"audiophiles listen to their equipment"

@ghdprentice Great description of the problems that occur when we listen too analytically and make decisions while in analytical mode. I did something similar... choose an impressive headphone amp years ago and eventually it was my only working amp... and discovered recently that certain "warts" in the sound were not coming from my DAC but rather from my amp. It had an overly forward upper midrange, and this was killing enjoyment. As you can imagine I listened to my system much less during this time. I thought I just had found other hobbies and was keeping busy with them, but no, turned out my system was just not as enjoyable.

If you didn't personally work at....say....Yamaha's musical instruments division or their hifi division, how the heck would you know?

As a end user, you can't compare yourself to the guys who designed instruments or equipment 

That quote is misattributed to Alan Parsons, as I understand. Anyway saying there's a problem with wanting good sound is like saying an instrument designer, aiming for beautiful sound, could not possibly be a music lover and is only interested in the sound of the instruments. I.e. the sound is inseparable from the music. For me the beauty of the sound, good microdynamics, and so on, are the "doors" to the meaning of the music.

Is it OK if I listen to both??

@magon yes, live music is different than reproduced music.  Good luck with your further explorations in the meaning of music.