How good is good enough?

dean_palmer: The problem with having and experiencing the nicer things in life is that everything else starts to become boring, obsolete, and pleasureless, and yes, sometimes it doesn’t add anything to your life but takes away from some of the simple pleasures we once enjoyed, and thus the endless quest for more.

The only problem I see with your argument is that there are people who are never done with their acoustic treatments, too.

You cannot put consumerism obsession to buy the last top audio design on the same footing than acoustics..

😊

There is an end in acoustic because acoustic unlike a piece of gear is not a new panel, it is a room designing process made for a specific speakers/room relation ...The end of this process is programmed by acoustic principle application in some order and is finite ..

Many audiophiles buy new pieces of gear one after the other for decades but where is the audio thread where an audiophile says it treated his room and put some controls on it for decades and decades and is never satisfied ?😁 indicate me one?

Asking the question is realizing the absurdity to compare consumerism and basic applied acoustics controls...

At worst with no money , a nut head as me can do it for a year full time yes to learn about acoustic and make impractical experiments as i did with a grid of 100 tuned resonators, but even this crackpot learning process ended after a year.. And now after loosing my acoustic room in a new house, it takes me a few months to finalize my acoustic smaller room...

Acoustics is an applied art and craft based on science , buying pieces of gear to reach acoustic satisfaction is as you described it better than me a work of an obsessed mind who had not discovered yet how to liberate himself and satisfy himself : he ignore acoustics basic keys about hearing ,then he focus on price tag gear collecting ..

Now as an example :

Listen to this astonishing video about the greek audiophile society...

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-say-you-2/post?postid=2635251#2635251

How many of these very creative audiophiles so crafty they were, not passive consumers, even if they are obsessed by good sound, how many are focussing on the acoustics instead of the mechanical, electrical aspect of the gear pieces they all designed completely or in part ?

My point is unlike gear design perfectionism craftmanship in the best case, or unlike gear design collection obsession in the worst case  , acoustics controls has an end and is the more important key , not the stability of a turntable , or the source of the electrical alimentation , not the tube amplifiers design , so important they could be , and they are indeed ; but acoustic in my experience outclass anything else in basic and even in ultimate  improvement ... The only exception is poor gear component with no synergy for sure ... but designing a room for audio obey a finite set of simple rules and it has a end because it serves specific ears and specific gear choices...The system must has been chosen BEFORE  room acoustics choices for best result ...Here some of these audiophiles are obssesed and bought 50 amplifiers in one year never thinking about room acoustic ..😊

Thats all ....

@hilde45

“that criteria can be settled in advance, with examples marching in afterwards to be judged like contestants in a beauty contest”

The question is not based on an objective reality, but how good enough it is for YOU?

If the queston is not based on reality and acoustics parameters and acoustic satisfaction ..

Then the question is a question about psychology...

Easy to answer...

There are normal people happy with what they have so imperfect it is and they listen music ..

There is people obsessed by sound who are never satisfied because they never look at the right place to be satisfied: acoustics basic .. Instead their pleasure is to buy without end the gear ...

There is a few like me completely happy to listen music in a mechanically , electrically and acoustically well embedded basically good modest system /room who has reached the minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold or very costly well embedded system/room as Mike Lavigne who had reach the maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold ...Because we learned how to do it ...

Three groups ...No more ...

The question is not based on an objective reality, but how good enough it is for YOU

@jonwolfpell

Doesn’t it essentially depend on both how much music reproduction means to us in conjunction w/ the number of 0’s in our bank account?

I’d argue it also depends up now much MUSIC means to us, as opposed to its reproduction. Some guys seem to only be capable of enjoying music unless it’s presented optimally. There’s been an exhibit of Van Gogh works in Sacramento, which involves projecting them on museum walls much larger than life, so attendees feel they’re "inside" the paintings. This suggests a widespread dulling of aesthetic sensitivity. Nothing reaches people unless they experience the "IMax’ version. If you are wealthy, this is not necessarily an issue. But if you’re not, I’d suggest it’s advantageous to have/cultivate a capacity for appreciating art, first and foremost, which has nothing to do with gear. Then, you appreciate a more refined presentation as a luxury rather than a requirement.