"life really is too short. "
Absolutely, Jake. I have a hobby which is buying low quality guitars and working on them, playing them, tweaking, playing, tweaking, playing...
until nothing more can be done to improve the instrument. Then I buy a new one and off we go again.
I decided to do try the same approach with my HiFi so put my stereo into storage and started to build a new one. Now my philosophy is to tweak, listen, tweak, listen... until the stereo sounds perfect for my taste, which is nothing like typical audiophile tastes and then swap the speakers. This kickstarts swapping out the entire system piece by piece. This is a five year cycle.
Why? Because I've got maybe 4 more systems left before my times up.
Life is absolutely too short.