Your single most significant purchase mistake?

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.

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 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.

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

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!

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. 

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

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

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 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.

(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.

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.

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

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

@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-

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.

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!!

@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

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

That's good to hear.

They did. Alberto told me they took it away because of Powell’s lack of customer service. 
 

benzman,

Wow, what a nightmare. AGD should take away his dealership.

Biggest mistake was dealing with Mike Powell   Bought a pair of AGD Tempo GAN amps and just didn’t work out in my system. Sent them back within 3 weeks of the 30 day trial and he said he spent my money. He pieced me back the 9k over a 10 week period while calling me names, and dogging my system. 
The dude is just the worse dealer by far I have ever dealt with….stay away

My biggest mistake was not anticipating how much fun this hobby would be and so started out not spending what I could have and therefore continually upgrading. For example, I went from a Rega P6, then an 8, then a 10, and then scrapping the brand altogether and bought a Bergmann table.  Same with the phonostage- went through 3 before getting what I ultimately have kept.  Same with my preamp/amp - started with an integrated and went to separates pretty quickly after that.  Each time losing some money all the way and let me tel you it adds up!!!!

Most of my adult life I wanted McIntosh. After an accident and reward from it money I bought McIntosh. Sales experience horrible, no questions of what I listened to or solid state versus tube. So I can tell you that I have found much better sound at a fraction of the cost. I could have been sold better, educated better and maybe had spent more but because of all the above my Mac experience was a true disappointment 

Weaver likes 6 figure everything, has a head twitch, and a martini issue. I try very hard to avoid his over the top bombastic pomposity. He uses the same 100 adjectives over and over...I tired of him after the first 10 episodes.  Perhaps that is the time waster I regret most..lol.

2 examples come to mind...a trapezoidal shaped Kenwood receiver with a space age LED pad remote that had a shape to match.  Oh and also the Kenwood that came with the blue smooth membrane remote, Kenwood tried hard after the classic silver-face days to bring innovative space age looking designs.  The products just weren't ready for prime time.

And even worse, and some years earlier---a "home theater" set of Pinnacle speakers bought at hi-fi-fo-fum in Lawton, OK.  The subwoofer even was passive.  Only speakers I ever had that had a zero excitement to its sound signature.

Oh sorry it was supposed to be singular---I don't like abiding by rules. If I were pressed---the Pinnacles.

On the back of great reviews I bought an Antipodes server which took me literally weeks to get up and running as the set up guide and my technical knowledge combined to make it almost unuseable

The most disappointing part was the lack of support, given the rave reviews of the manufacturer, and how helpful they were supposed to be. Didn't get a single reply to my emails or attempts to contact, including trying to register for the extended warranty

Tried to swap it out with the dealer but the allowance against the price paid made my eyes water and I eventually sold at a significant loss within a year of purchase......

....went back to a CD player and couldn't be happier (now the hassle and financial hit have been, almost, forgotten)

I challenge those who claim, assert, and insist that Aurender has only one person handling all customer inquiry, troubleshooting, and support matters this is a very hard to justify accusation that does not seem possible there are obviously people with agendas hear and without clear support, proof and documentation such claims should be removed from this site they are wrong.

stereo5 yeah Greg Weaver likes his Von schweikert he's got the ultra nines now, $200,000 speakers.

(great thread)

I learned at least something from the few truly bad components I ever owned. But the first was the worst (and the most learning): it was an Infinity floorstanding 3-way with ribbon tweeter, 3" midrange and 10" woofer in a tall, shallow tilt-back cabinet with wood endcaps. To my not-yet-experienced-audiophile eyes, these speakers looked amazing. And I was reading about giant Infinity IRS speakers that cost as much as small houses of the day, so plunged on these "gently used" speakers. Think I paid $1,200 for them.

The sound was AWFUL. To this day it’s easily the brightest, edgiest sound ever. At least some blame went to the ribbon tweeter. But even the woofer sounded awful. It was made of translucent polypropylene which was pretty, but it had a weird "trampoline" (bouncy) bass sound that made me never want polypropylene anything again.

To make it sound better, I changed everything upstream that could be changed--the sound never improved. I finally realized speakers are one component where the "neighborhood" rule is in play: if you don’t get a sound that’s at least "in the neighborhood" for you from the get-go, you’ll never mod, reposition, or otherwise refine those sound-like-ass speakers.

@cleeds & other Aurender N100H folks: I have had similar troubles, although to date Ari has got me back & running. Question: knowing this will be just a temporary component on my digital side, WITH WHAT DID YOU REPLACE the N100H?

I have an N100H sitting in storage. I had problems with it too and as you just said, every time I turned it on I never knew if it would "see" my router or not. I replaced it with an Aurender W20 and it has been a complete joy to use. Never a single problem finding the router. Ari at Aurender is an excellent dude. Whatever he is being paid, Aurender ought to double it. I got to know Ari too with my N100H. With my W20 we are now strangers. Btw, the SQ with the W20 is night and day to the N100H. 

@Jasonbourne52

That's a great find for $20! Mine is the TFM-15CB too.

On eBay a few years back I bought a TFM-35 NOS in the box for $450. No pictures, just the outside of the box. This I had compared head to head with Don Sach's Kootenay. And, yes, the Kootenay was the better with more body...but the Carver had a slightly prettier top end. The Kootenay didn't murder the Carver...in fact, in a bizarre sense, they sounded somewhat similar. They were both running through a Don Sachs preamp. Also the Kootenay had only 50+ hours on it and would surely sound better in time.  

I read someware that the i2s connection between a streamer and a DAC has the best sound quality. I wanted to get the most out of my fancy DAC so I went a head and purchased this 5K streamer with an i2s output. Little did I know that streamers in general preaty much sounds the same, plus I can't tell the difference between my $500 node 2i S/PDIF output and this $5000 streamer i2s output both going into my DAC. This was the largest mistake I made to date.

Lately, I tend to think that an all in one amp of the highest level, something like a darTZeel amp, can sound as good or better then seperates, costing about the same, looks better, and without the jungle of expansive cables dangling at the back on the floor. What do you guys think? 

Funk LSD turntable… sounds lovely but it’s fiddly as all hell…..

The whole surround sound think, especially the final system, a Yamaha DVD player that was unreliable, Rotel Pre processer that never worked properly with volume that changed mid track lots of lights but no setting that was not awful, 2 channel power amp that was really quite superb and stayed as a stereo amp for 15 years until recently, a 5 channel power amp with no guts and 5 Kef speakers that apart from the centre, I still have but have no need for, were lumpy and disjointed. 

@sandthemall : good call on the Carver TFM15! I have the cb version in use in the front room system driving OHM Walsh Sound Cylinders. I bought the TFM15cb at Goodwill for $20!

A pair of Acoustic Phase speakers ($200) that I bought at Crazy Eddy's in NYC back in 1976! Large two-way boxes with a 10- inch woofer and a 1-inch mylar tweeter. Actually not bad - but not special! Sold them for half-price to a co-worker.

Schitt Aegir - Had a pair that would crash and burn while driving LSA Statement 10s and Fyne F501 speakers. Come to find out their advertised ratings weren't even close according to actual testing by Stereophile and Audio Science Review. After zero response from Schiit I sold them for a loss

Lumin U1 Mini - Absolutely horrible app GUI and way to dark of a sound for me. I sent it back and bought the Auralic Aries which it fantastic. 

Sonic Frontiers Line 3 double box preamp+Iris cd transport+Processor 3 dac

Linn Karin+Numeric+Karik

 JM Labs Focal Nova Utopia speakers

I had a N100H back in 2016. I hated it. Their conductor software was always a work in progress. Every time I powered it up, I had to hold my breath because I never knew what would happen. It always had trouble finding my router, even though the N100H was on the shelf just above it. After 2 months ownership, I sold it for half of what I paid and bought a second Sony HAPZ1ES player. Unfortunately, 6 years later, the Sony won’t turn on and I can’t find anyone to fix it. I really think that todays audio equipment is too complicated and tries to do too much.   Bring back the good old 70’s!

Selling my original Mac 275.