I don't cherish sound over substance. I like good sound, but I love good music. If I had to chose between all my music or my systems. The choice would be a no brainer. The music would win. Fortunately, it's never an either or choice.
The Sound or Music
I listen to all genres of music but really enjoy it with good sound. I know of people who just love one particular type of music but don't care at all about audio. My late relative just loved classical music and had hundreds of good records but his system was like bad transistor radio. He had means but was not interested in better system at all. Music, for him was 99.9% and sound 0.1% of the pleasure. He was most likely missing half of instruments of orchestral music, he listened to - either by limited frequency response or very poor resolution. He was a music lover. Am I a music lover or just only an audio freak?
What about you?
What about you?