[jbob2000]

There's a distinction between a music buff and an audio buff.

If you want to be a music buff, my suggestion is to learn how to play an instrument. This will give you the understanding to appreciate music; you can't truly understand a musician's talent until you try to play what they can and fail. You can't appreciate the complexity of a piece that has changing time signatures (for example) if you don't even know how to count time. You'll end up listening to the same chord progressions over and over (G-C-D come to mind...) if you don't know how to identify what you're listening to.

If you want to be an audio buff, buy some expensive speakers and then just follow you ears.