Is it important to long demo or own HIGH END gear to have a fair accurate view about it?

....I'm still stuck on 'grain in the treble', and whether is was wheat or oats....

..but agree with @mapman most issues lie in the rooms we occupy with our 'stuff'...

The 'agreeable average response', given the items within said spaces, will rarely be 'purrfect' unless ones' sig other is either very tolerant, likes 'quality' v. 'visuals', has been trussed up and 'put in storage', or divorced (which cancels out most any 'future improvements')....

Spouse Ev likes our small Maggies' and the sound of the Heils'....I'm working on the Walsh to make them 'room friendly' visually...;)

For me I need to get any piece of gear home before I really know if I like it or not. Demoing gear is frustrating. Just like buying tickets for a Broadway show six months in advance frequently I'm not in the mood come showtime! The best thing in the world is cueing up a record, pouring a glass of wine and settling in for a good listen WHEN I'M READY 

High end, perfectionist, mid fi and others are marketing terms.  Don't take them too seriously.  If you have a passion for well reproduced music then you are by definition a music lover and an audiophile.  Additionally, you don't have to be an audiophile to have music touch your soul.  Your average human can do it with minimal quality equipment.

Short term listening can easily reveal differences between equipment, but long term listening is useful in figuring out whether you really enjoy the differences.

@calvinj  was that 12 year sentence of listening to cables served in the Fed system or was it in a state penal system?  Either way it sounds like a violation of your human rights!

Most of us "seasoned audiophiles" here have developed pretty sensitive antennas over the years and can do a fairly comprehensive evaluation of a prospective audio component in less time than it takes to do an oil change at Jiffy Lube.

But, there’s no substitute for a long-term audition at home when all the factors come into play. Resonant frequency of vessel holding preferred beverage, breed, size, and weight of dog at our feet, cushion material and height of favoite listening chair, orientation of slats/grain of flooring materials. You know, all the other stuff.

@onhwy61 i did it initially to learn the difference between them. Once I got really good equipment I wanted to see what the cables could do to affect sound. I wanted to know as much as possible about them. I’m kind of OCD when it comes to sound. I just wanted to educate myself on being able to tell differences. Like anything else research research research. Try as much as you can. Me and 2 of my audiophile buddies went in this journey together. One did speakers. One did amps. I did cables. For 12 years we put system after system together. It was the best of times. Great wknd listening sessions. Unfortunately one of the guys died. He was a great music buddy and a wealth of audiophile knowledge. The music would get so good sometimes he would zone out. It was funny! But the best of times. That’s what it is all about. Being closer to the music.