Why do some think "music" (not gear, trading, etc.) is the ultimate end?

I have no dog in this fight either and I have seen pictures of the insides of  amplifiers with people saying things like look at those beautiful mosfets or those beautiful toroids.

I suspect that many people are so afraid that the music is going to get lost that they make it the only or exclusive thing that is valued in the equation... but function and design are part of it too. At least for me.

I got 5 minutes to do everything I can. This is how it’s gonna play out..

The vinyl, 3 pictures, the dog, the bunny, the wife, and my hat, kinda in that order. Insurance will have to fix the rest...

You can have every car on the planet.
because I want a chauffeur and a Roller. Back seat please.

With a very nice stereo, that plays RtR, Vinyl and anything else I want. gosh I can dream...

After the mess got have some tunes, might as well have some nice one. Onward James..

WAR "Born in a Hurricane", that will do...

Regards

I don't know that the music is any more important than the gear- or the other way around. How could it be? As Robert Harley explains in his so excellent it should be required reading The Complete Guide to High End Audio, music is unique among communications in that the medium and the message are inseparable. Music can be written on a page but it is much more than a string of notes. Systems that are better are literally playing different music than lesser systems. 

Everyone knows this. Its one of the most common things people say with a good upgrade, they are hearing new things, things they never noticed before, etc.

Recently four audiophiles drove up from Portland to hear my system. The whole time I'm asking them what do you want to hear? Finally at the end one asked me to play my one special show off the system recording. I was actually kind of flummoxed. If the system is good enough its no longer the system you are showing off. The job of the system is to reproduce music. Not make. Reproduce. The whole idea of showing off like that, well think about it. Its like Arnold posing. He's showing off his muscles. But there is a lot more to Arnold than big muscles. Proved it by becoming a movie star and governor. I could play Bela Fleck Flight of the Cosmic Hippos, show off awesome bass. Not a lot of music content. Might as well be playing test tones. Flex, look at my guns! (Anchorman.)    

Of course music not gear is the ultimate end. How can anyone be so dense as to not see this? The ultimate goal is a system that disappears leaving only the music. Which cannot happen without a really good system. So of course the system is the ultimate end. How can anyone be so dense as to not see this?  

Are you a tourist or a traveler?

I like the car analogy, but I will extend it to books. I enjoy reading, I enjoy collecting and sometimes I amuse myself with writing.

I have read many of the books that I have collected, but not in every case. Sometimes I collect book-ish things like ephemera and pamphlets that I find interesting. There are books that I have loved that I do not own, and there are some books that I own and love, but aren't collectible per se (Ellery Queen late edition hardcovers pre-1950) because they are getting harder to find.

If someone told me they read primarily on a Kindle my reaction wouldn't be, "You're not a book lover!". I'd want to know what they like and discuss. 

Or if someone collects books because of their interest and value, it doesn't mean they can't have a meaningful opinion about an author or literature, and I would want to engage them on their knowledge and perspective.
 
My lifetime ratio of books read to books collected is probably 20:1. If someone told me that I am not a booklover as a result I one, wouldn't care, and two, I would discount everything that person had to say about the subject and give them a wide berth in the future.