What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

Foolishly bought a pair of speakers and:

1.  Didn't negotiate hard enough and paid $2K more than I should have
2.  Listened to the dealer when they said it would work in my room

I naively assumed that a dealer would actively try and solve my problem rather than just sell me anything they could.  The dealer (who shall remain unnamed as they are noteworthy) had zero interest in making sure I had a good solution for me, just moving a unit.  There are other dealers who are great and I have vowed not to be that guy in my own business, but it is quite frustrating when it happens.    

Fortunately, I found The Music Room and I was able to execute a trade for a DAC and the whole thing only cost me $500 rather than $2500 which is the loss I would have taken selling them.  

My biggest and most costly mistake was selling a Krell KPS20i cd player, that I owned and loved for many years. But after 20 years I assumed digital should have advanced enough to merit an upgrade. In the last 5 years various supposedly more 'advanced' cd players from brands like Metronome and Esoteric came and went. None of them delivered the sonic improvements I had expected.  

So after about $7500 worth of buying and reselling different players I finally accepted my mistake and decided to simply buy back the 20i. Back to the future. As chance would have it, the 'new' one is only one serial number removed from the one I previously had.......

It goes to show that technological progress, which is undeniable in digital, does not necessarily result in better sound. In fact the same applies to the discs themselves: most higher bit remasters don't sound any better than the first cd issues. 

edgewear

Thanks,
sorry for your lost,
but very informative for us all.....

Buying a sub (Miller & Kriesel) without knowing how difficult getting it to work right would be.  This wasn't that big of a cost in absolute terms, but I was a  young audiophile and everything seemed expensive, but that it derailed my listening experience.

I should have focused on the mid-treble, imaging and natural tonal balance over trying to get a 20 Hz response.

i made the same mistake exactly with the same sub (Miller and Kreisel) :)

I draw the same exact conclusion....

After that i embark in my intense experiments in listenings 2 years ago....

:)

I never use the sub more than an hour and is here always.... I was too lazy to put it for sale i think....I will never need a sub, neither four one....  :)