My god, I find myself agreeing with GoneFishin, we may as well close the forum .

It is possible to be all those things; an equipment snob, a hunter for exquisite details in sound reproduction and a music lover all at the same time.

As a young man I played a lot of music, but as young people do, it was usually in a crowd surrounded by friends. As I grew older I found myself listening to music at night by myself or with my wife. My neighbor describes it as "active listening" more like you do at a concert. The music has your full attention.

I noticed that I was loosing interest; the music no longer captivated me the way it used to. It took me years and a couple of visits to audiophile's homes to discover that it was basically "listener fatigue". By spending a lot of time reading the audio magazines, spending a lot of money on equipment and spending a great deal of effort to optimize my listening room and the synergy of various pieces of equipment I was able to get back to a state where I could listen for long hours, captivated once again by the artistry of the musicians and the music. My wife and I usually spend a couple of nights a week, no TV, maybe some candles and just listen, a real joy.

It was necessary (for me at least) to significantly improve the reproduction system to re-capture that enjoyment of music. Yes, I still listen in my car, thank god I can't afford a car stereo as good as my home system. It would be so distracting as to make my driving quite dangerous.

A good system compels one to listen to the music. Once you heard this, once you've been that close to the music, the standard home stereo just won't do.

It is perfectly posible to enjoy the hobby AND the music.