Can an “audiophile” ever be satisfied with a system?

I get to a point where the feeling is “how can it be any better?” and “good enough is good enough!”.
Then I make an improvement like changing out a couple of tubes in the phono stage of my preamp for $25 NOS... the improvement is marked and significant. More detail. more presence! Now I am waiting for a SRA platform for my TT. According to my latest audio guru, Ralph Karsten, this is a very significant improvement. And following his lead, will soon have a Triplanar arm replacing my Ortophon RS 309D arm. I expect that this will be a huge change.
A $3500 arm for a $7500 one. At least, I will love to look at it and love picking it up and placing it in the run in grove! Is there an element of hearing an expected outcome? Sure. But IME, leaping up to the next level of sound reproduction is real and exciting. And sure, the rush of something new fades. But the enjoyment of hearing more deeply into the music remains.

i know several audiophiles whom are very satisfied with their systems of late

having been laid off due to covid seems to have improved their hearing - not to mention their appreciation of their systems!   :)

After many decades of trying this, that, and the other, I have been closing in on extreme happiness with a very simple system
* Source Oppo 105 with updated power supply section* EVS 1200 dual mono AS1200 modules with lots of mods (BUT, am in anticipation of hearing a LSA Voyager GaN amp)
* Emerald Physics Open Baffle Speakers (currently 3.4s, which are amazing with most music, but in my 20 x 35 x 12 room some music needs more bass. To resolve that I am expecting 2.8s today. Same 12" concentric midrange plus 2 @ 15" carbon fiber woofers per side* Core Power 1800 for cleaning up the electric power
* WireWorld Series 8 speaker cables and Interconnects* TekLine Power cords+ 4 Argent Room Lenses

@mglik a "huge" difference, no. Noticeable? Probably, but for sure the Tri Planar is a very cool arm and well designed. Nothing like pride in ownership. Next you need a pair of Ralph's MA 2 amplifiers:)

I bought my first turntable this past June (well since I was 13, so 40 years since..

Anyway, I started with a Rega P6, then I quickly upgraded to the P8 and now I have the P10, with a very noticeable improvement each step up (I had the 6 and the 8 in my room, then the 8 and the 10 at the same time). I didn’t lose any money since it was from the same dealer and all within the very generous return period.

Now I just upgraded the cart in the P10 from the Apheta3 to the Aphelion2 and I was blown away by the very real and increased sense of immediacy of dynamics. So I think im done for now until Rega releases an upgrade to either table or cart ;)

Oh I did the same thing with the Audioquest Niagara PC. Bought the 1200, then the 3000, and now i have the 5000. Lol. Ive owned different PCs over the decades but the performance of this design is very special.