Hmmm... I think I know what you are saying. it should be about the music and not about trying to divine the sound of the latest component you have added or equating quality with how much it cost, lol!
I was commenting on a previous post by McSnare where he mentioned that he was aware of the limitations of his system. The ideal is for the system to "disappear" so you can drift into the music, but as audiophiles it is sometimes hard to get over some perceived limitations.
Anyway, to get back to the subject matter, guests' opinions about our systems are always valuable. There is always an element of truth in what people say, it's more a question of whether you can live with the imperfections, how easy it is to correct them, and whether the changes would have negative side effects. The most difficult ones to "swallow" are those that make you realize that you are going down a "dead end" and that you need to reconsider everything in your system!