Chris:
I used to live and breathe my audio addiction via measurements. Then about four years ago I met an Internet audio publisher who said something I thought pretty profound. "Measurements are like a festival seating ticket to a concert. They'll get you in to the show you want to hear, but after that it's up to you find your spot, and their are a hell of a lot of seats."
If it is your intention to relate your experience to mine, it is not a fruitful attempt. My circumstances are radically different (and in many ways, sequentially inverse) from the majority. My passion started well before measurements; and I was a mainstream audiophile. My use of measurements is only after thousand of hours of practical controlled experiments (blinded, randomized) and extensive research of the credible research of scientists in the field, relating to human hearing and it's relevance to measured specific characteristic(s).
Since I could not afford the $30,000-$40,000 it would have taken me to buy the retail speakers that would satisfy me, I started my journey to learn how to build what I wanted. Ironically, if you count up all the dollars I have spent on audio in the last decade, I'm sure it adds up to around $30k-$40k at least..... LOL... but so much of that went into learning/education, that I'm glad I spent it in the way that I did.
I do immensely enjoy music, even today.
-Chris