How does one get off the merry-go-round?

you know what's worse.... when you do all this research, spend all this money only to realize you made a mistake. I have a Toshiba 57HX81 widescreen TV that is just too damn big for my room. It wouldn't be if I didn't have a nice sofa and chairs, not to mention a coffee table.

I've been searching for speakers for the past 4 months. Last night I almost said "freak it" for lack of better word I can't say on here. I thought I had found my speakers only to relaize that they're rear ported and require significant room to breathe, which my room has no more of.

Since you seem to be into guns. I guess I should also noted the Remington M700 synthectic .300 mag with McMillian stock, custom bedded, fluted barell, and Swavorwski scope. Also a 30mm, helmet sighted chain gun, but that really belongs to my employer.

I got off the merry go round after attending a Stereophile show and met some of the circus clowns. Just because so and so uses this or that as a reference or purchased an item means nothing to me now! Most are over obsessed babies when you disagree with them. In ten years time there won't be a high end audio as the hobby does nothing to perpetuate new/younger people to participate. I have more than adequate
high end system (built around Quad ESL'S) but now concentrate on my real passion, record collecting, and, listening. And, having fun!!

Trebleclef, we must be brothers in arms! The Quads are the centre of my system as well, I hunt after good music on Lp and CD, I'm having fun and in the course of the years, to borrow a phrase of Sean's, have turned from audiophile to music lover. Interesting your remark, that the hobby might die out with us. Here I am less pessimistic than you seem to be, because surely there will always be folks ,who love music and who will try to recreate it in their homes, like we do.

Well Detlof, my experience is the opposite of yours, gone from music lover to audiophile, that is as of late. I'm spending too damn much money and time on this gear business but then again I am rediscovering the music I already have and am very happy, for the time being. How long does it last before the next tweek/big purchase? Seems to be getting shorter as the compulsion grows. This audiophile business is an addiction I'm afraid. And this site sure doesn't do anything to remedy it.

Tubegroover, isn't happyness the main thing? And the drive for perfection is a noble endevour, is it not? And if we do not make our loved ones unhappy or harm them with what we are doing, why shouldn't we? Mind you, and I've been at it for over 35 years, there comes a point, when you will reconcile yourself with the fact, that you will NEVER be able to simulate real, live music in all its wonderful entirety and that you can leave your system more or less as it is and just enjoy the music. What helps here, is the realisation, that really old gear, like the Threshold Stasis amps of the seventies, or the AR 79 tube amp, not to speak of the 120, that wonderful Quad 57 or the ML 25 watter, class A monos still hold their own, when compared to modern gear. There have been huge advances in loudspeakers, but comparing the old stuff to modern designs, I doubt a bit, if really essential breakthroughs in electronic designs have happened. Possibly my ears are just sentimental and I'm indeed using modern electronics, but I find the differences are not that huge to really be "blown away". What has changed though, is our perception of recorded music and our way to describe it. We have developed a vocabulary, that was not around fourty years ago and if we apply it to vintage gear, I at least have found, that it is not doing badly at all. Cheers! Detlof