Your single most significant purchase mistake?

i noticed the recently initiated thread on this mike powell fellow and his youtube posts were abruptly taken down... i had posted details of my unacceptable experience on that thread dealing with him

Biggest mistake, probably buying a fabulous Threshold T-200 power amp used and finding out it didn't mate with ML SL3 electrostats. It was twenty minutes of music and you stopped...had to sell it...still have the SL3s (in home theater now).

As a surprise, the Carver AV-705 multi-channel amp sounded much better than either my brother or I expected and he used it a while on Thiel 2.3s (late 90s). It was a steal, bought used.

Jeff Rowland Model 2.  Listened to it in the store.  Sounded much better than the Mac amp I currently had.  Brought it home, and it sounded much worse.  That was when I learned you needed to match the equipment to the room.  I still remember my wife telling me to get the old amp back in the system.

B&K 5.1 Surround Receiver

Sounded good but when it had a problem there was nobody to be found. I left it sitting on  the service counter at Listen Up in Denver and walked out the door.

Thus far it would be a miniDSP unit. I told them what I had, what I was trying to do and they recommended a product which after purchased was told by them it wouldn't work in my system.

Anything class D that I’ve ever taken a flyer on.

Any digital processor or digital crossover.

I’ve taken each of them apart (multiples of each) and rebuilt them as best as possible, still --no joy.

PTSD. I now have nightmares about self powered speakers with class D amps and digital crossovers. Coming after me with axes and the like. Every time we go to a concert, these days, it's all we'll ever get. Live sound (for the most part) has gone totally to hell.

One word. Proceed. I made a massive investment in the Proceed line given the reputation of Mark Levinson / Lexicon / Madrigal. They were new to home theater, and had some really good design ideas centering on bus based architectures for upgradability. The AVP preppro had an available  faroudja line doubler that looked pretty good at the time when it worked, but the sound was a bit sterile and was the best of the components and had to be repaired twice. The transport was in and out of the shop a dozen times until the warranty period expired, that thing never did work right. The amps were beasts but were singularly unimpressive. I was pretty unhappy with the entire setup until I replaced the AMP 3 with Krell mono-blocks, a world of difference. The company just walked away from the product line. 

@zavato sweet Avatar

Rogue M150 monoblocks. I had both cryoed KT 6550 and EL 34 tubes, Harmonic Resonance boards + Stillpoints and Risers high quality PCs, DHL Silversonic XLRs, HQ PLC, 20amp dedicated line. No matter what I tried they sounded rolled off. I was told by the company I bought the tubes from the problem was their choice of transformers

Schiit JOTUNHEIM R ( the only alternative other than the Rall interface box or the Raal  HSA1b which I already have on another system ) This piece of. Schiit malfunctioned as soon as i attempted to power it on .I attempted to talk to customer service or technical assistance  which is impossible because this schiity  company does not have any. You have to use emails that they do not answer .I. had to initiate a PayPal complaint to get my money back and send it back .This company has miserable quality control and it is obvious they do not check equipment before shipping .Normally I would take a chance and ask for a replacement item in exchange but I would never dare deal with this company ever again!!

Kinergetics Inc. CD Player and Class A 100W SS amp, the late '80s. The CD player just died 1 month out of warranty - sent it to the worthless Tony DeChirio and his lying sidekick Susan Tate who said they couldn't fix it - too bad!. Amp was nice but the fan noise was loud at all times. De Chirio evidently is a scam artist who has gone thru a number of companies - hope he got what he deserved! Pre-internet our remedies were limited.

@slovett At one point I owned a Proceed HPA 2 amp; I thought it was pretty good but it died at one point and needed to be serviced. The company repaired it at no charge, which I thought was great. As best as I can recall, I eventually sold that amp when I decided to explore the world of tubes. Th tube fascination lasted a number of years-

Technics PL-7 turntable… because I gave it to a Thrift Store… when I moved from Lewes,DE to Naples,FL

They also got ALL 200 of my vinyls collection… I am now 68… just can’t find either now

Paying a professional to create a digital room correction filter for me.  I figured out later that I needed to swap the position of my couch and my speakers (never have your listening chair in the center of the room if your speakers are against a wall).   It seems my system is too revealing - any digital attenuation comes at the cost of a palpable image, lower dynamics, less rhythm & pace.

(never have your listening chair in the center of the room if your speakers are against a wall).

Completely disagree.  Depends on your speakers and your room treatment, or lack thereof.

A Cambridge Audio EVO 150. I liked the way it sounded and I liked the understated appearance and compact form factor, but the streaming software (StreamMagic)  interface was irredeemably awful. I couldn't live with it and I was able to  persuade the dealer to take it back and I went back to using NAD/Bluesound.

Biggest mistake was dealing with Mike Powell  

FWIW, I really like Mike's foil power cords.

My worst mistake was commissioning a pair of custom speakers from Mike's audio-show buddy Ryan Scott of Vapor Audio. I never got the speakers nor a refund, what a nightmare experience.

A MAC c26 preamp back in 1976 . Couldn't wait ti get rid of it

Dynaco MK VI tube monoblocks, 120 watt each.
Unless you are up to doing a serious mod of them, stay away.

My first turntable in 1974- BIC 940 belt drive. What a POS! I think it was designed engineered ok, just poor quality of materials & construction. The fluid in cueing system leaked on early & would drop the needle on the record faster than you could do it by hand. The speed wasn't stable & the attached mat on the platter was uneven. 

I could have purchased a fully manual Thorens for the same price or an automatic Dual 1247 for about $20 more. Live & learn. 

SAE integrated unit. It was their solid state all in on. Looked cool and did sound good but. The first one I received all the inputs were wrong volume said balance cd said tuner snd do on. They actually made me pay the shipping to send it back. After six months the left channel went out. Dropped of at local repair and he told me he could fix. He did fix but also regretted taking on the job. Hevhad to  Re-solder the entire board. Said it was all cold Soldered and very poir. Worked for aboutvten years and one day I hit power onlybto hear a click and never powered up. Unpluged everything and placed in garbage!

Bought into the whole "2C3D" thing on the cover of Stereophile. Bought Avalon/Spectra/MIT. Went almost a year in process as my local dealer was saving trade-ins for me as their arrived. Had it a month, hated every moment after having been totally floored during too short a demo and followup visit. 

Drove 3 hours, traded it all in to @audioconnection and picked up some old Quad 63ss and Cary tube gear to run with it. JohnnyR really saved the day there! Cheers,

Spencer

I purchased a used, first generation McIntosh MC275, one which had a "hard life" before I purchased it.  As a poor college student, I could not afford the repairs it needed and ended up taking a bit of a loss selling it "as is".  To afford the MC275  purchase I sold my pristine MC225 amp.

It was my senior year of high school. Money was hard earned. Some Bozo showed up with a load of JohnZer speakers for sale. For $380, I bought a pair. I cannot begin to describe how bad they really sounded. To me, they looked pretty cool. This eventually led me to build my own set of speakers from a Speaker Lab kit. It was a clone of the Klipsch K Horn. A very complicated build with odd angles to cut for the folded bass horn. They were not great either, but a huge step up from the first pair that I got so cheated on. I already had an interest in audio and music and this experience, well, it gave me experience. Same thing happened with the first electronic kit that I bought too! I just remember how cheap the parts were, but it sounded better than you might think.

 I will say this>> I have since made many speakers and electronic kits. The enjoyment is great, and you can, with the right kit, make impressive equipment, but it is not for the faint of heart. Honestly, there have been many times that I built something myself so that I would at least have a better control over parts quality. I find it surprisingly difficult to find a product that is well designed, well built, and sounds great. 

I tend to put myself through a brutal, intense, torturous, and lengthy process of questioning my own perceptions of demos before I splurge on significant new gear. It’s terrible and unenjoyable, and it usually ends with me questioning the nature of reality.  But, for my pains I’ve never bought anything significant that I regretted or let me down.  Other than a recent Innuos PhoenixUSB reclocker that I should have bought new instead of used.  Minor mistake in the end.