Happen to you? Gear chasing because the fundamentals were wrong.

@nonoise

+1

Yes, when I started out I looked at the color glossies and reviews in non-high end audio magazines (1979). I bought this highly touted Onkyo tape deck… sounded good (although I had nothing to compare it to). Then, wondering through a high end store the salesman showed me a used (seven year old) Nakamichi tape deck (with wood enclosure!, at much more than the Onkyo). I took it home and swapped with my Onkyo. Jaw dropped, my life was changed forever. The Nakamichi was simply a screaming deal for the money).

I realized the popular press was without a clue… like me. At the same time I learned peak watts… and quickly watts rms were no predictor of power, and total harmonic distortion ment noting). I took a deep dive into research and got the stapled together “The Absolute Sound”… magazine… really more of a large pamphlet. Later Stereophile. I started learning by listening. So my first few missteps pointed me away from specs and any popular rags. Hence my disgust that AMR pops up touting “science and specs”… pointing folks away from true performance.

I listened to a current speaker model and loved it, but got cheap and bought the close-out without hearing them! I bought those speakers based on lots of reviews and industry hype. I knew better than to buy unheard, but the deal...the deal! From the start they were too bright for me. I swapped out lots of amps, pre-amps, cables, sources etc. I ended up selling them and bought new speakers. My audio life changed for the better. I now advise anyone to listen to as many speakers as you can, spend more on speakers than you feel is wise, then shape the rest of your system based on feeding your speakers what THEY need. 

I have dirty power in my area and it took some time to find this out and clean it up.

I bought an amp because I had read many times that it was a “musical’ amp, and other nice talk.

It was junk, a 3 out of 10; I still have it and would be embarrassed to sell it and inflict it on someone else.

The mistake was that I had not been careful enough in discerning who had actual experience with that amplifier vs who was simply repeating comments they had heard.

Since then, I value only testimony from direct experience.

In a word. Room.