High end, perfectionist, mid fi and others are marketing terms. Don't take them too seriously. If you have a passion for well reproduced music then you are by definition a music lover and an audiophile. Additionally, you don't have to be an audiophile to have music touch your soul. Your average human can do it with minimal quality equipment.
Short term listening can easily reveal differences between equipment, but long term listening is useful in figuring out whether you really enjoy the differences.
@calvinj was that 12 year sentence of listening to cables served in the Fed system or was it in a state penal system? Either way it sounds like a violation of your human rights!