I don't know what an audiophile is supposed to be. In an ideal world where all recordings are made equal and there are no evil or incompetent recording label/studio/engineer, all recordings are made with absolute transparency and fidelity, honest to the musician's sound, then I could see myself with single source, single system that is totally transparent and have absolutely no sonic signature of its own and let the recordings do all the speaking and singing!
Unfortunately I am not in that world. There are some recordings that will sound great in absolutely transparent system. On the other hand, there are some great music on recordings that will just rear its ugly head when you expose it ruthlessly. I don't know of any cartridge/arm/table combination that can ruthlesly reveal all the glory of well made record but at the same time, forgiving the less than perfect recording that are great music wise. Some recording can benefit from a little bit more warmth, has piercing treble that can benefit from a bit more roll off top. Some are so good that you don't want any coloration from the equipment to interfere.
I suppose, if I only care about the sound, I can just toss the bad recordings away and end up listening to a few selected sonic spectacular recording through my single source system. However, I want to listen to great music and sometimes, some of those recordings may benefit from slightly different coloration/presentation by different setup.
Unfortunately I am not in that world. There are some recordings that will sound great in absolutely transparent system. On the other hand, there are some great music on recordings that will just rear its ugly head when you expose it ruthlessly. I don't know of any cartridge/arm/table combination that can ruthlesly reveal all the glory of well made record but at the same time, forgiving the less than perfect recording that are great music wise. Some recording can benefit from a little bit more warmth, has piercing treble that can benefit from a bit more roll off top. Some are so good that you don't want any coloration from the equipment to interfere.
I suppose, if I only care about the sound, I can just toss the bad recordings away and end up listening to a few selected sonic spectacular recording through my single source system. However, I want to listen to great music and sometimes, some of those recordings may benefit from slightly different coloration/presentation by different setup.