Paul, I believe you are right on the money. The same exact thing happened to my wife when we were first married. She couldn't believe all the "hi-fi stuff" I was moving in and how much I had spent on it over the years. But after a few months of listening to this system she began to make comments about other systems like "its pitch is not right, it's missing something, I can't stand to listen to that ...". She might now roll her eyes when I upgrade but she always notices an improvement as do I. It's amazing, but you must be exposed to "better" for a while in order to appreciate it, I think the ears and brain need this time.