whats the biggest mistake you made?

Not realizing the value of my ESS Heil AMT speakers from the 70's and throwing them away once dry rot set in. Should have repaired them or had ESS do it. They had the best tweeters I ever heard and great bass too. But I was an uneducated enthusiast then.

I have a pair of Definitive Tech BP 7002's I just sold. A couple of recent changes in my electricity and connections brought them to a new level of performance I never heard before. This happened just as I closed the deal on a new pair of speakers and just as I sold the Def Techs. I'll be shipping them to the buyer this week. Hope the new speaks are a good decision, but I think I'll miss the Def Techs.

One mistake I avoided was to keep my Jolida JD100 even though I had purchased a Simaudio Nova in order to improve my front end. I planned to sell the Jolida and had it all boxed up and ready to ship but had not posted it on Agon. I hesitated because I had never sold or purchased any equipment on Agon before. In the meantime, I went through 3 months of various tweaks and changes with the Nova, but just couldn't get it to sound quite right in my system. Took the Jolida out of the box after 3 months, plugged it up with a new Flavor 4 PC and an old pair of Vampirewire IC's and got the heart, soul and emotion to the music that I was missing. I played the 2 sources side by side for awhile and decided to sell the Nova. I don't regret that decision.

In general, the biggest mistake I made since I've been into high end was purchasing audio equipment new. Being a newbie, I wanted all new stuff. I even read on Arthur Salvatore's website that you should buy audio equipment used. Didn't heed that advice. Didn't have faith in the system that exists here at Audiogon. What a dummy I was. Audiogon is the only way to go.

Stopped listening to the music and started listening to the equipment. My system sounds better today then it ever has. The problem is I got in the habit of analyzing it instead of listening to the music. This is a mistake I suggest be avoided. I remember getting more enjoyment out of my $500.00 JVC system than I am getting out of this current system (embarrassed by the money I have spent so won't say how much).

JUST ENJOY THE MUSIC

My biggest mistake was not taking room treatment into consideration. I got to the point where I enjoyed listening to my Grado RA-1, RS-1 combo more than my (retail about $15k+)system because of the harsh brightness in my room. Get a good sounding room and a $2k system will make magic happen. But it's hard to figure out, and you have to work hard on the wife to get it to work. I guess that's why people have incredible systems and bare walls when I look at their systems on Agon.

The purchase of the Wilson Witt; and then the 3000. upgrade to the Witt II.

One February (long ago) I got my tongue stuck to the garage door. Punched a wall and broke my hand when I was a teenager. Got involved in audio. Hmmm.. which one is worse?