Is This the Essence of "The Audiophile Dilemma?

Factor 1 - Audiophile equipment ranges from relatively affordable to stuff that's very few could even consider as a possibility, so there's always something bigger and better available.

Factor 2 - Every audiophile has different references and unique listening spaces, so the only way to really know is by trying gear in your own listening space.

Factor 3 - Many audiophiles are in it for the hobby as much as for the music so upgrading and trying different gear is part of the fun.

Factor 4 - In my opinion, most people struggle to separate something sounding "different" with it sounding "better" unquestionable better.

At this point my system is reasonably on the audiophile scale of possibilities, but exceeds anything that I ever had as a goal, so I'm satisfied...for now.

@ps - I forgot to add that to have the greatest success you have to start at the speakers AND the source since nobody can agree on where to start. Focusing on everything is always the best policy.

Also, I’ve noticed that if someone asks for an opinion on a specific item like interconnects they will get advice ranging from a specific interconnect to every other possible interconnect to needing to upgrade another component or tweak in their system to treating their room (aka @erik_squires) to everyones crazy (aka @jasonbourne52)

The call outs are intended in good fun, we all have our roles to play :-)