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

my answer was a bit of sarcasm...i love to lock myself in the room -- it is the only place i can get some privacy:)

Hi Dgplo, yes i knew you were being sarcastic but so was I with my post.

How much is enough? How revealing, how transparent, how deep into the sound stage can one go and feel satisfied? How deep should the bass go, and how extended should the ultra-sonic, high frequencies go?

I know a guy with a stunning system (Avid, Aesthetix, Cary, Ruark), but he has kept on improving it. The Aesthetix Io got upgraded to the Signature Mk ‘something’ version and he went to bi-amping the Ruark Excaliburs instead of a single pair of $40k monoblocks and changed out all the cabling to upper end Nordost, etc. OK, it was the best system I'd heard--including at CES and industry demos at stores--before he did all of that.

Are audio geeks (myself included) like the wealthy: A few million dollars is not enough; once you have acquired or accomplished a certain level, you always want more?

I am still considering my downsize approach (see my earlier comment), but I have ended up upgrading my pre-amp (same manufacturer) and trading up to the latest version of my speakers since I wrote on this thread last. I did not follow through with my own goal.

Wait til it stops.

Off? This has not been possible partly because new / improved stuff comes out so fast there is always the temptation to upgrade. But to slow the m-g-r I suggest:
1) Learn to read and understand specs
A lot of stuff measures so bad there is no way I even want to audition it. And for the folks who say specs don't tell the real story? Who cares, I'm trying to get off the m-g-r and crappy specs weed out a lot of stuff quick and easy. Spec's provide some grounding to reality vs. just pure opinions of mag's paid to write this stuff, emotion, or the inconsistency of our hearing when we audition in person.
2) Go DIY
If you had the best stereo would you 1) get a life (or at least a new hobby) 2) buy more music and enjoy it 3) try to keep tweaking it.
I'm guessing a lot of people would pick #3. Face it,it's a disease with no cure. Consider people who keep tweaking and make their stereo WORSE. Man, this is just sick. So
1) to fulfill the desire to keep playing around with stereo stuff
2) A hobby vs. purchased item usually involves doing something with your own two hands vs. just flipping through catalogs looking at what to buy next (coin collecting being an obvious exception unless you want the FED's breathing down your back =:-) (I'm talking DIY money in case you missed the humor).
3) If you're going to spend hours on the internet might as well put some time to productive use and make something.
4) It takes a lot of time to DIY vs. being able to go out and put a wad of $$$ down on something based on an impulse purchase. This slows you down and gives you time to think things through. Ie: I made my first speakers nearly a year ago. I'm finally getting to my new pair now - plenty of time to think things through before starting the new ones.
5) Satisfaction.
Here is my DIY stuff:
1) Speaker cables - just simple magnet wire. High purity, "perfect surface finish", thin enamel dielectric means basically air dieletric. This is even better than Audioquest electrical battery biasing to keep the dielectric lined up.
2) Interconnects - see TWL's threads here on "build this simple interconnect".
3) Single driver speakers: buy the cabinets from partsexpress.com or pay a cabinetmaker to do the box. Then finish yourself. Or you can buy kits with multiple drivers and x-overs supplied. Mine cost me $200.
4) Amp - gainclone amps like those from www.audiosector.com or scott nixon. For $200 you get an amp like the $4,800 47 Labs Gaincard. Only about 9 components to solder for the amp itself and buy an Astron linear power supply to power it up.
When I can get such good sound for $200 just can't justify spending thousands for marginal improvements and gauranteed obsolescence in a year.