"audiophiles listen to their equipment"

Music is something that happens in your mind.  The stimulus need not be a sound.  A written score does not need to be played to be understood as music.  A sound designer/editor can look at a waveform and see the music.  A profoundly deaf person can feel music.

The majority of people on this planet do not need audiophile quality sound to enjoy reproduced music.  Even when exposed to audiophile quality sound reproduction the majority of people are not converted.  Musicians famously do not require audiophile sound.  Only audiophiles need audiophile quality sound, hence they are listening to their systems.  And there's nothing wrong with that.

“For the love of music”

We listen to music through our equipment — the two are inseparable. I can't fully appreciate music from just my laptop. I need to hear it played back through my system, seated at the main listening position in my IKEA Poäng armchair, eyes closed, while the massager kneads my back.

Isn't that the whole point of chasing ultimate equipment — to achieve the ultimate enjoyment of music listening? I don’t quite understand the cliché some people repeat, saying they can finally enjoy the music more with subpar equipment.

Well I think this is part of the problem with double blind and similar listening tests. Listening for a difference is the worst type of critical listening. Further, you know you are being tested so it changes the entire experience.

No one wonders how we can BOTH think about the taste of our food and then go back to enjoying it.

So why is this such an issue for sound and music?

Honestly, it's only a dilemma for those in the grip of nervous audiophile syndrome.

The rest of us can move between analyzing and enjoying without needing to call our therapist in the middle of the night.