What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

@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. 

 well I tried to take my McIntosh integrated amp off the top of an Onkyo receiver now these were approximately 7 feet off the ground on the top shelf of my closet in the process of trying to just get the Onkyo out cuz I was going to give it to my brother  the Macintosh slipped started to fall I tried to catch it with my other arm and didn't do it it landed on the corner smash the glass the front end of the mac and it made me sick I have not tested it yet to see if it's okay I'm either too scared or just don't want to know

Biggest mistake: Bow to peer pressure and then impulsively upgrade, unnecessarily.

Biggest mistake:  listening to too many of the armchair experts in these forums. 

Lucky enough, not too costly as both items pre-owned.
— Transparent Digital Reference and
— Transparent XLR Ultra Music Link. 

Both cables don't live up to promise, despite their rather elaborate constructions.
SAD. 
M. 🇿🇦