Is the constant seeking really for audio or musical perfection? That would imply a destination is in mind, when perfection is found and potential end of the "search." I think the search is a myth, we are on a journey, not a hunt. Just like in life, we don't seek the final destination, we seek stimulation along the path.
I think it is more simple explanation for the continuing dissatisfaction of audiophiles. Like in every other area of life, we are motivated simply by endorphins released from the thrill of receiving a random reward. It is easy to get that thrill in the early stages of the hobby, when you've never heard 12" bass drivers before or never heard .01% THD from the car radio or iPod. The thrills come fast and hard, you get addicted and learn that the remote is really "The Rabbit" for men. Then later more thrills are to be found with vinyl or ribbon tweeter, then cables and tubes, then shakti stones and continuing finer tweeking matching the infinite resolutio of the ear/brain - it never ends. The improvements at the most subtle level are equal in magnitude to the improvements found at the beginning of the journey when it was easier and cheaper to find noticable and stimulative improvements. With practice, and an otherwise already highly tweeked system, we can hear the most minute changes and they are enough to trigger the happy response we seek. Imagine if we used that time and energy to practice piano or calculus? haha....
Each "winning" tweek gives a large enough improvement
compared to what you have already gotten used to to cause a hit of dope in the brain/adrenals. Every obsession, addiction, habit, comforting hobby, and love affair is caused by this strongest motivating factor. Stimulation of "feeling alive" can come from any physical sense, any thought, any feeling. The stimulation of realistic sonics combined with emotional and mental stimulation of great music can be a very intense combination.
The random part of the equation is important too. There must be a risk of loss involved to get the ultimate effect from the inevitable high. Really weird tweekie products like shakti stones, metal bowls, cable elevators, IC chips, phone call tweeks exist to fill a demand that we have to feel some risk. We buy those things counting on them to fail, so we can safely feel defeat and ridicule in order to have the largest emotional dynamic range possible, which makes the highs feel even higher.
Top that for crazy