, I have been there and I have done that. I know many individuals who listen, only, to audiophile recordings. Many of the shows I attended, the music played was rather boring. But audiophile. I have some of those, but I listen to everything. My system is for the enjoyment of music, not the other way around. I hope it is the same for you. I suppose I am lucky. I read posts and threads here, and would not change a thing for the equipment that many people have. Enjoy ! MrD.

Don't worry. Be happy. Enjoy.........

mrdecibel, a lot of people would consider what you spent on your system to be an obscene amount. That's where the argument gets kind of circular. I personally would never spend the kind of money you spent and would never have purchased the system that was given to me.

Having 'tasted' the pleasures of hi-fi with my current system I would be sad to lose it. And if I did I would probably limit myself to not more than $2000 to replace it. And some people would be justified in saying that $2k is nuts. It would not be possible to duplicate it for that amount but I'd have to do the best I could.

Could I spend more than that on hi-fi? Yes. I could spend more than what my current system costs. But I wouldn't.

Contentment and satisfaction are bad words in an economy and culture that is driven, even obsessed by newer, bigger, better, more. And it works from an economic standpoint. But constant discontentment and desire for more, is not, I think, good for a culture. There is no endpoint. It is like a drug.

As I've gotten into this hobby I hear so much about this and that equipment and this and that level of listening nirvana. I briefly considered going to a local hi-fi showroom to see what I was missing and what all the buzz is about. And then I thought 'why in the heck would I do that?'

I have a free, powerful, well reviewed system that I love to listen to. Why on earth would I want to go and find a reason to be dissatisfied with it?

Like you, I am lucky that I am very content with what I have and am amazed at what I'm hearing everyday........I'm also listening to pretty much exactly the same music as you........

The view from the summit is always grand :-)
enjoy the music !