What is your audio axiom?

I continually fool myself I'm done upgrading or changing things, don't know if a 'true' audiophile is ever done? Just purchased another SET amp to add to the collection, don't need it yet somehow I find myself the new owner of yet another audio component. The need to taste different flavors replaces absolute need.

This idea of unique and/or individual recording quality variation is something that has really come into focus for me in recent years. I derive enjoyment from the nearly endless variation in recording qualities, by this I mean paying attention to the choices of producers/engineers in producing a work of art. We are not merely listening to musicians with these recordings, so many others involved to presenting these works of art. 

My scale of judgement has far surpassed just good and/or bad, mostly I just turn off the judgement and let the presentation come to me, listening sessions far more satisfying when one turns off the judgement cap. Some believe the more resolving a system becomes the more the warts will reveal themselves, no doubt this true so then it becomes how one perceives those warts. 

Appreciation of the performance, together with sound quality of system and recordings is not mutually exclusive. To presume music appreciation transcends sound quality of our systems and recordings is to diminish audiophiles and our pursuit of SQ.

The point of this pursuit is to enjoy and/or appreciate these three components of musical recordings when played on high end systems. If you can't have appreciation of all three things simultaneously you have issues with your system and/or perspective. I don't need perfect or even high quality recordings to appreciate both sound quality and musical performance. Flaws are ever present, the secret is to have a system and mindful perspective that allows one to accept these flaws without judgement. To ignore the qualities of sound both the recording and my system delivers would be a negation of everything I strive for as an audiophile.