Do you listen to equipment or music.

Like most of you, I listen to equipment when something changes and music the rest of the time EXCEPT...

I NEED to be able to hear what the singer is saying. I just can't forget everything and drift into that wonderful state of floating with the music if I can't make out the words. I,m always disappointed when I buy an album and the lyrics (and musicians by track) aren't included. Luckily, I can almost always find them on line.

As a sideline...I'm involved in live music as a musician and live sound engineer. Talk to the sales people in either of the High End shops I live near and not only do they not do little "house concerts" at their shops (ask about that fact and note the bewildered response), they're generally unaware of live shows nearby, and often have very narrow musical tastes as if actual live music doesn't matter much. 

I think that most people had never listen to the true potential quality sound of their already good audio gear,because of the lack of proper means for cleaning EMI And RFI, and eliminating mechanical vibrations... Then because of that subconcious and conscious insatisfaction they listen to sound not to music in the hope to detect the problem...I know that because before my experiments in cleaning I was not satisfied by the same gear which I am in love now, the difference is that I listen now to the same equipment at his true quality top level...Cleaning is the beginning and the end in audio...After that when you hear an organic realistic holographic equilibrated sound that transform in music at the end, you listen, and forget the hype and the upgrading virus...

Whew... Didn’t think that I was the only one out there in this way. Yes, it is both music and equipment. Truth be told, it is mostly equipment IF the recording is up to it. Right now, I am listening to an amature recording (better than you would expect) of which I personally know the artists. So I can pass off the sonic expectations in turn for the music/performance itself. I do set the volume, tone, dimension controls for the best rendition. After that, it is the music.
I am more of an experimenter by nature, and love hearing the results of my efforts. The same held true when used to work on my mountain bike, attempting to get the smoothest shifting, best handling, etc. Either way, I tend to like the physics of all things earth, and am fascinated with that which seems to be  beyond.