Between other obligations and being out of town hadn't listened to my system going on three weeks, having withdrawals.
I built many systems over decades, kept an audio journal for most of that time. There are times when I'll go through those journals, all the obsession, angst! I'd build up a system over years only to find inherent faults no amount of tuning and/or component churning could satisfy my needs. I also overcompensated a number of times, overly romantic to overly analytical, very frustrating in real time. What I came to realize over time is how all this frustration, angst was a valuable learning experience. Having the journal to refer to gave me a guide/recollection of what did and didn't work, eventually I was able to build a system that satisfied this very particular individual. Its not easy being an audiophile, especially a very particular and individualistic audiophile. I've had to end up doing things my own particular way, my unique recipe for sound quality even goes so far as to add a dollop of capacitor here, resistor there, custom drivers, just the right tube, cable, lps, blah, blah, blah.
And so I've been pretty much at the end of this journey in last couple years, virtually all the work is done, I'm finally content! I know this is not perfection, but contentment is a good place to live, the artistry and the music is salient, sound quality has receded into the background. Not to say I'm never mindful of sound quality, I can still marvel at how well my system reproduces the highest quality recordings, but whats even more impressive is how well it does with mediocre recordings, these predominate by a large margin so you better have your ducks in a row. Providing a high level involvement requires high level of resolution/transparency, the magic comes from having just the right amount of forgiveness, 'natural' timbre and 'flow' or timing is key.
So now the music sets the mood rather than the sound quality, my interest waxes and wanes with the music and/or recording quality. Newfound quality artists are now the highlight of my listening sessions, just last night discovered two who will be long term favorites, Linda Perhacs and Dorothy Ashby, both 1970 releases, how did I ever miss them! Yes, this is a very good time to be an audiophile!