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

When I was four years old I walked over to my girlfriend's house and her mother informed me that she was not at home. I said "fine, i just came over to listen to her record player!" (And people say audiophiles have their priorities wrong!)
The first "high end" system of memory was Altec A7's driven by a Dynaco st-70 with an Ampex 15 ips deck. This system would still make me happy if I had a very large room.
I enjoy and appreciate the variety of equipment and recordings, but in hindsight I know I wasted a lot of time and money trying to get the latest approach which rarely represented real progress. My progress list for BETTER SOUND alone over the last forty years is short.
1. turntables (credit to Linn)
2. digital room correction
3. subwoofers (slow evolution just recently good enough to be high end)

My system includes these improvements, but many of its components are old enough to vote.

I think owning excellent tube gear is one of the secrets to

staying off the upgrade path.

Maybe I should post a poll and see how often

tube people vs. SS people change gear.

I had my previous tube amp for like 17 years (though I

did try a solid state amp for a while) and my new

tube amps are the same brand (just updated version) and

I'll probably be keeping these just as long.

There's just very little to upgrade to. Being OTL's however I just have to make sure any potential speaker purchases will match impedance wise.

Come on, you know its a disease. Just roll with it and die with dignity like the rest of us.

Chashmal, well spoken! Roll with it until you either fall deaf, go broke or die. Whatever comes first.

The other day while at work, I thought about all of the money I've sunk into this hobby. Just purchased new power cords, am waiting for a record cleaning machine to be delivered, ordered some record cleaning solution, new brushes to clean the records with...then thought I must be sick. Seriously thought about selling the whole thing, and getting out the old Marantz receiver, Denon cdp, and Altec speakers to fend off the possible future urge to upgrade. But then I regained my sanity....or is that my insanity????? There's no escape.