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The 5 stages of making a bad audio purchase

This is tongue in cheek people, so let’s keep the replies light shall we?
The 5 Stages of Making a Bad Audio Purchase:

1. Denial: "My system, which before was of course totally awesome, is now totally awesomer! The sound stage isn’t just 3 dimensional any more, it is 4 dimensional. I can feel fingers sliding across guitar strings, drums are like my head is against the snare, and the bass goes 10hz lower ...."

2. Anger: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T BELIEVE MY SYSTEM WENT FROM AWESOME TO AWESOMER!!!. You obviously have a crap system, your ears are crap, you are just jealous."

3. Bargaining: "Hey, this gadget will make your already awesome system totally awesomer! 60% of MFR list is a great deal for it! That’s 40% off and you don’t even have to pay tax. I am only selling it because I am upgrading to the even awesomer version 2. My loss is your gain."

4. Depression: "I can’t believe I spent $5,000 on this thing ....."

5. Acceptance: "Sure, 75% off list is fair."
atdavid
Post removed 
mwoh419
54 posts
 
Step 13

After getting lost in the rabbit hole you find yourself thoroughly frustrated... sell everything... and start from scratch.

( not my experience )
mwoh419
54 posts
 
"Back to the topic.....Is it the Journey or the Destination that matters."

For me it's the destination... and everyone's destination may be different. 

Problem is you won't know you're "there"... until you have "arrived".
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It’s actually a journey without a destination. One issue I see a lot is that many audiophiles don’t know where the sound of their system lies in the overall curve of sound quality. Maybe they think they’re 5% from Audio Perfection so they give up. Your mental image of HiFi perfection is only as good as the best system you’ve heard. 
atdavid OP
736 posts
 
I haven't heard any "best" system, but I have heard a lot of very good systems. They all had qualities I liked, but where one excelled in one area, others excelled in other areas.

When I am on my death bed, though, there is one thing I am absolutely certain of. When I look back on life, having an audio system better than 99.9% of the population will not even make it into the top 10 of things I was grateful for. Music perhaps, it certainly makes life worth living. Having shared musical events with people I care about, almost definitely. Having developed products that have helped people enjoy life through music, quite likely. But having a super awesome stereo ... I doubt it.
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