What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

mkgus

I love when trouble leads to 'better'.

what was the design error?

Not costly, but I just fixed a big disaster.

I was photographing equipment, put the leaves in the dining room table, put my 45 lb Cayin tube amp near one end of the table, out of sight while I was shooting my McIntosh tube preamp, closer to the other end of the table.

I went to turn the preamp around, to shoot the rear jacks, and, when I lifted it up, the weight gone, the table tipped over. I ’dropped’ the lighter preamp close to the floor, and ran to save the amp, saving neither. Cayin, like a cat, flipped over and the majority of the impact was to the upside down massive transformers. Big gash in wood floor from corner of the faceplate (thick, undamaged happily). Two snapped off power tubes, OMG, glass hither and thither. Two large tube sockets now ’loose’. That’s it, that Cayin is built like a brick ship house. Soon one of the 6sl7 internal damage caused it to fail.

Had spare 6550’s, but time to try some KT88’s I wanted to try anyway. Had spare used 6sl7, different brand, so changed the 2 6sl7’s to something that looked different than the 2 adjacent 6sn7’s (I mixed them up once). 

Preamp glass face cracked, that’s it.

McIntosh no help with mx110z glass, too old, found one company with replacement glass, $90. wait for it, or, what I did, order glass locally, $45. mask it and paint the back of the glass black like OEM. Whew.

Strong ceramic tube sockets of Cayin, but, the right channel tubes were a bit loose, occasionally I needed to tap them a speck on turn on to eliminate static, get full signal. I figured I would have Steve at VAS (Cayin USA rep) replace the tube sockets soon.

Yesterday I took it apart, from the top, using a tiny screwdriver I pried the contacts of each pin hole closer together. Then, from the bottom, a few pin connectors still wobbly, I inserted short lengths of small diameter copper wire to wedge those few snugly. Tubes very tight now.

Problem gone cost $45. I’ll meet Steve another day.

Got lucky once more.

Not the most costly, but one I am still peeved about.

Had my Thorens TD124 on a high shelf, SME tonearm eye level, see that needle drop.

Oh did it drop. Shure V15VxMR, removable stylus with brush, microline on BERYLLIUM.

I dropped that stylus, it landed on my shirt, saved by the beer belly, didn't hit anything hard. Whew!!! 

Damn if the beryllium shaft wasn't shattered, I'm still mad, I won't buy anything more brittle than Boron, and I worry about that. I kept the body but didn't use it for years, found out about Jico here, bought their stylus for it, SAS on boron. 

It's wonderful, I was truly enjoying it, but my first MC AT33PTG/II beats it, I just put them thru another race for several hours today. The tighter channel balance produces an amazingly tight rock steady center, and the greater separation plays off that. I actually had to toe my speakers in more for something that was un-naturally wide (easy for me, heavy monsters on 3 wheels on wood grid floor, like graph paper).

millercarbon

now that you mention CD’s,

1st: 8 tracks (hundred of them).

Cassettes made 8 tracks cheap, 6 for $5.00 (incl tax .88c each). Had no disposable money in those days, so every payday I would wander the music store, decided to buy stuff I would never spend any real money on, listen to them when I retire. Acquired a few hundred. Pressure pads rotted, worthless.

2nd: CD’s (thousands of them).

I quit smoking 32 years ago. Decided, as an incentive, the bills were getting paid, I will spend my cigarette money on music and music equipment. Carton a week was $700. in 1988. Gave myself a yearly rise in pay as cost of cigarettes increased .../yr, now $3,900 in NJ, $6,700 NYC.

Aside from some nice equipment, I bought a load of CDs, so many, I needed space, and normal 12" binders fit the inside discs between the rings, not fitting the booklet, so, Harrington’s had very nice deep leather binders. each page 8 discs with booklets, fit 80-100 stuffed each. Music, Movies, Music DVDs, eventually 45 binders. I never imagined how 22 years would add up (I quit this 10 years ago, when I retired age 62).

Then, rediscover LP, I play few CD’s now, but not many, and I am replacing my favorite CD’s with Vinyl if available.

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.

Thank goodness I kept my LP’s, people who quit LP gave me theirs, ..., weeding now, found successful cleaning method, down to 2,500.

Lost money: cost of 300 8 tracks, 3,000 CD’s,  37 leather binders, that’s no small potatoes.