5 things I will not do agian, what about you?

1. Lift a Tube Research GT400 without help.

2. Test the high voltage points inside an Aesthetix Io without rubber gloves.

3. Attend CES expecting to hear wonderful sound.

4. Explain to the UPS guy why my speakers are so big yet won’t “blow down the house.”

5. Go to a UA theatre without taking ear protection.

(“Kill Bill“ made my ears ring. Must admit though, there were some “killer” females :^).

1.Drop an Aurios bearing on my Pass X-250.

2.Over-tighten locking RCA's, resulting in an Anaconda wrestling match upon attempted removal, therby loosening the RCA jack itself, necessitating removal of the preamp cover and re-snugging the jack (damn I'm stupid).

3.Cut my finger assembling a DIY power cord, that ended up sounding like crap anyway.

4.Step on my headphone cable while wearing my headphones, yanking them completely off my bucket sized noggin.

5.Post my dumb-ass mistakes on Audiogon for all you guys to see.

Hey Gumby, does Pokey know about Christy, Gilbert and Kevin? Oh, and I said to use a "Wahl" NOT a "Maul"!!! Well, whatever...maybe you'll start a new fashion trend in Prefrontal Lobodomy. Hey, did you get your Eastern Electric Preamp yet? Does that make six, or is that part of the quintet you mentioned? How do you like the EE? I decided to give Dan Wright's prototype a try with a single input and single output. If it works in one of my systems I may sell off my GNS modified LS2B (don't need the extra inputs and outputs, nor the balanced feature)...you know "Seven" is a lucky number.....it has some religious and spiritual connotations as well! You can never have enough pre-amps, that's what I say!

Marco

1) I will not run speaker wire in the attic again, I still have dozens of scars from smacking my head on the exposed roofing nails.

2) I will not sell off any wire of any kind, I'll need it when I put together yet another system.

3) I will not spend all my money at CES on tweaks/music/do-dads and end up starving and having to walk to the airport (again).

4) Perfect sound forever? I will not hold back, I will kick the salesman's ass that lies to me next time.

5) No matter how hot Shania Twain is, I will not attend another concert of hers and have to endure her singing.

1. Never again spend a shit load on cables like I've already done.

2. Never have as many preamps as I do now. Five.

3. Never again buy as much exotic hardwood on Ebay with the intent of building cool ass audio racks and never getting around to it. Now half my living room is filled with cocobolo, padauk, maple, zebrawood and who knows what else.

4. Never go to another CES and spend more time with Gilbert Yeung and Kevin Allen in the Blue Circle room with than with Christy Canyon at the Adult Expo. Boy, was she pissed!

5. And never listen to Marco when he recommends the latest and greatest appliance to trim my hair. He's the reason my noggin is at a permanent 45° angle now.

Jack n Roberts, I feel for you if you never try seperates again. Frankly, I have only heard one integrated amp that I would say is better than most of the solid state seperates I have ever heard. That 'integrated amp' is made by the German company ASR and sells for $10,000 Euros. It also has 3 boxes, one box for the control section, one box for the poweramp/power supply section, and one box for the battery power section that powers the preamp part of the unit.

Sad to say though, I have tried a number of the above things people (listed) will never do again. Some I have had a lot of success at... heh heh.

5 things I will NEVER do again

1 - Run a passive preamp. Passives might theoretically be the simpliest way to run a signal, but almost invaribly their sound quality is not constant over different levels of volume a system outputs.

2 - Run a subwoofer in a 2 channel system. If your speakers you have were not designed to hear low frequencies, getting a sub may let you hear those frequencies afterall; however, getting those frequencies to sound coherent (with your speakers) is next to impossible.

3 - Use stock anything when aftermarket gear is oh so much better. I do not even unpack stock AC cords.

4 - Buy speakers sight unheard. I have never had bad luck with this; however, I recently was very close to buying a pair of speakers, and I had the amazing idea of hearing them first at a dealer. I did not like the sound of the speakers at all, and I was glad I listened to them first.

5 - Buy a component solely based on one rave review. Reviews are probably the single worst ways to research components short of using a dart and a catelogue to selct components to buy.

Honerable (or dishonerable) mentions
- Place a fridge on a shelf above an amplifier... I did this in college, we had a huge blackout... Fridge dethawed and leaked...
- Run amps that get REALLY hot. I have had it with Class A amps that I can roast food on. I do not have AC (not that I really need it), but an Amp should not raise the temperature of a listening room significantly.
- Run a solid state DAC... I will probably go back on this in the future, but great tube dacs are almost as addictive as any hardcorde narcotic drug.
- Commute 130 miles to a Hi Fi show each day for 4 days in a row. At the end of HE2003, I was almost a vegetable.
- Plug a vacuum cleaner into a PS300 power plant. Actually I did not do this but a friend of mine did. I'll be sure to never do it.

KF

Marco, I have been following your sense of humor here and there (remember OZ?), and you, once again make me laugh. I have to hurry out the door to get to work; it is nice to leave with a giggle.

Completely believe the reviews in magazines
Use a computer extension cord
Use component power cords supplied by the manufacturer

That's three anyway...

Buy into some new technology, just because it's the latest thing. Pay full retail.

1. Tape a couple of quarters at the end of my tonearm over my cartridge.

2. Place my right speaker in an entirely different room from my left speaker.

3. Wire an extension cord from a ceiling fan.

4. Install my entire system in the bathroom so I can sing along.

5. Place my tube mono amps on either side of the toilet.

OK, I didn't really do any of those things...I just made em' all up.....no, really, I did....what, do I look like anyway!

It's a good question so here's some more honest responses:

1. Purchase an SS amplifier.
2. Give vinyl "just one more try" ...I know, I know...but it just ain't for me (yes, I know how good it sounds)!
3. Purchase speaker cable the girth of a garden hose.
4. Use Chinese tubes in any component.
5. Assume there is one "right" way to do anything.

Marco