O.K., the other end of your personal experience

I got ransacked way back when. Totally trashed the place, we didn’t have much, they stole my AR4x’s, First decent speakers I had, bought when I was 20 with wedding gift money.

https://www.ebay.com/i/223945227350?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid%3D1110001%26algo%3DSPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3D7b84490df2c44011b82d2a3d835d58c3%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D30%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D392384005285%26itm%3D223945227350%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2386202%26algv%3DDefault

Big loss, it takes years to get over the sense of violation a total ransack leaves you with, add the horrible feeling of somebody else having your AR4x’s by theft.

big plinth turntable, 2 arms: bought 3 turntables, returned 2, finally 3rd one done, done, done

not mine, but this deck
https://www.flickr.com/photos/always_rich/5891273953

I went thru the only 3 for sale in the world at that time.

1. ebay from Japan. Members here alerted me to tonearm gasket deterioration, luckily seller agreed to cancel the sale.

2nd from canuck audio mart, arm had gasket problem, seller fixed it, bought it, seller packaged poorly, destroyed in shipment. what a shame such a rare beauty gone from the world.

3rd and last one for sale then, also from canuck audio mart, perfectly packaged, bought 9" arm with advice here, got real mono cartridge recommended here, successfully risked new 12.5" arm from russia, unknown by anyone, whew, it's a winner.

elliottbnewcombjr   Sorry to hear about the invasion and loss of items and feelings.   I had a very nice high-end car system stolen out of a nice car I had.  The worst part was not the loss of the audio system, but the extensive damage that was done to the car.  Had I awakened my 12 gauge pump might have gotten a workout. 

Chinese company Jungson made some absolute crap of a integrated amp. This was right after a bad experience with a tube integrated, Aronov LS960I that while magical sounding turned out to be long-term unstable. So, keen to avoid a replay of that decided to go solid state.

Side note- this becomes yet another example of why not to select components based on narrow minded technical considerations.

Yes, we just called ourselves narrow minded. So there.

So anyway like we said this Chinese Jungson amp turned out to be absolute crap. In no time at all it developed some strange intermittent noise in the left channel. The Chinese Jungson customer service was so bad the Chinese guys actually came out to my house on the pretense of replacing it only to listen and evaluate and learn what they could from me. (Does this sound familiar?) These two Chinese guys from Jungson saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears, their amp was defective, told me to my face it was indeed the amp, then lied to my face. Because far from replacing it as promised they then totally stopped even taking my calls. 

Fortunately my dealer was a stand up guy and made me whole. But they stiffed him too and so being a good dealer that was the end of his doing business with Jungson.

Off the top of my head, my list of didn’t-cut-the-mustards (don’t ask me for dates or model names) --
Transistronics Integrated

Lyngdorf Integrated Amp

Infinity Black Widow Tonearm

Yeah, I had a crappy 8 track player ripped out of my car, damaged the center console, luckily was able to come up with a new solution covering the damage.

bought a r2r player, lots of assurances about specific questions, to avoid packaging and shipping, we went to Baltimore for birthday weekend, seller met us in Baltimore, saw it, crap, I didn't even take it out of his car, what a damnnnn liar, oh well, I got a more advanced model anyway.

When it comes to the Infinity Black Widow, it didn't take long for Paul Seydor to convince me to replace it with the Sumiko MMT for my SOTA Sapphire. There was no question regarding the improvement to the sound.   A few years later, though, an Alphason HR 100 S arm took me further, to where I still stand today.

Garrard Zero-100 turntable.  It left lathe chips of vinyl on the floor in front of it.  Still hurts 40+ years later. 

Yes, the Zero-100 was such a marketing success...but it's only success.  

Buying a Linn Sondek LP 12, then experiencing upgrade Hell.  What a total piece of crap.  I’ve commented in detail through the years about my nightmare like experience. 
Makes me want to pour a stiff drink every time I think about it, that and the nearly $8000.00 I had into it.  Sold at a massive loss..probably the happiest day of my life..

N

Completely irrelevant today but,
In my youth I was feeling guilty about my non audiophile DD turntable picked up at the local Pacific Stereo on closeout. Decided I would graduate to an expertly setup Thorens (TD166 MkII?) with a HOMC Adcom XCLT cartridge. So, I traded in my Sony PS-X60 / Shure V15 type V and made the deal. Upon first listen at home I quickly realized what a terrible mistake I'd made! When I returned to the "expert" audio dealer the next day to buy my Sony back - it was already gone. First audio mistake I've made.

Then there was the time in my ignorant youth when I thought it would be a great idea to drive a Perreaux 1150b amp with a Counterpoint SA7.1 preamp. Sexy looking duo.

The impedance mismatch made the pairing thin sounding and unlistenable.