What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

@janehamble ,

’Only when doing some REW testing did it come to light that both my Seas tweeters were pressed in. $900 a pair, plus installation. I have no idea how this happened. Could have been a visiting child or dog - but most likely it was clumsy carrying by me.’


That’s a pretty unpleasant experience. Sadly it happens all too often when it could easily be prevented.

It’s bordering on criminal negligence the way some companies don’t offer any protective mesh on their tweeters.

The one that Harbeth uses on their M30 / M40 tweeter is a model example of what should be a standard practice.

This sort of protection should be compulsory. For metal ones full protection Harbeth M30 style should be mandatory.

Even those 2 wire protective strips you sometimes see in front of a tweeter are better than nothing, but not by much.

ATC even have steel grilles on some of their models. Great idea.

Otherwise sooner or later, tweeters will get pushed in. You may or may not be able to recover the shape with a gentle use of a vacuum cleaner, but it’s doubtful whether it will perform again like it should.

@chrisoshea,

'Spending time on audio forums....'


Maybe, maybe not. 

In my experience it's far better than following advice from magazine reviewers and their ilk who nowadays mainly serve as the advertising wing of the manufacturing industry.

Perhaps if forums like this had been around years ago many of the previous posts in this thread could have been avoided. 

For sure there's also fair share of advertising and promotion happening here, unsurprisingly as it's free, but at least there is also a balanced warning of some of the various pitfalls too.

Not to mention plenty of valueable experience thrown in too. Sometimes I wish there was an easy save function for the really helpful posts. 

@brownsfan ,

I used to swap spade connectors for soldered ones but on one occasion the heat from the gun melted/burnt out its voice coil wire.

Why oh why can't all companies, at the very least, just use non tarnishing spades and connectors for their drivers?

Seriously, how much are they saving on connectors which will look pitted a few years down the line?

I somehow got what was left resoldered and working but it was an unhappy experience.

As was my decade long foray into the bottomless-moneypit Linn/Naim nexus... 

@elliottbnewcombjr,

’Cannot sell them, plastic cases tossed, and I thought my sons would inherit this ’flawless’ collection. They don’t have a CD player in their house or car.’


I wouldn’t be too surprised if they wouldn't have wanted them even if they had been intact.

It is a difficult notion, certainly for me, to get into my head that so much of the stuff that I’ve spent so many years getting hold of means so little to friends and family.

I think we attempt to create our own personalised worlds of experience, much like the kings and emperors in the days of old, which can ultimately have little meaning for anyone else. Much like Charles Foster Kane, but he was fortunate enough to have Xanadu, most of us are grateful for digital storage.

Ultimately, our entire expenditure on our audio hobby has be valued for what it has been worth to us, what meaning it had for us, and what pleasure it gave us.

It can be a serious mistake to think that our gear worth as much as we might like to believe, or anywhere near what we might have paid for it.

This industry is routinely littered with overpriced, overpromoted rubbish. Anyone unlucky enough to fall for it is therefore consequently forced to stick with it or accept considerable losses in moving it on.

But then audiophiles aren’t likely to get into audio to make money, are they?

Ultimately, our entire expenditure on our audio hobby has be valued for what it has been worth to us, what meaning it had for us, and what pleasure it gave us.

@glenr55,

'..and for some reason decided I just couldn’t be bothered with the remaining 70 to 80 of my albums still there. So I asked the teenage kid next door if he wanted them and after he looked at me like WTF?, he, of course, says - Sure!'


It's probably an all too common thing. Life changes happen and we're forced to prioritise. Sometimes we regret those decisions. 

After the birth of my daughter it soon became apparent that more living space would be required. That led to the decision to jettison my LP12 and the cabinet which housed several hundred carefully collected LPs (and a hundred or so 45s).

I can't even remember all the details but most of them were exchanged for some furniture, some given away to friends and a few sold off. There were about 30 that held special memories back then and I stored them somewhere in the loft.

Regrets? Not really, not as long as I don't feel compelled to try to replace them all. Impossibly expensive if not impossible in practice as well. In any case vinyl is still there to get back into whenever the time is right. Who knows, I might even enjoy it more second time round?


@mahgister,

'Reading and believing reviewers that affirm that Hi-Fi experience and S.Q. experience being related to electronic design quality and progress only is mainly for those who can pay for it...

Totally false, but when you enter in this course to upgrade the electronic design of any part in the audio system, you forgot the essentials : any relatively good system will give to you an extraordinary experience if you embed it correctly, even at a relatively low price...

All audio magazines are market conditioning mainly... They sell ready made branded products, they dont explain the basics and the methods to embed them, this will kill the urge to upgrade.... :)


Very costly for those customers who believes the gospel...'



Yes, my experience too.

Certain reviewers are at their most dangerous once they start to wax lyrical about products that cost more than your car, or even your house.

Give them a few months and they'll have revised their opinions and be singing the praises of the new upgraded, MK2 version etc etc etc 

The previous models will never be mentioned again. 

I have a little more trust in reviewers like StereoNETS David Price who's still regularly refers to classic vintage gear that he owns for comparison purposes.