any audiophile guitarists out there?

I'm tired of not making progress. I hope to find more time and patience (read: attention span) and move slowly forward. I have hard time to concentrate and to remember musical phrase but it will come with practice. I played more when I was young but it was time of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Now I use Sibelius to enter and play with computer small classical pieces and Band in the Box to play acoustic or electric.

Yes I should sell Martin - it is practically new (sound not opened yet) but I just love this guitar. Martin is perfection. I can find some imperfections on my hand made Cordoba but not on Martin. Taylor is also top notch but I like more Martin deep "house sound" vs Taylor's open and bright sound. Part of the sound is saddle - extra hard synthetic (Corian) on Taylor and softer synthetic on Martin. I changed Martin saddle to Walrus Ivory and pins to brass - works quite well.

I have been playing into a Crate Vintage Club 30 for 15 years now. Sweetest class A EL34 tube amp i've heard. Sustain and crunch galore. Not the most precise but who cares when you hear that tone. Real spring reverb to boot. I am currently loving my Ibanez AS93 although I do miss my 1963 (revisted )Les Paul Classic Premium Plus Cinnamon Burst.

Kijanki, I think with the Taylor vs. Martin discussion, that Martins are a little less able to bloom than Taylors but maybe do have a little more punch in the bottom end. I personally like my 810 better than say a D28, but like you say both are top notch. For my style of playing the Taylor seems a better fit. BTW, I doubt that the saddle has as much to do with it, I think it is the bracing and body shape that is the determinant as to the bottom end.
Also, if you are fed up with not making progress, i would suggest either more lessons and/or as I stated above, maybe a different guitar.

Grimace - Using home system for guitar playing is not a very good idea. Few of my friends damaged their systems that way. In addition nothing can sound as sweet as good crunch of tube guitar amp that Dpac996 is talking about. I can get some of this sound with my VOX Valvetronix modeling but it is not the same. It is pretty hard to damage tube amp and quite easy to repair (replace tube) - another reason for using tube guitar amps. Guitar thru home stereo, in comparison, sounds "sterile".

Electric guitar and amp are considered one instrument. You should be able to move them together - not the case with home stereo.

"I would suggest either more lessons and/or as I stated above, maybe a different guitar."

I've tried to blame it on guitar (I have 4) but the truth is I have to spend more time practicing. It is also possible that I don't have ears for music and whole thing doesn't make sense. I don't expect much though and have whole life for it.

I agree about bracing - that is perhaps the biggest difference. Typical guitars have top made of spruce or cedar because these woods have highest strength to weight ratio, but my D15 is whole mahogany (top, back and sides) - quite different sound.

While we're on the subject of guitars and guitar making, there is a luthier in Germany Matthias Dammann who makes world's best classical guitars. When one of the best guitarists David Russell started using his guitar everybody wants to have one. Price is average for this level - about $30k but wait period is 9 years (big demand and lot of orders). He could raise price twofold but he finds more satisfaction when people have to wait 9 years for his instrument. Something to thing about in our money oriented society.