Both. In your search for "audio excellence", "tinkering" is one of the procedures. Like changing the cartridge on your turntable. May seem to be "tinkering" to most. At $5,000, I would not call it, Tinkering. Probably closer to Surgery.
Audiophilia: Is it the pursuit of audio excellence or just a desire to tinker.
So my wife made this observation after I spent a couple hours fiddle farting with cables, connections and speaker placements. She said is this hobby/obsession your desire for audio excellence, or just you like tinkering with stuff, tweaking your system and feeding your OCD?
She said you try this and try that and guess what it all sound the same to me. She really knows me and my OCD.
Enjoy your Sunday.