Recording Limited?

After several upgrades to my system, I am converging on an opinion which will be finally determined after tweaking my cables: I am recording limited with my playback system.

Specifically, the primary 'quality' differences I am hear are driven by the recording. First, I am sure my choice of source material - Redbook CD - is a key limiting factor. Second, the recording (room, mikes, etc.) and mixing decisions (stereo, mono, various compressions, etc.) are quite obvious. Thus, the primary differences in tone, soundstaging, imaging, blah, blah, blah... which so many of us get hung up about are now limited by my input (garbage in, garbage out ;-).

Interesting.

This brings up a few thoughts (in no particular order):

- Why spend more on a system? (while not cheap, my system is hardly high-end when judged against the monster systems I see in this forum)

- After this point, I am playing a game which deviates from neutral, accurate playback. I would be picking components which accentuate (or mask) certain tonal, dynamic, or imaging aspects of the recording. Why would I want to do this?

- Is this the pathetic last gasp before launching into the lunacy of vinyl? :-)

- There is more than enough fidelity here for me to close my eyes and feel the soul of a recording; after this point, am I missing the point of high fidelity playback?

I'm curious if others have confronted this plateau and what decisions they made; mostly, did you accept your system or move on to another goal? And if the latter, what were your results? Are you happy?

Thanks,