Audiophilia: Is it the pursuit of audio excellence or just a desire to tinker.

@erik_squires I agree and get the same levels of satisfaction doing overhauls on old Cummings and Cat diesel engines for friends. I may get a kit from that fellow on youtube GR Research. 

@roxy54 You have met my wife 😄 No you are 100% right and she focuses her OCD on planning trips for the two of us. 

I like to fiddle with my stuff to see if I can improve its sound in some way. Over the years the experimentation has had very positive results, if not in the actual sound, at least in my listening skills. But I rarely go to market for new stuff. My last major purchase was speakers I bought 10 years ago. I got a big attic and lots of stuff.

Personally I feed this need by building.  Whether it is speakers or cables, I find it more satisfying to make something than buying something.

I encourage all audiophiles to at least once in their hobby lifetime to build at least 1 speaker kit.  They are affordable and rewarding in ways far better than being armchair critics.

She's partially right for sure, but there's some fun in the OCD practices, and the rest of the story is that your tinkering does produce positive results, but she is not tuned in to fine sonic nuances, because it's not her area of interest.