What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

I forgot this one, but it was almost made right.

I went out into my shop one day and it was cleaned out. This was 6 years ago. My C22, 2 MC240, 4 TTs, 2 Reel to Reels, A foot locker of NOS valves (est value 25,000.)
A handbuilt, 11 band, tube, parametric, EQ with 2 external 3 way crossovers. My stratherarn ribbon speakers.

ALL the gear was packed in foul weather shipping crates.

A lot of tool and other things too.

The insurance paid 56k or something like that, The only big loss was the strathearn ribbon speakers, I couldn't find a source at the time. so they wouldn't replace the 6K or so for them, only depreciation of 2K or something..

BTW know who did it, told them they did it. A kid I helped out. It didn't go well for him. His bad ways caught up with him, sad...

I did ok though, considering.. First and only time someones done that to me..Hurt my feelings... Yup sure did.. Helped raise that kid...Little turd...

Regards

Without question the costliest mistake would be to take miilercarbon seriously.

These are all great responses....and I mean great in a sense that I’m not alone in my frustration. Its always fun to hear all the great sound we aspire to, but also fun to hear the mishaps along the way and how we arrive to where we are today!

Good stuff!

My biggest mistake was to buy to IsoAcoustics Gaia I with 220 lb limit. Although provided with a kit of different mounts, non was oassing to my speakers. On top a month later I got an attractive offer and upgraded my speakers to new ones with 400+ lb of weight. Now the beautifully built IsoAcoustics still stay at home in their nice exspensive boxes...

Years after the factory had shuttered, I was swapping out a PC to my beloved Kinergetics KBA 75. Either I plugged the new PC into the wall first, or neglected to shut the amp off... sparks flew amp blown, too costly to repair