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

The Shure E3 seems to me to be more efficient than other small light headphones or earbuds I've tried. I play it at around 80% of volume on the iPod and it sounds fine. However I find I don't use it often on the iPod, for two reasons:

1. I mainly use the iPod on cardio machine, where ear buds or in-the-ear phones fall out, and

2. I use standard bit rate on the iPod and the E3 is quite revealing of the limitations. With cheaper headphones and running on a cardio machine, 128 is fine.

I mostly use my E3 on the airplane to play a DVD movie or watch a DVD concert on my laptop. Awesome!

Art

Get an Ipod Mini and Shure E3's : - )))
Art

One December several years ago, I found myself with four or five of every type of component: amp, speakers, cables, preamp. Ok, just two turntables. No room for ME in my house! So I made a rule: I am not allowed to own more than two of two component categories. So if I have two amps and two pairs of speakers and I want to try a new pair of speaker cables, well, one of my other redundant components has to go.

It worked to a great extent. I can still suffer too much churn (buying a new cd player too often, for example, and yes selling the old one first), but this has not been much of a problem. Buying is easier psychologically than selling, as you probably have noticed.

My rule has made a HUGE difference, without eliminating the fun of the hobby.

Art

Easy. I will get off the merry-go-round right after my next purchase ;-)

Dan, I did not realize that you started one of the most popular audiogon threads!

So are you "off the merry-go-round"?

Art

ps: who invented the name "merry-go-round"?