It seems to me that Erik may have reached the limit of one or more of the following: patience, funding, live music listening experience, the weak link of his particular system.
There are so many diverse aspects of music & musical reproduction that just about everything can make a difference in what you hear from a system & the potential”details”.Could be the low bass or high frequency extension, a beautiful open midrange, dynamics from soft to loud & back again w/ speed & precision, imaging in all directions etc. With some of today’s excellent & relatively inexpensive equipment, you can put together a good sounding system for $5000. If it’s compared to maybe a $50000 we’ll put together one, it’s probably not too close in most if not all of the aspects mentioned. Nothing need be sacrificed to achieve this other than time, $, patience & some skill.