He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The real cost was unfathomable.

I had dealings with him. He was a creep. He backed out of a long-planned deal (months in the making) we had for the sale of one of his pieces of equipment the day before I was to drive to Richmond to pick it up.  This was after I had verified with him that the deal was still on and after I rented a vehicle for pickup of the gear.  He said he changed his mind and in another interaction with him a year later, he bragged at how he sold the equipment for a much higher price.  Others had similar stories, mostly on the sell-side.  If he was buying, however, he was the nicest guy to ensure he got what he wanted to feed his obsession. 

My perspective based on The Post story: this was a monomaniacal obsession with serious consequences for his family and for himself as well. 

Of course, it's difficult to comment on his psyche not knowing him (and maybe it would be presumptuous anyway), but presumably a lot of the information came from people who knew him well and/or were related. Many of them came across as disliking the guy and his hobby due to his fixation on that project.

So, the facts are that he spent a lot of money (most of it lost to his hiers) and appears to have alienated and offended in equal amounts. A sad story, in some ways...

The real story here is about caring for your loved ones. 

@prefab Yup.

And there are most always different sides to most things. 

And why the two grandfather clocks?

Pretty sad story all around. Weird system, def not worth the money, time and terrible strife and division he caused in his family and sold for piece meal pennies on the dollar when he died.