Rules of getting best audio ? maybe..


I have just started the hifi audio journey since about a year or so and have learnt a great deal. I am sure many of you here have much more experience in this arena and have gone through your journey. Some mistakes made, lesson learnt, but still it is ongoing journey.
I have set up my stereo as well as home theater, spent great deal of money and have learnt some valuable lessons and thought of setting up some guidelines/rules, so that if I could go back in time, I wish I had these steps in mind and followed these "rules" instead of doing costly trial and errors. 
These are my rules for my past, if I had to start all over: Hopefully this might help someone who is about to start. 
1. Buy the equipment you think is the best for "your ears" and not the second best, even if it is a little bit expensive compared to your budget, but within reasonable margin: this will prevent you from regretting and trying to sell the second best equipment you brought for significant loss, to go back and buy your best. We all know that in this journey "the law of diminishing returns" are real and costly. 2. On the other hand, just because the equipment is expensive, does not mean that they are necessarily best option for your ears. Something cheaper (less expensive, I mean) can be the best for your system and your ears.
3. Just because you are getting something for very cheap, does not mean it is a good deal: They are cheap for a reason.
4. Cables do make a big difference in quality of hifi. You don't have to be a "believer": you will hear those difference, if you audition them. 
5. Add a good subwoofer to any stereo set up (full range speakers or not): They make you mids and highs shine like diamond. 
6. Spend some time and money to set up room acoustics, consider room size, before you decide on how big your system will be. 
7. There is no quantitative metric to measure "qualitative" fun. Trust your ears and your ears only. Pay attention to good reviews but don't rely solely and only on "reviewers" ears.
8. All said, in the end, it is "your ears" " your wallet" and "your music". Use it and enjoy it wisely. Work hard and play hard. 

Share your "mistakes" and "lesson learnt" moments if you agree: if you don't agree, ignore this and don't trash please. Constructive criticisms are always fun though. 
romney80
@romney80 --

... I am sure many of you here have much more experience in this arena and have gone through your journey. Some mistakes made, lesson learnt, but still it is ongoing journey.
I have set up my stereo as well as home theater, spent great deal of money and have learnt some valuable lessons and thought of setting up some guidelines/rules, so that if I could go back in time, I wish I had these steps in mind and followed these "rules" instead of doing costly trial and errors.

It’s tempting to think one could’ve learned from the initial get-go with a list a rules hereby avoiding "costly trial and errors," but it would seem the process of these things and actually working through them is vital to attain some measure of experience that can then lead to important realizations - insofar one is open to acknowledge them. For this to come to fruition my advice would be to go with a hunch along the way (crazy or "mercurial" it may be), think out of the box, and be skeptical about the "audiophile" industry and its mechanisms. Because, let’s face it, this milieu is what we’re lead into and wade through for what’s likely to be many years, while navigating in a sea of marketing B.S., conjecture, restricting paradigms and dogma even. From my chair we must be careful not to be too infected and play along with the tune of this melody, and instead develop a critical mindset that doesn’t cater to the often hive-minded nature of this environment.

Share your "mistakes" and "lesson learnt" moments if you agree: if you don’t agree, ignore this and don’t trash please. Constructive criticisms are always fun though.

I won’t comment on your list specifically, but if anything my lesson learned is slowly unwinding myself from audiophilia in a sense and go more in the direction of a "brass tacks" approach where physics can have their say, certainly in regards to speakers so to accommodate the fact that sound can’t be (successfully) miniaturized. High-end speakers that are big are insanely expensive, but do they need to be that costly from the perspective of sound quality alone? To my ears: no, not even by a long shot. My current speakers, bought used, are build for pro cinema use, and if the drivers housed were put into fancy cabinets with elaborate, passive cross-overs and sold through the typical dealer network they’d cost a crazy load of money, not to mention these speakers would be a niche product due to their size alone, further elevating their price. But do pro cinema speakers sound properly in a domestic environment? Depending on the size of one’s listening space it is important not to "overshoot" with the specific speakers used, but once fitted to the space allotted they can sound fantastic, and at a fraction of the cost compared to big, high-end speakers that couldn’t even approach the dynamic capabilities and ease of sound to begin with. Pro cinema speakers are big, they’re fitted in "working clothes" and they may have some years on their back if bought used (which doesn’t matter because they’re built to last in a much harsher, pro environment). However, it’s a ticket to great, uninhibited sound for a relatively small amount of money. And that’s just one example of product category..
Rule #9  It is unlikely you will end up with the system of your dreams with the first round of purchases out of the gate... it’s gonna take some tweaking. So... don’t spend all of your budget on round one or you will be disappointed that you can’t make the adjustments that you will inevitably find you need. 
Even though we start our Hifi system around speakers first, it is not a bad idea to start the system with room acoustics first. However we realize this only after going through experience. To add to this, you slowly realize that to get best out of system, you need good power conditioning, isolatations etc etc.
@snapsc375, Definitely not spend too much money in first set up. But when you go hear in the audio dealer for first time in your journey, even with simple set up there, you end up buying. It is like a kid going to Disneyland for the first time. 
Rule #1: The Rack is the Shrine.                      Bow down in front of it and give blessings.