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

If you're a music lover-there's no getting away from it-it's like eating.

I hit a peak of purchasing equipment in 1995. About that time, I had my hearing checked by a Doctor and found my hearing was dropping off. Upon hearing that (barely...), I stopped buying equipment. I still enjoyed my system, but did not want to waste any $ on something I could not hear or fully appreciate. Then in 2005 I moved. In the new house, I put the old two channel prized equipment in storage. I had two theatre systems put in professionally. These two systems are very good but not my definition of an audiophile system. After two years of listening to this system, I found myself (1) not listening to music as much, (2) not enjoying the music as I had on my audiophile system, (3) experiencing fatigue when listening to music for duration, (4) not hearing a full dynamic range, despite less than perfect hearing, and (5) not as interested in exploring, discovering new sounds, musically.

I had heard of people "feeling" music in the inaudible regions, but at this age in my life, I dismissed such comments.

One day in 2006, I broke out the stored audiophile stuff and was amazed at what I heard. I started buying equipment again, updating my equipment, bought new stuff and started enjoying music as I did previously. I now have 5 systems.

Recently, I had my hearing checked by a reputable specialist. The Doctor determined that I had average hearing for my age. The Doctor also opined that I have a trained ear. During the test I was able to hear EMIs in the test equipment that the Doctor had been trying to get rid of.

My next project will be exploring with a limited system in which I have a SACD player with variable out connected to bi-amped and bi wired speakers (in a effort to get a pure sound in this location where I only listen to CDs/SACDs.

Regarding my earlier dismissal of "feeling" music in the inaudible region, I have changed my opinion such that I do believe I can feel substantial music which I cannot hear.

I am off the merry go round for goods, my friends. I was out of the hi-end hobby for years. Coming back last years, I had some good purchase but making a lot of unwised mistakes. I put all my faith and trust to a "guy" and here I am out of 12K and a lot of frustration. Sometime, due to limitation of gears to audition, I have to base my purchasing on recommendation of this "guy" I known for over a year...Luckily enough, I convinced the "guy" and I could trade most of my stuffs for new stuffs at extra expenses in a hope that maybe I can re-sell all my gears and get the hell out of the hobby. Everybody has to make a living but this is wrong of me and wrong of him.

Buy a pair of ATC speakers. ; 0 )

Dlanselm,

Nice suggestion...or, alternatively, stick to gear that is selected by Pink Floyd, Mark Knopfler, Sting and many other famous recording artists and simply assume that these people know what they are doing when it comes to music and can afford to get what they find most convincing. Follow those "in the know" and trust their judgement... after all it is impossible to listen to everything that is out there and the constant change of the Merry-go-round strongly suggests there is a lot of gear out there that leaves people underwhelmed.