I also consider myself primarily and foremost, an avid music lover. As mahlman stated well, the reproduction gear is mainly just a means or conduit to reproduce music recordings with the highest fidelity possible.
My system goal has always been a system attaining a quality level that presents a wide, deep, holographic stereo sound stage illusion that is so palpable, tonally accurate, powerful, dynamic , detailed. realistic and natural that the musicians are perceived as being in your room or as if I've been transported to the venue and am listening to a live performance with a seat center stage and no more than about 15' back from the stage.
Once any overall system reaches a certain level of quality and fidelity, of course, the quality and fidelity levels of the music recordings played becomes extremely apparent, both positively and negatively,and one quickly realizes that this has become the new limiting factor on one's overall system reproduction performance quality. As a result, the search for music shifts a bit, from music you like to music you like and it's also been been captured on the highest quality recording available. A bit of a wrinkle but well worth the effort.
Tim