Major mistakes made in assembling your audio rig

This major "mistake" turned out to be a major lesson that would help me avoid other mistakes in the future. Many years ago, as a young budding audiophile, I made my first brand new (full retail) purchase, the AR SP9 preamp. After reading some rave reviews I was excited at the prospect of owning my first AR piece. I went to a local dealer where I heard it in what is still one of the most memorable systems I have ever heard: Snell Type Aiii, VTL, Roksan/Koetsu, SP9, MIT. I brought it home only to feel great disappointment because, even after a long break in period, it made (more accurately, it let) my system sound bleached out, thin and threadbare and just plain awful. After several days I took it back to the dealer who had agreed to issue a store credit. I thought that perhaps there was something wrong with this particular sample. In order to test it he inserted it into the same system as before and, once again, the sound was glorious. That was the moment when I understood the importance of system synergy and the idea that some gear simply does a much better job of getting out of the way and revealing the sound of the other components in the system. A great lesson. The store credit resulted in, among other things, my first vacuum record cleaner; another great lesson.

Nice post; I agree with your take on the subject and feel that I am in the same boat. Some thoughts that come to mind:

I think that it is true that "back in the day" there seemed to be fewer choices, and many of those choices seemed to be able to tap into and give us that elusive quality that some of us refer to as musicality (like the sound of live; or, at least, having a good dose of it). I think that part of the reason for this was, ironically, because of the very limitations of the equipment. Contrary to what some fans of vintage equipment feel, I think that, overall, today's gear is infinitely better. The problem and irony are that as gear has become "better" (more transparent to the source) it also becomes easier and easier to put together a system that sounds poor (unlike the sound of live). However, it also becomes possible to put together a system that is far better than anything that I heard back in the day if one is willing to devote the time and research and deal with the inevitable mistakes? Not easy, considering just how many choices there are. Personally, I try not to stray too far away from the approach to system building that made it so much fun back then.