Recognize it for what it is: Status climbing and rank materialism. Even if no other audiophiles see your system, and none of your family and friends understands it, you are succumbing to peer pressure and media manipulation. We all do to some degree and in different ways, but the pursuit of social approval attracts some of us more than others (or is more readily achievable for some of us than others).
It is my innate repulsion for excessively conspicuous consumption, and for coercion-induced conformity, that ultimately keeps my habit within managable limits relative to my overall wealth/income (or lack of same :-) Plus, my interest has always lain primarily with the music, and I see audiophilism as somewhat of a fundamentally trivial and slightly shameful diversion that I like to think I could take or leave in extremis...
It is my innate repulsion for excessively conspicuous consumption, and for coercion-induced conformity, that ultimately keeps my habit within managable limits relative to my overall wealth/income (or lack of same :-) Plus, my interest has always lain primarily with the music, and I see audiophilism as somewhat of a fundamentally trivial and slightly shameful diversion that I like to think I could take or leave in extremis...