The 5 stages of making a bad audio purchase

I have made some purchasing mistakes in my time.  I remember an "audiophile" CD player which I bought for 40% off, the Muse Signature 9, somewhere around $2000 back in the 90s.  It was awful, cut off beginning and ending transients.  I guess I bought it because my analog would always beat CDs in the 80's and 90's.  Worse than my Sonys and Kyoceras. 
I bought speakers in the 80's and 90's that didn't suit my electronics but I sold them for minor losses.  Most recently I purchased some SR products which were more playthings than sound enhancements (I love SR duplex outlets, fuses and HFTs).  Got 80% of my purchase price back.   So, we all make mistakes along the way to building a great audio system.  My equipment is mostly 13 to 30 years old with only cables and tweaks which are recent purchases and my new DAC, the COS Engineering D2 as of yesterday.  
Yes, that expensive CD player purchase bugs me even today.

No matter the topic on here...eventually the discussion goes sideways. Sometimes funny, sometimes sadly. BTW, IMHO YMMV so CBD, FWIW. 

We are buying STEREO gear that costs as much as cars and homes!!! We are all ADDICTS!!!! The extreme high quality sound we hear from our stereo gear releases gross amounts of endorphins and brain chemicals mimicking the high experienced from heroin, meth, alcohol and cocaine. A research study was conducted at STANFORD University that showed elevation levels of dopamine equal to that of methamphetamine from listening to music. As well as blood pressure was reduced by as much as 20 points. I suffer from depression and anxiety and I can tell you 100 percent that a high end Audio system can nearly cure these disorders. 

I’m sorry to inform you guys but it’s actually a viscous cycle, it’s also a negative reinforcement, that causing all the problems. The equipment itself degrades the sound and the more CDs and LPs you accumulate the worse the sounds gets, all things being equal. If you don’t believe me and it would not surprise me if you don’t, try taking all your CDs and LPs and books entirely out of the house some time. Then listen to your system again without all the media in the house. Same goes for all unused audio stuff you may have lying around, amps, cables, power cords, it’s all very bad for the sound. I especially feel sorry for Fleshler who has a bazillion CDs and records. OMG 😲 No angry emails, please, I’m not making this up. I’m only trying to help. 

YOU ARE SOOOOO WRONG!!! I have a custom built listening room with ONLY the equipment I use to hear music. I have two book libraries, a separate custom shelving room housing the music collection which I actively listen to and a Tuff-Shed with the same custom made shelving for another 5,000 78s and LPs. My listening room cost exceeded $500/sq. ft. Friends homes have similar and higher cost listening rooms. Frank and Robert already know how great my system sounded compared to nearly all the systems heard at shows and audio salons. There is NO way that my excess equipment, music library or anything else interferes with the listening room.  My room is seen in this video prior to completion.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=vUg7Xd16ifA&feature=emb_logo

However, my cable manufacturing friend has a truly crappy room with a tube TV between his speakers, glass side wall, 8’ ceilings, long wall mounted system, CDs and LPs stacked and walled behind the speakers.yet his system sounds fabulous without deep bass (heard, not felt), possibly due to his 5" mid-woofers being too small and the room dimensions.