But oh my, when you couple excellent performance with a high quality recording, played on a nice system, you have it all. Maybe the payoff is worth the trouble.
Some "music lovers" will be critical of this view. Some seem to be able to appreciate the underlying music, regardless of the quality of the reproduction.
I identify as a music-lover. I would never downplay the potential for enjoyment when well-recorded music is played on a nice system. That would be absurd! What I do not identify with is an inability to be engaged by music unless it’s presented in high-end sound. Of course, if the sound is so poor as to be garbled, that’s another story.
What I’ve noticed is, the better the sound, the more my attention is drawn to sonics/system. I don’t find I’m more engaged by the music. My capacity for enjoying music began way before I heard better-than-mid-fi sound and I still utilize that same capacity to this day, whether I'm listening to the car radio, at home on my modest system or to a friend's high-end system.