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

I am FAR from being off the merry go round but anyhow.....
* KNOW WHAT YOU WANT **
If you aren't sure what you want how will know when you've found it? If there is something blantantly wrong in your current setup then there's an obvious fix.
I want neutrality. Good luck to anyone deciding to add colorations to their sound. I wouldn't know where to start. So I'm guilty of letting others form my opinions but here goes:
==>As Sam Tellig says in his Jauary 1999 Pathos Twin Towers review "over time, neutrality wears very well". Mike Sanders said in Sterephile March 2001 "An SET is fun at first but kind of grates on you after awhile.. the bad points start eating away at you...I don't think having a little less bass or a less high is annoying...the annoying thing is the higher distortion because you don't get the distortion cancellation that you do with push pull".
*** TRUST YOUR OWN EARS ******
Hearing is a skill which is developed over time and with a lot of effort. But it is subjective and there is little agreement between people on anything. You can get totally confused reading everyone's opinion on the web. Better to spend your time in the stores listening to stuff and developing your own opinions and hearing skills. Then you can be confident in what you know.
*** DON"T OBSESS OVER THE LAST FEW PERCENT ***
Wire, power cords, vibration isolation (except for TT), amber blocks, Auric Illuminator, and on and on. First there may be no difference. There is no measured data to show that there could be any audible differences (unless a mfg'r intentionally messes with the AC waveform to color the sound). Search Audio Asylum on Auric Illiminator. No one can even agree on what it does to the sound! Some say it's more bright. Others say it smoothes the sound out.
No one in the history of mankind can tell the differences between wire if they can't see it first.
These last few percent can make you loose sight between reality and fantasy. What you perceive and what really exists. If there are differences, they are extremely slight. Why get hung up on "magic sh!t"?
*** OWNING A STEREO IS WALKING A TIGHTROPE ***
I am always wondering, will buying better stuff make me HAPPY? If so, for how long? What happens once the newness wears off. When my ears adjust to the better sound?
Then I'll wonder if I'd be just as satisfied if I had spent less. Learn to accept and be happy with a bit less resolution. If someone switches components and I walk back in the room and can't tell the difference or don't care, why should I pay for that??? If a cheaper component doesn't annoy me over time why upgrade?
Is there something better out there? I don't know. Go to the stereo shop and give it a listen.
*** JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING SOUNDS DIFFERENT DOESN"T MEANS IT"S BETTER ***
You can get bored with your stereo if you spend your time listening to components and not the music. So buy more music, forget the components! I push my speakers back. Get more bass. Great! A week later I pull 'em out into the room. Better frequency response and midrange. Great! Not better - different. But that was free. How many amps should I buy to keep changing the type of sound? Gets expensive and I'm not really moving forward. Only in circles.

Drubin:

I cannot speak for anyone else. I think that everyone else has their own way of getting off of the ""high-end" audiophile component of the month" merry-go-round?? Me myself??? If you were to liken me to anyone here at "Audiogon"??? Then I would be a combination of "Psychicanimal" and "Sdcampbell". Because just like "Psychicanimal", I hold the viewpoint that the system that you design is an extention of your personality, and to a greater extent, an extention to the music that you listen to. Therefore, because I listen to R&B (both modern and classic), Rap & Hip-Hop, Jazz, and some Light Rock, I don't need an "over-the-top-system" to get the most out of the music that I listen to. For me, a "middle-of-the-road" system will do just fine. My system is revealing enough to allow me to pick out instruments (what type they are, who makes them, and where they are placed on stage in the recording) and identify artists as well, but is well rounded enough for me to play music sometimes without getting too serious about it. When it is all said and done, my system is going to have a "get-up-and-boogie" factor too. That way, I can get even more pleasure out of my R&B and Rap recordings too. I am now shopping for a Subwoofer to mate with my British made KEF's (they're made in England, so that qualifies them for British) which will allow me to do JUST that. And I am like "Sdcampbell" in the sense that I always tend to shop for components that offer a "high performance to the dollar" ratio, and can do more than is otherwise possible at a given price point. That's why I tend to go for components that offer me a lot of engineering and know how, but at affordable amounts of money (i.e.-- Adcom, Thorens, and now..... Monolithic). I also tend to go for designs that can withstand time. That is because I am not interested in buying and changing components every time a new component comes out. I prefer to do it right the first time, or else, don't do it at all. Now, when this system is finally completed, what will ACTUALLY happen after the fact??? Who knows??? But I will say this. My intent right now is to put together a system that is going to have some staying power behind it. When I am done, I intend to stand pat for a VERY long time. Now, if I were to upgrade today, then what I would probably do is go for simplicity as opposed complexity. And for that, to me, that would mean a pair of high quality monitors (like my KEF's, but only more expensive this time. The intent then is to upgrade my sound quality) being married to a "high-end" integrated, being topped off yet by a high quality digital source and ONE analog source (and that mean LPs will reign supreme and cassettes will be out).

That would be MY way of getting off of the "merry-go-round".

--Charles--

I thought I would be remiss if I did not update my comments above. I only lasted about 6 months after I downsized. I found I could not live with the sound and had to go back from an integrated ss amp to tube separates. I now have sound that is "musically satisfying" and do not plan any upgrades unless something breaks. I have still been able to stick to a reasonably low budget and have been able to achieve 95% of the sound I used to have at about 40% of the investment level.

I don't know if I know how to get off. For me, the biggest improvement I ever heard in sound, was when I bought my first cartridge that was not a ceramic. Remember them? I grew up with them. Always a penny taped to the end of the tonearm. When I bought a Garrard turntable with an Empire cartridge it really WAS like night and day. Things were on my records that I never knew was there. It was my first shot of the drug. Since then, nothing has given me that much of an improvement. Sure, some things were better, but never that much better. I know some people that have had through re-hab for cocaine addiction, and they tell me that they never get the high they got the first time they used the drug, although that's what they're chasing from then on.

l listen to what you have and enjoy the attributes. update only when truly necessary. the latest isnt always the greatest. incremental gains arent worth ludicrous money. i was quite happy with my sys for a long time and then bought an arc sp3a1 used for cheeeeeep. BOING! the sound was so much better than the adcom 565 pre i was using which wasnt bad to start with. i sent it to minnesota where it was upgraded to sp3c. replaced my fried RIIs with spendor s3/5s. mmmmmmmmmm, goodie! snatched a vpi19III/smeIV/sumiko virtuoso talisman vdh for a grand (too good of a price to pass up). oyeah, i forgot the kimber 8tc 15' set for $50. bought a gorilla rack, an sacd player and b+k ht pre, the switching was crummy with 2 VCRs and a dvdp. these changes have been long in coming and long in happening. after i hook up all the amp channels and stuff, i will take it easy for about 5 years. or so i say.
i cruised with passive surround for about 10 years (actually have been doing it since the 70s on and off), now its time to step forward. music first of course.
actually a lot of time passes between my changes in system, i just had abot a couple of years of important changes. the sacd player actually doubles as a dvd, the other one was my daughters and she took it into her bedroom.

.......regards.......tom