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

Tubegroover, if your only regret is the cost, then actually you belong to the more lucky ones. If you can afford it, why not spend it. Life is too short, to castigate yourself, unless you are of fundamentalist disposition, where your rewards will be in heaven. Wether we're a bunch of compulsive neurotics or on a noble quest depends on your point of view. I personally think that Papa Freud was right, when he said, that the essentials of a healthy life were the ability to work and to ENJOY oneself. I'm probably a bit longer in this quest of ours than you are and my experience is - also after listening to many megabuck systems, costing several hundred thousand bucks - that there comes a time, when "improvements" happen only in very tiny steps, the cost of which is entirely out of proportion. Happy Listening! Detlof

Detlof: I don't mean to be pessimistic. My assesment comes from being associated with an audiophile company. I was at the Stereophile show in NY in 1996. Audio is more like a small club with rich members.Very select group.Manufactures have to impress reviewers to build demand.Reviewers are more impressd with themselves. Some reviewers have more fans than many artist. Add to the mix too many companies making software, decline in software quality,magazine distribution etc. The fact that music has been replaced by video games when it comes to young people with discretionary spending (video games are 50-70% higher than the average cd)and it all adds up to certain extinction. But, I enjoy buying music, (records mostly) and do so daily.I haven't had a significant change in my reference system in almost 12 years. Once I found the Quads and an adequate sub woofer system, significant changes are hard to make!! I did get a better listening chair.

Trebleclef, your points are hard to refute and in terms of sociological assessment probably more than correct. Looking at it that way, it is indeed a pessimistic picture. Here in Europe, people still flock to classical concerts and to opera, how much of that is social snobbery and how much true love of music is hard to say. Youngsters act much the way here too as you describe, but if you go to the local recordstores, they are ususally full of young people, but also here after the quick electronic fix, the demand for classical music has severely declined. However, I'm still hoping, that we are not a breed, that is dying out. Cheers , Detlof

Not certain I was as hooked as some but an old friend pulled me off with an experience close to Detlofs. My tweaker friend sat me down to his system based on an old Dynaco 70 that he tweaked a little and speakers that he made for under $750 (scanspeak drivers). I think Vance Dickason claims you can make 10k speakers for under 1k. Well, if you know what you are doing, I think you can lower that to $750. He made a few comments about the caps he used on his tweeters and fired her up and well... it was embarrasing to think about the money I had in my system. I have since spent a little time with the old Dynacos and in my opinion, all marketing and modern "improvements" aside, they stand up to 90% of the stuff sold at at 10-20 times the price.

I do not think that this is in any way unique to audio. I used to race bicycles and had a fair amount of experience in a cycle shop. The bicycle companies are so pressed to differentiate themselves from one another, and convince you to but theirs, that they throw out a steady stream of BS that has little to do with anything. They actually avoid the obvious and simple which is proven and effective for the gimmick of the week. I had to leave the business because it was hard to present the industry line with a straight face. Granted, audio needs folks pushing the envelope to improve sound... but I do not see a lot of that going on. Lots of gloss and ego.. reading most "audiophile" mags is like looking at GQ or something.

Never get on it in the first place. I did a lot of listening before i bought and then bought what i felt was a good well balanced system that smoked a few much more expensive system. I then faced the realities of the room the system was destine to live in and the limitations of what i could/would do to the room. I then looked at the low to mid-fi gear used to generate the music we so love to listen to (i've been a part time working musician going on 25 yrs now)and the fact that the room that it is played in has a huge effect on the sound on that end as well. Adding all that up i dressed my cables, put in dedicated power, concluded that given room and source limitations close counts and proceeded to buy more music. The music is what it is all about anyway, isn't it?