A toughie, for sure.
One decides, “I want to improve the way my music sounds.”
Fair.
The processes then undertaken to achieve the desired result in this fair endeavor often cause one to be inordinately concerned with minutiae instead of enjoying music (for many, the point of the whole shabang).
A tough line to top-toe.
For many, the processes themselves are enjoyable.
Fair.
In my case, I consider the processes tedious and frustrating, though certainly enjoyable at times when I can hear that my earnest efforts indeed yielded positive results. Just from a scientific standpoint, the processes can be interesting in and of themselves. It’s fascinating to hear how much difference a 1/2” tilt in speaker position makes in the way I experience sound, it’s interesting how seemingly insignificant adjustments to things like damping, use of various organic and synthetic materials etc. etc. can yield perceptible changes in the sound, the mental exercise involved in the use of geometry, physics…it’s not all bad, is what I’m getting at 😉
I’ve backed off the intensity in my focus on the sound, and it’s worked well.
I have reached a point where I’m more educated than I was before as to what this whole audio thing is, am better at achieving good sound than I was before, but have significantly dropped the troublesome preoccupation with technical minutia.
This was achieved through a “hiatus” from the high-end merry-go-round, and my appreciation for the high-end now has grown as a result.
I’m much more relaxed now.