Reaching the end of a music collection

I've been listening to classical music for over forty years now; first on lp's, then on cd's, now on lp's again with current analogue playing and cleaning equipment. I will never run out of music or software to listen to or learn about. Classical music can become a very important part of one's life.

Twl is 110% right.
Nobody in their right mind could consider that the cornerstones of 60's music could be recreated hence modern releases in terms of the popular music forms simply cannot hope to be as original or as good as that.
The mistake that a lot of audiophilles make however is that their ability to experiment on what they might like musically is not matched by their ability and desire to experiment with modifications,tweaks,cables in their system.
Their passion for their hobby endures but does their passion for new music?
Even more interesting I would guess that more audiophilles spend much more time reading about audio than music.
I have a passion for music so I read all the serious music monthlies-Mojo,Q,Uncut for new "popular" music-Record Collector for reissues etc. and The Wire for experimental/avant garde music as well as the hi-fi mags that cover music.
I am probably not a typical audiophille and I respect fully other's opinions on what they like musically but I do despair when I read things like "I don't like Jazz,Folk,Reggae "-my take on most music forms is that they meet somewhere -so if you like light music there should be some jazz that would touch you-most musical forms,even the basic ones diverge into other musical forms-"I hate Country" you'll probably find that something you love in your collection is descended or inspired by country.
We are only limited by our own imaginations.
The world of music is virtually limitless and you do not even need to go forward or force yourself to listen to stuff that you find painful-where's the fun in that?
If you like Folk-you could end up back at Harry Smiths Anathology Of Folk Music-field recordings from the 20's,30's,40's-this could diverge into World Music,early Blues if that's too far you can stop at Woody Guthrie or even go forward to David Gray,there are no rules.....a love of talking Blues could lead you to Rap,seriously the leap from Dylan's talking folk blues to the world of Public Enemy isn't that far..
Even if you only liked Classical,you could probably spend the rest of your life finding lost gems.
And if you think there is nothing new of any value being released then you are beat before you start,you might not like to admit it but your fire has went out....everything new will always be crap, forever.
This week I spent time listening to the first four Queen albums,the new Bowie record,Peter Gabriel 1,2 and So,Wilco's new record,Dark Magus by Miles Davis-pretty far out jazz,DJ Shadow's new record-hip hop/ambient,a Dylan bootleg from '98,Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians and of course it was nice to hear it all on a decent system.
There is great great music out there,you just need to spend some time searching for it.
Of course you can be just as happy listening to what you know-you don't need to analysis the nuances,the motivation behind a great piece of music,you can just sit tapping your feet,that is the beauty of music it taken be taken on the level of importance you want to place on it,it's your choice.
The day I walk into a record shop and think there isn't some great,new,lost or popular masterpiece waiting to be found is the day I know I've lost it.
Reaching the end of a music collection?
Some 1200 CD's in,I'm only starting.............

I'd try to find a music "dealer". Much like we rely on dealers to expose us to new equipment, I'm always looking for the equilvalent "music dealer." In college it was easy to expand your collection. Most of my friends or friends of friends exposed me to music that I liked. Now out in the working world, I can't seem to find that close concentration of people in a small area with diverse listening tastes.

For awhile (when I was in high school and college), my "dealer" was either the guy who worked at the CD Warehouse (used CDs) Thurs/Sat (heavy metal recs), or this guy "John" who worked at Coconuts (classical recs). Unfortunately I lost track of both. I found a suitable "heavy metal" dealer on the net, at holeinthewall.com. His name exscapes me, but I'm talked with him over the phone and exchanged several emails (I'm also on the mailing list). Basically I let him know what I like and he makes new recomendations from time to time. He's been extremely helpful.

I'd like to find an equilvalent dealer for classical and jazz.

actually i'm not keeping too much of CDs and they serve me as an information flow material. i might listen to them once or twice and than sell them. i can figure that that way i've already had arround 5...6000 cds that went though my ears and 90% of them are sold to acquire another couple of thousands and so on on on and on...
thus i can say that i'm also different from typical audiofile since my goal is to learn more about music and its different styles without even paying attention to a recording quality. i do care about recording quality of the items i collect which you should guess should be 100% unique. if anyone interested to share or explore with me shoot me an e-mail and we'll probably arrange an exchange of unique CDs.

Lately I've been burrowing through the bins of LPs in my basement--the overflow that doesn't fit on the shelf in the living room--and rediscovering some gems I hadn't heard in a long while. I've even bought some new items because I wanted to hear more by an artist I've just "dug up" from the vaults. And my collection is a lot smaller than some of those being described here. If you've got 1500 CDs, there have to be some you haven't heard in years. Give 'em a listen, and I'm sure you'll discover some "new" music.