When I listen to my system.......

Its funny when I think of equipment churner homes I've been to and see literally hundreds of thousands dollars worth of equipment stacked up in boxes or sitting unused on component racks. And then I listen to their 'reference' system which has  a mixture of some very nice equipment alongside lesser components, and this carelessly set up in just an ordinary room. Sound quality serious lacking for me, yet they hear it as state of the art. In my mind I'm thinking about how I could make their system sing with a more sympathetic partnering of equipment they already have in house, alongside some work on room and AC quality. Don't have the heart or lack of grace to criticize when they appear this content so I keep my mouth shut.

Used to attend audio shows quite frequently, often amazed at what passed as good sound, same with audio dealers. And the music played same issue.

Over time I've come to accept that people are into this audiophile thing for all sorts of reasons. Same thing with perceptions of good sound. While I may be curious about what makes people tick, simply not in my purview to judge them, I do my thing, they do theirs.

@larsman

YMMV but I’ve experienced a big (!) difference in the foot tapping factor when changing integrateds. My current Hegel H390 really moves the music along. Its predecessors by contrast were downright sluggish by comparison. And it is not dependent upon the music being played. BTW, I didn’t know what I’d been missing in this regard until I experienced it for myself.

I'm going to use a couple of car analogies.

If I am taking a scenic drive it is much more enjoyable in a clean Lexus than a rusty Yugo with dirty windows. It's the same scenery but the experience of driving a nice car is, for me, much better. I can enjoy the drive in both cars but give me the Lexus any day.

Decades ago, in the age of AM car radios, a guy I met at a conference turned out to be an audiophile and we were discussing our hobby. I mentioned the "goose bump test" for audio systems and he said, "Yeah, but I can get goose bumps listening to the car radio." I thought for a second and agreed.

Bottom line, I like listening to music whether it's high fidelity or not. The only exception is a few rock concerts I've attended where the sound was painfully loud and distorted. But give me good music with a poor recording and I can get plenty of goose bumps.

@immatthewj

I do not understand the mentality of folks who listen differently than I

"My way is the right way so therefore yours is wrong."

I'm not sure how you get to that interpretation of the OP's statement. He said he didn't understand why some people listen differently than he does. He never said anything about whether he or those people were right or wrong.

I'm glad that you remember your Dad like that.  Mine was an EE and skeptical (to say the least) about unmeasurable sonic nuances. Still, it made me smile when he got a look at my stuff and marveled that I had equipment with "bottles"!  When he passed I found myself building a 2A3 amp almost reflexively.