Do You Regret Your Pre-ASR Audio Gear Choices of the past?

[MattHooper]

A common theme here on ASR is how many feel they managed to escape the ideas that drive the purchases of many other audiophiles. Getting rid of the woo-woo, no more being influenced by golden ear reviewers, getting off the gear merry-go-round, and finally making more knowledgable decisions that have led to their current system.

So my question to the crowd is:

How do you view your “ pre-ASR life?” (and perhaps your own more “objective” views predate ASR).

Do you regret much of the gear that you owned in your past audiophile journey?

Do you look back on it as a waste of time and money?

(my quick answer: no not at all. But I’m curious about others)

 

[Tom C]

Yes. A waste of time and money I can never recover. Part of the learning experience though.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

I bought a Dayton Audio chip amp and speakers on Steve Guttenberg's say-so before I found ASR. The amp was sort of OK and I now use it for TV sound in our little family viewing space, but the speakers were a total bust until my girlfriend needed speakers that would fit in her tiny office space for watching U-Toob stuff -- but neither of those products even remotely qualified as "bargain audiophile" gear suitable for enjoying music as touted by Guttenberg.

 

[Thomas Savage]

Life's too short for regrets, but I did waste a ton of money on audiophile nonsense. Namely, cables and fancy plugs but also equipment supports ha ha

 

[GD Fan]

Interesting question. Before putting a bunch of money into a system I searched high and low for exactly the ASR kind of thing... without finding it. Clearly my google work needs help.

So I spent a bunch on a system that's excellent - once I found this place and used EQ to remedy the BBC dip in the speakers I was advised / convinced to buy.

Fortunately I had the intuition (meaning, not knowledge) to avoid snake oil cables and all that crap.

 

[Soria Moria]

I regret almost every single one. I bought expensive cables, overpriced pointless facs like Bifrost 2 because people told me it has a "warm" sound and would compliment my "analytical" amplifier (Singxer SA-1). Most headphones I have owned were bought back when I disregarded frequency response which is part of why I never felt happy with them. I also foolishly avoided EQ because I fell into the trap thinking EQ "degraded" the sound. Also fell into the trap where I disregarded the harman curve because I assumed it wouldn't be for me despite not having tried it.

 

[ta240]

The gear? No. The 'upgrades' to the gear? Yes.

I botched what was an excellent sounding DIY Tube amp with capacitor, resistor and wire 'upgrades' to the point I could never get it back to the way it sounded originally.

But beyond that, I still enjoy the SS amps I built along the way. I now have a Yamaha RN-600A that never offends, but it also doesn't ever grab me the way my other amps would at times.

 

[FrantzM]

Yes. A waste of time and money I can never recover. Part of the learning experience though.

Hi

I wish, I were as levelled as you are.. I boil every time I see the HEA BS flying on some websites (some of which I was member of). No greater disservices have been made to the hobby of High Fidelity, than the BS notions, and plundering of High End Audio. Many people interested in the hobby unfortunately are not aware of ASR or similar, of which there aren't too many...
The tide is turning however: Stalwarts of the HEA such as Stereophile and "The Absolute Sound" have, begrudgingly, begun to cover some equipment that ASR has , virtually, "discovered" , things like Topping gear, and/or BMR Philharmonic speakers... OF course, with the ever B.S. and faint praise, that these are "good for the money" .. trying hard to perpetuate the " Mo'h Money= Mo'h Better" B.S. mantra, that some people even here, try at times to sneak past us ...

Peace

 

[unmutual]

The biggest change for me after joining ASR, is a decreased amount of trust in subjective descriptions and branding. I always "knew" that the high end gear and accessories were designed to part fools with their money, but up to a point I did somehow presume that higher price meant higher quality.

EDIT: To answer the question, I only regret not discovering ASR sooner. Great little community!

 

[DWPress]

I was into digital active crossovers before ASR but have learned so much more since then, daily actually.

But in the way back days of my obsession with point to point wired A*7 variant tube preamps was probably my greatest waist of wealth and time. Most of my biggest regrets are pre-ASR thankfully but having this resource has certainly helped direct my purchase decisions.

 

[Mike Madigan]

Nope. Been trying to be an audiophile for 50 years. Still have my first real system I built as a kit in 79 hafler pre and power amp and ADS 810 speakers and Luxman Pd-277 in various systems. Also retired EE and SWE from International Aerospace. Here for fun, maybe some recommendations and of course Real Measurements. My humble opinion is what sounds good to you may not sound good to others. Just enjoy whatever music makes you happy ( on a half way decent system). Look forward to it.

 

[westsail42]

I bought a Dayton Audio chip amp and speakers on Steve Guttenberg's say-so before I found ASR. The amp was sort of OK and I now use it for TV sound in our little family viewing space, but the speakers were a total bust until my girlfriend needed speakers that would fit in her tiny office space for watching U-Toob stuff -- but neither of those products even remotely qualified as "bargain audiophile" gear suitable for enjoying music as touted by Guttenberg.

Interesting. I bought a "top-of-the-line" DAC from a certain manufacturer, mostly based on Guttenberg's "review." Well, he did not say he "loved it" as in how it compared to his Mola Mola reference DAC, but he did not say he "hated it" either. But apparently, he never "hates" anything, supposedly he just doesn't give such items a review.

His generally positive, lets say, "mention" of this DAC was the prime motivator in buying the DAC.

Anyway, this DAC sounded like crap, with my comparison being the built-in DAC on my still-great-sounding 25yo CD player/transport ('mid-tier" back then.)

Around this same time I am observing that most internet/youtube reviewers (influencers?) will not say anything negative about an item, if they are even informed about it. A simple negative nit as in "I did not care for feature X" is hard to come by. Oh and printed hifi journals are even worse. Stereophile is pretty much an exercise on positive adjective combinatorics to describe a piece of gear.

Trained in math/science I appreciate numbers, which is why I like ASR. But I also know what sounds good to me. Navigating those two sides is the fun part.

 

[JeffS7444]

No regrets: I had fun, and even the mistakes were entertaining. But if I sound cheerful, it's because I also sold stuff as my interest waned: I even found buyers for those silly metal cone footers, not that I had much $$ "invested" in them. Sometimes, I made a profit, and other times, I regarded my losses as "rental fees". And how I looked forward to each new issue of Listener! I didn't attempt to mirror what Art Dudley was doing, but he could spin a good tale.

 

[bluefuzz]

How do you view your “ pre-ASR life?”

Thankfully I have never regularly read hifi magazines or engaged much with online audiophile cults so I have mostly been spared the peer pressure of audiophilism. Also, never having had the disposable income to even consider what is deemed 'high-end', I have always been happy with my mid-fi gear from NAD, Cambridge, Denon and the like. It has always seemed self-evident to me that better loudspeakers are pretty much the only meaningful 'upgrade' to a hifi-setup. When buying 'better' components for my setup I never imagined I could hear any difference to the sound of DACs or amplifiers even when the reviews spoke of revelatory audio experiences.

I was once convinced to buy a pair of 'quality' phono cables by a salesman in a hifi store on which there are arrows pointing which way the electrons are supposed to flow. I was always a bit skeptical about that and they sound the same to me which ever way they are connected. They were only about $10 more expensive than the ordinary cables so I suppose I got off lightly.

For a while I considered reinstating my turntable and vinyl collection in the living room and maybe investing in some nice vintage gear but I don't really have the space and digital streaming is so much less work. So my vinyl remains mouldering in boxes in the attic.

I had discovered the joys of room correction with Dirac before finding ASR but this place has convinced me of the usefulness of subwoofers for music listening and not just for teenagers to get their jollies watching superhero movies ...

 

[bigguyca]

No regrets.

 

[Penelinfi]

No, if anything aside from a good resource for speaker measurements and other discussion, it has also just introduced me to a new subset(s) of "audiophiles" on and off site. Same attitudes, different beliefs. Generally people are fine though

It's also helped make some purchases which are fine. But have they brought any more enjoyment than playing around with some cheap stuff? Idk, I have an ideal for the perfect listening setup but never get there

And now that I have heard a close to ideal - it's time to search for something that can bring interest specifically because it's not ideal.

 

[fcracer]

So my question to the crowd is:

How do you view your “ pre-ASR life?” (and perhaps your own more “objective” views predate ASR).

Do you regret much of the gear that you owned in your past audiophile journey?

Do you look back on it as a waste of time and money?

Three big regrets but I accept it’s part of the learning experience:
1. Spending senseless money on cables and believing it made a big difference.
2. Thinking DSP will harm the “pure” sound.
3. Not knowing about REW until a few years ago.

I could have put the money from #1 to better speakers and used #3 to place them properly using hard data and I could have enjoyed music a lot more if I had been open minded to DSP earlier.

 

[Audionaut]

No, not at all. ASR only confirms the approach that I have always pursued.
However, I also attach great importance to reliability and technically durable components.
This aspect is sometimes neglected on ASR.

 

[jools]

Most things I would never buy again but I was happy with them and have no regret - like the MF pre and power amps or the Quads I had before. Even the NAD 7020 that was my first 'hifi'.
I'd love to see measurements of Rogers LS7s because I enjoyed listening to them for many years but I bet they don't measure well... but still no regrets at all.
Then there's the Linn Ku-stone stands... I paid HOW MUCH for a couple of breeze blocks???? (cinder blocks)
And somewhere along the line I allowed myself to be persuaded to add that 'appropriate level' Audioquest interconnect. I wish that had never happened.
And I regret not knowing that when I listened to the new fangled CD player (Sony CDP-101) the reason it sounded nasty was that the speakers were tuned to try and ameliorate the shortcomings of vinyl. It was years before I realised that CDs weren't the problem.

 

[Chr1]

Just glad I was relatively poor then. Definitely would have wasted a lot of money. Bought one overpriced DAC with swappable opamp and a valve. It didn't measure as well as a Topping costing half the price.

Thankfully I didn't lose too much on it's resale. Bought the Topping instead. Could have been a lot worse. Perhaps sometimes being poor is a blessing in disguise, I guess.