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What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

For example :I recently learned a hard lesson- I accidentally ran voltage thru my $3000 MC cartridge (kiseki purple heart).  I have a TT with 5 prong connector and a phono cable with a 5 prong connector.  I accidentally swapped where they plugged into and ran electric thru the tonearm into the cartridge.  It was a stupid - not thinking- hasty mistake. When I corrected the problem the cartridge was fried.  An avalanche of four letter words followed!

So what has been your biggest and/or costliest mistake?
polkalover
tweak1
3,739 posts
 
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
richopp
760 posts
 
I asked Stereo Fixers in Boca Raton and Music Technology in VA to "fix" the channel imbalance in my Luxman CL-32 pre-amp.  They BOTH charged me a ton of money and "couldn't fix the problem."

When I had my shop, if we could NOT fix something, we charged the customer the $20.00 "look-at" fee and nothing else.

I guess times have changed with shops now charging lots of money for what they CAN NOT do.

If I took my car to a shop and they could not fix it, I would never pay them, nor would they charge me other than a minimum "look-at" fee in my experience.  

Cheers!
desferous
29 posts
 
Lol great idea for a thread!

For me, impulsively buying speakers before I realized that I shouldn't be "collecting" them.  
bigwave1's avatar
bigwave1
256 posts
 
Back in the day, bought a PS Audio 200C, money thrown away. 
cssldr's avatar
cssldr
5 posts
 
Audioquest cables (great product.......but)

OR

Now using Mogami, Canare, or Gotham from worlds best cables
for interconnects and speakers.
14 gauge power cords into a dedicated breaker and hospital grade outlets.
Power conditioners

......same cost
Found this out the hard way.
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