How hard is it to admit you bought bad gear?

I think Audioreview is another tool to help in our researching, I am glad it exists, but you have keep an open mind while doing using it. Generally, the more user reviews the better. There are some, I am not excluding myself, that give rave reviews but never really compared the product to anything. There are others that I believe are just out to trash a certain brand.

I've had a couple of purchases that didn't work out, but the most egregious, meaning I spent WAY too much money with WAY too little satisfaction, was the $13,000 Goldmund amp I bought a few years ago, in the hopes it would be "the last amp" I would ever need. It was a Mimesis 29, bought new for retail price from my dealer, that just did not work w/my Genesis 500 speakers. But I didn't realize that until I had to send it back to Switzerland the second time for repairs and Goldmund would not respect their 3 year warranty OR pay for the return shipping (which was $500 on its own). Goldmund said my speakers were the problem. I guess I have to agree that the amp didn't match well w/the speakers, but it should not have started emitting smoke. anyway, I repaired the Goldmund, got it home, and sold it (for less than half price) to someone who did not own Genesis speakers. I trust it is working for that person. But I feel that Goldmund is overpriced and overrated and will not drive anything and everything, and most importantly has absolutely NO regard for their customers! Even those who have paid $13,000 for one piece of equipment. I sure wish I had known about Audiogon way back when I bought that amp. I could make that $13,000 go extremely far now.

solution: try before you buy.

if you don't, you are sure to get a dud now and then and you'll have noone to blame but yourself. i'm constantly amazed by people who buy stuff site-unseen based on the reviews or the brand name.

I think I bought some snake oil cables. Other than that, I've been pretty lucky (or so I think, maybe it's what you're talking about). I think my HT processor is pretty good, but I have found better stuff for the same price since. That's not exactly the same thing, but it kinda burns actually.

Oh God no, avguygeorge and others, I have made plenty of them
and yes, more than I care to admit. Whats hard is thinking of which is the worse. I do think it might be as benefical though, especially to some of the newbies, and I guess really to some of us older timers, that we admit our boners.
Always easy to talk about the good deals, but I have to admit there have been one or two amp mods( I seem to fall for mods) I fell for that I wish I hadn't.
On the same note, but in a far better light, just got off the phone for the 1st time
with Stan Warren(I think I am going to have him mod my DV 09
Elite for me, any thoughts on that?)what a class individual. Everything I am reading about him must be true.
And as far as reviews go, I think we all know WE let them carry too much weight in what WE buy, or at least look at. Yes, part of it is the only 2 real dealers in this area can only carry maybe 1/100 of the gear available out there, so I have to depend some on others, and since they do it for a living we(or just I) think they should be right. How many times have I considered something or look to see if something is on the Stereophile or used to the TAS recommended list. And in the case of TAS, who among us could sort out what they really thought about a product? And I loved the mag, but damn it could be confusing until you learned to trust your own ears.
And yes, how many good products are out there that died in infancy because they couldn't get anywhere withe the mags? That must be an incredible pile of equipment