What has been your costliest mistake in this hobby?

More than a few to name, but the one that really sticks is when I burned up a set of drivers that cost $600 ea. They were new for um, maybe a couple days before I got the idea to add a tube buffer that I had worked on, but did NOT test! You can't make it from the listening chair to the power switch in time, no matter what.

I got busted forging prescriptions for a controlled opiate. So I lost my job and had to sell my system and $30,000 record collection. So about a $70,000 mistake. Now I listen to headphones and have a nice little system. Lucky to be alive. Been on Suboxone for 6 years. Better than methadone.

@elliottbnewcombjr,

’Cannot sell them, plastic cases tossed, and I thought my sons would inherit this ’flawless’ collection. They don’t have a CD player in their house or car.’


I wouldn’t be too surprised if they wouldn't have wanted them even if they had been intact.

It is a difficult notion, certainly for me, to get into my head that so much of the stuff that I’ve spent so many years getting hold of means so little to friends and family.

I think we attempt to create our own personalised worlds of experience, much like the kings and emperors in the days of old, which can ultimately have little meaning for anyone else. Much like Charles Foster Kane, but he was fortunate enough to have Xanadu, most of us are grateful for digital storage.

Ultimately, our entire expenditure on our audio hobby has be valued for what it has been worth to us, what meaning it had for us, and what pleasure it gave us.

It can be a serious mistake to think that our gear worth as much as we might like to believe, or anywhere near what we might have paid for it.

This industry is routinely littered with overpriced, overpromoted rubbish. Anyone unlucky enough to fall for it is therefore consequently forced to stick with it or accept considerable losses in moving it on.

But then audiophiles aren’t likely to get into audio to make money, are they?

Ultimately, our entire expenditure on our audio hobby has be valued for what it has been worth to us, what meaning it had for us, and what pleasure it gave us.

«This worthy grain of salt is a pearl»-Groucho Marx

So true, thanks....

My best to you....

Rekindled my audio pastime.  Bought speakers, good deal.  Bought amp, touched speaker wires together, blew amp.  Fixed under warranty, whew!.  Heard a strange fuzziness and ringing..sent inter connects back and passive preamp back(that I now don't need and sold) nothing wrong.  Never did figure that one out.  Sent in crossover because of fuzziness/ringing.  Got new op amps and a checkover for $160, a bargain.  Cat busted off my banana plugs on my speakers twice, now have spades.  Nice vender fixed for ZERO.  Bought streamer on Amazon, then bought Bluesound.  Sold original for almost new cost.  $10 loss, another whew!  Making homemade sound panels on the cheap and buying cheap bass traps,  Loss of $300.  So moral of the story is I dealt with good people and it didn't cost me much except chasing phantoms and changing gear in and out.  And now I have about $8k in everything and it sounds pretty darn good!!  All comes with the territory and it gave this newly retired guy something to do last winter.