Dumbest audio purchase ever?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Beet Farmer

Back in 1980s !! I owned a very nice little Hafler DH110 I built as a kit. For some reason I suddenly had a desire to own a Sony digital preamp, with all sorts of 'effects'. So I traded in the Hafler.
Well after getting bored with the sound effects i stopped listening to music. Later on, I wondered why did I stop? and I knew it was the POS Sony.

Sold the Sony and bought a Counterpoint 2000. Nice preamp (when it was working)

The 'other mistake' plenty of folks made... When CD came along, selling all the LPs turntable etc... I WAS LUCKIER than most though as i had a chance to buy a Classical Lp collection cheap. I made me decide yeah owning a turntable was good. And that led me to buy thousands more used records when they were basically being given away in late 90's early 2000's! Lucky break there.

I built a Hafler DH-101 back in those days; I still remember building it up...it was a great little preamp!

Yeah, you shoulda kept that...

Never sold any of my LPs...back then I couldn't find a CD player that sounded better than my Rega/SME. The first CD player I bought used from a girlfriend sounded like *ss. It was horrible.

[jdandy]

I am still kicking myself for letting the gang talk me into Alan Maher's Infinity Circuit Breaker Filter. Back in February of 2010 I caved in after all the posted hoopla, purchased two of the CBF black plastic boxes filled with quartz crystals coated in some chemical that had a nasty oder, and attached them to the feeder wires in two electrical panels. I felt stupid doing it, and I still feel stupid that I did it. All this new found resolution, reduced background noise, and greater dynamics that was suppose to magically develop in my system never happened, like I already knew it wouldn't happen. It was a total crock of bull, in my opinion, and a complete waste of money. The act of being sucked into this kind of charade demonstrated once again how insane an audio enthusiast can get searching for Nirvana. You can sell an audiophile anything at any price as long as he is made to believe there is better sound system performance at the end of the tunnel.

Ivan told me that if I didn't like these Alan Maher gizmo's he would buy them from me. I felt so stupid buying this crap that I didn't have the heart to ask him to make good on that. I threw the two plastic boxes in the garbage. Now that I think about it, I hope I didn't contaminate the soil at the landfill with whatever chemical (magic potion) Alan was dosing the quartz rocks with.

[Puma Cat]

Now that I think back on it, I bought an Audioquest Carbon Firewire cable for my external FW drive that had all my music content on it because my local B&M dealer said it would make an audible difference.

Nope, had zero impact on audio. Zip, nada, niente.

Ethernet & USB cables? Yes. Firewire cables for external drives? No.

Still have that darned thing around here somewhere. Its probably sitting in the "no longer used audiophile cables" box we all have. LOL.

[miner]

In 1976 from Speakercraft in StL - bought a refrigerator sized speaker kit which had 4-12" woofers, 4-6" mids and 8-1" tweeters per box. And, cabinet was unfinished. Looked imposing, sounded terrible.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by miner

In 1976 from Speakercraft in StL - bought a refrigerator sized speaker kit which had 4-12" woofers, 4-6" mids and 8-1" tweeters per box. And, cabinet was unfinished. Looked imposing, sounded terrible.

More is not necessarily better.

Back then I was using Large Advents in Walnut.

[damacman]

Originally Posted by Poppyhome

In 2012, I drank the kool-aid and upgraded all powers cords in my system to Wireworld Silver Electra 5.2 Cords and thought I heard better instrument definition and more articulate bass.

Late 2014, I sold all the power cords for a pretty penny and continued hearing better instrument definition and articulate bass with monoprice cords.

Ron

well done indeed ...

[MarSanz]

Originally Posted by Higgens

I will admit to making one or two purchases in the middle of happy hour. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

This is too funny!

[Cohibaman]

Originally Posted by miner

In 1976 from Speakercraft in StL - bought a refrigerator sized speaker kit which had 4-12" woofers, 4-6" mids and 8-1" tweeters per box. And, cabinet was unfinished. Looked imposing, sounded terrible.

Were they all in phase? Lol

IMG_0424.JPG

[RLF]

MELOS AUDIO 333 preamp.

After the company went out of business, the “photo potentiometers” of my 333 failed. Unfortunately, after doing much research and taking my preamp to numerous repair shops, I learned that the part was no longer made. Then shortly after Melos went out of business, a technician who had worked for Melos started up his own company called “Melos Audio Restoration” and their claim was that they could fix any Melos product. I was sucker enough to send my 333 to them for repair. After being charged an arm and a leg, my unit came back a mess and sounded dreadful. They ended up dumping the “photo potentiometers” for standard ones and did bunch of “upgrades” without my permission. I complained and threatened them with the BBB, but not long after that, they went out of business too after the head man there suddenly died of a heart attack.

Sadly after taking up residence in my attic for a number of years, I finally took the 333 to an electronic recycling business for disposal.

[nicoff]

Some rubber ‘CD rings’ I bought supposedly to help the CD player read the the digital data. That was in the early days of CDs. (Glad I never bought into the green markers...).

I was so naive about digital audio those days! So much misinformation was being provided about digital audio by the ‘audiophile’ press of the day! (Actually i still read some today but that is another thread). I am glad we now have the internet to help the skeptics separate what really matters from the BS.