You know you have audiophile system when...

...when you play your favorite recordings and have difficulty pinpointing that which can be improved...

When you plan your vacations around audio stores to visit.

ozzy

You know you have audiophile system when...it would cost less to actually book the band you're listening to and have them perform for you live.

@ozzy hope I am never at that point. That is truly one dimensional. 

Do you ever think that most of it, the adjectives you used to describe your system are nothing more than a concerted effort on your part to hear those things, aspects of sound in a wishful thinking sort of way? Do other people hear the same improvements that you do? Isn’t the newfound bloom and decay in every note a sort of byproduct of the better clarity that you achieved?

Here, let me give an example: I purchase a new pair of speakers and my amplifier doesn’t seem up to the task of powering it, I go out and get something else that’s up to the task. Now when I listen to a recording I know well, let’s take my favorite drum solo, "Storm", by Billy Cobham which is short, direct, and to the point. In the 2 or so minutes, there’s this (phase shifting ?) sound processing going on in the recording that I always heard but now because of the better dynamics, punch, and impact of the new amp, this sonic manipulation became something altogether different, really adding to the performance. I then later put back the old amplifier and I hear basically the same improvement but maybe less of it along with less of everything else I just described. I guess my point is that even without the new equipment I can hear these improvements now because I know that they are there now, helped by the more powerful sounding amp to guide me there. I hope that makes some sense. In a way, the new amp made my old amp sound better?