is the Audiogon auction clock accurate?

Sorry to hear about your problems with the site. There were a few rough edges I had to work around when I first started bidding on auctions. Now, everything works perfectly for me. I'm glad you found a solution to the problem as well.

The high bidder did ostensibly win the auction. it just wasn’t me. Fail for the seller: s/he would have gotten a higher price if the system had worked ( I was pretty determined to get this piece of gear). Fail for the buyer: If I don’t know when the gavel comes down, who the winner is, or how much was paid, it’s more of a carny game than an auction. That said, I’m not hating on Audiogon. I didn’t get ripped-off or lose any money. I’m just a newbie who asked for a reality check from current members, which I received- one member who concedes the system is sub-optimal but it worked in his favor, ( and it honestly might have worked in mine if i had handled my bidding differently) and one who has washed his hands of it. I appreciate them taking time to share their experiences Maybe I’m an outlier, but as a first-time experience it has left a bad impression. But now that I "know the deal" I can draw my own conclusions and act accordingly.
But yes, it’s a disservice to both buyers and sellers.

Your experience should be noted by sellers on an auction as well as the bidders, if I was using the auction to sell a piece of gear I would certainly want the high bidder to win the auction.

You misunderstand my post. I totally understand sniping and am not complaining that I was outbid, I was just explaining the circumstances surrounding the situation, perhaps you hadn’t read down that far. I don’t need an atomic clock, but one that is in the same time zone should be provided by the auction site. The system is clearly broken. But I have no ax to grind.. My post as a new member was to try and ascertain what may have happened that could reconcile with my personal experience. Two longstanding members  basically confirmed what happened so I’m taking that at face value, confirmation bias or no. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

" Something went haywire somewhere. I had the winning bid for a few days and was only outbid in the last few minutes."

Nothing went haywire. Its bidding strategy called sniping. Snipers watch the auction very closely, and then bid on the item at the last second. The rationale is if they wait until the very end, the item won't get bid up as high because there's no time for anyone to react.

From now on, get a link to an atomic clock, and go by that. Don't use the clock in your computer. 

This is exactly why I never get involved in Audiogon auctions, the system doesn't work, isn't fair and is not transparent.

Something went haywire somewhere. I had the winning bid for a few days and was only outbid in the last few minutes. I wanted to increase mine but it was too late as the auction suddenly ended "early". Today I saw that I had received an automated email from Audiogon that the auction had ended at 6:02 but I was still trying to bid at approximately 6:20 and that's after having refreshed my browser multiple times to make sure the countdown clock was accurate. So, it would seem that as far as bidding, it's more of a gentleman's club over here which is fine. But it also seems that the Audiogon auction system is less than robust, and a bit more opaque which is disheartening. Thanks for the reply and Happy New Year.

I had a similar experience. In the last minute, several bids came through. The winning bid, or what I thought was the winning bid, was below my maximum bid. Obviously, I was upset and let Audiogon know it via email. I couldn’t understand how my bid was not the winning bid. This was my first (and probably last) auction experience. The next day, I realized that I had, in fact, won the auction but the announcement just took a little time to find me. So, to your question, the timer appeared to work accurately during the last minute. However, I wouldn’t wait until then if you really want the item. Use the "maximum bid" function.