So, you were bitten by ‘the bug’ a while back. You’ve managed to put together a great system, built around Outlaw gear of course! With very capable speakers and subwoofer/s, plus careful calibration and placement, your in-room response is from somewhere near 20Hz to over 20KHz. Different things in the music and the mix are being revealed in ways you’ve rarely experienced before. You thought everything would be great, but . . .

You’re hearing things in the music and the mix you’ve rarely experienced before. Huh? How is this a problem?

There’s been time to listen to a variety of material and sometimes the system seems too bright, other times there’s too much bass. Likely, when listening to a system with less range and perhaps more distortion, the variances expressed in different mixes by people with both their own preferences, hearing abilities and mixed on equipment with different emphasis, were somewhat hidden by a system with less capability, but now what was done in creating the content, intentionally or otherwise, is heard whether we as listeners think things are well balanced or not.

Now that the system is revealing and one is paying close attention, there is wondering - what additional tweaks can be done? Able to stay in reality and check into that which will make the most difference while not straining at gnats? Or is the goal to get back to a ‘false balance’ that was there before improving the system, a balance that can’t be reached unless all content is once again more ‘filtered,’ more limited in its reproduction? Hmmm . . .

In any case, what ‘troubles,’ perhaps unexpected, have you found as your system grows and improves?

The bigest problem for me has been finding out that some of my CD's were not the greatest recorgings ever made, and that the original vinyl recordings sound a lot better. So I added a fairly decent TT and started buying a few records again. I have some Pink Floyd on both vinyl and CD, and with the exception of DSOTM on SACD, the vinyl is better.

Trouble keeping the bank account filled. Complaints about loud noises.
The need/desire for more and more gear (see 1st line).
The occasional humming sound.
Enough wires behind the tv to rewire a few houses...

I notice how poorly made older movies were, the "classics" tend to just look old.

I notice how crappy other systems are...

There is no going back to mediocrity.

It seems like someone took a different route. See quote below. He is / was an outlaw.

“Some years back I was up to my neck in "high end" gear. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars on a setup of Mark Levinson electronics (not including all the swap-outs and "upgrades" that got me to that point), and I was on a never-ending search for the next tweak or upgrade that would take my system to the next level.
One night, while I was setting up a new preamp (along with some spendy boutique cables), I sat there and asked myself "What the hell am I doing?" I'd gotten into the "hobby" because of my love for music, but I'd gotten so obsessed with the performance of the system that I rarely ever listened to a CD "just to enjoy the music". The music was just a way to measure this-or-that aspect of the system's performance.
The next day I boxed everything up and listed it on Audiogon.”

Spiker, thanks for digging up my quote.

Relating it to this thread, I've had a very different experience than Curegeorg. My Outlaw rig is almost certainly "mediocre" by the standards of the "high-end", but it's still the most satisfying system that I've ever owned.

I've never once felt the need to "tweak" it.

Whatever floats your boat pleary. I guess mediocre (which by your "" is up for interpretation) means different things to different people. Glad to see you are happy though.