Your single most significant purchase mistake?

(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.

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

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.

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)

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.