I need help with my Equipment addiction

The first step to solving a problem, is to realize that you have one. One of the things you must realize; is that even if you have a limitless budget, you do not have a limitless amount of time. One of these days the clock is going to stop.
Although I don't have your budget, I had your problem. When I looked at my clock and realized that there was a last minute on it somewhere, I decided it was time to enjoy my abundant music collection.

ALSO, make sure that your system is not overly lean or overly revealing or hot in the treble. These are things that will cause you to miss the joy of a lot of the music - or at least that's how I react - and then I end up thinking about the gear.

I'm pretty sure that you're not obsessing enough over the wine. If you get way deep into Burgundy, you'll have another endless cash drain. If you're already way deep into Burgundy, there's always small batch, late harvest riesling from Germany or 50+ year old Barolo from that small group of traditional producers.

It seems to me that you're not really trying....

Marty

PS Good luck, but this game really is "no win" by its nature.

Marty, you are a very sick individual.

I love wine, but stay away due to lack of funds, although I used to work for Koch Industries, and Charles Koch and his brother, who are both HUGE onephiles(sp)where named the 5th richest men in America, and that's the kind of money it takes to love wine.

BTW, I think they are worth more then twice what Gates is, but since the company is privately held.... Forbes only guesses. No debt, and $100 billion a year in sales.....

You do the math.

Macdadtexas,
Hello there. First of all, I offer you a shout out from Austin, Texas!
Beyond that, I'm really glad that you posted this thread. I recognize a lot of the posts are saturated with a heavy dose of irony/sarcasm, nevertheless, I think it raises some good and serious issues.
I sometimes joke with people that being an audiophile is ideal for somebody who loves music, loves gadgets and has a fairly obsessive personality. The thing is, it's not very difficult for the techno-philia and the obsessive-compulsive aspect to overwhelm the musical piece.
Jim Smith, who wrote the book, Get Better Sound, has an interesting insight into the phenomenon of endless tweaking and upgrading. It tells about how he used to live near a higher-end, men's clothing store. Whenever they would run a sale, he would go over there and buy a sportcoat or some ties that were normally very expensive but happened to be on sale. Yet he found, over time, that his wardrobe was never really satisfying and that he ended up not wearing a lot of the stuff that he bought, as nice as it was. He complained about this to the owner of the store, who asked if he could come over to his house and go through his closet with him. The owner of the store, looking over his wardrobe, said to him, “This is all great stuff, but none of it really goes together. You are buying nice stuff because you can get a good price on it on sale, but you have no master plan for your wardrobe.” Anyway, as you can guess, Smith goes on to say that a lot of people approach their audio systems in the same way. We are tempted to try some new piece of equipment that we've heard about through a review or through a friend or because we find it at a good price, not necessarily because it has anything to do with the rest of our system, because we wonder, “Maybe it will sound better than what I already have?” But we often don't really have a larger “vision” for the system.
I fully admit that I still peruse the classified ads here on Audiogon on a regular basis, and that I am often tempted to buy what I see listed. But there are a couple of things that have helped me to not be as tempted as I used to be.
First, pragmatically, there is the recession! Working for a nonprofit that, like all nonprofits in this economy, has been hit really hard, along with having a family to support, means that I have to be extra responsible with our resources. What that has meant, the last couple of times I have swapped out equipment here on Audiogon, has been that I could not afford, for example, to have two pairs of speakers in the house at the same time. If I wanted to try something new, the only way to do it was to sell what I currently had, first, to pay for what I wanted to be able to try out. Sometimes this has worked really well (for example, selling my very fine LSA Statement monitors and buying a new pair of Merlin TSM's) and sometimes, it has not. So until I can actually afford to compare something new with what I currently have, I'm not going to play the swapping game anymore. It's too aggravating, I lose money, and I just can't afford it.
Another thing that is helping me to restrain the “tinkering/upgrading” impulse has been staying in touch with Bobby Palkovic at Merlin, who loves being in touch with his customers and knows just about everything there is to know about getting the most out of his speakers. As much as I would love to try a different power amplifier than the one I currently have, Bobby has me convinced–and I have little doubt that he is correct–that until I get some carpeting on the hardwood floors of my listening room to tame some of the obvious reflections bouncing around in there, I'm not going to have a solid basis for judging what I can get out of my current setup. This also happens to echo what Jim Smith suggests in Get Better Sound: the most important component is the listening room, and proper setup and room treatment will provide a level of improvement that overwhelms, for example, the difference between one set of cables and another, in most cases.
Anyway, when I am sitting and really enjoying wonderful music, I know I have it right. And when I am feeling frustrated, letdown and obsessive about this hobby, I know I'm off track.
For what it's worth… :-)