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

[BeeKay]

Perhaps sometimes being poor is a blessing in disguise, I guess.

For sure happiness isn’t a linear function of wealth.

 

[Purité Audio]

My only regret is not selling more foo!
Keith

 

[Waxx]

I never had money for the very expensive stuff so i hustelled arround with gear, buying and selling and mostly with a profit. But i did had gear on audiophile hype in my house for a while. And i still got tube and class A amps that i still like and use, even if they don't measure that good.

But like said before, it was a learning curve, and by repairing a lot of speakers i learned how they work so i could judge better even without measurements, just on design clues.

 

[BeeKay]

My only regret is not selling more foo!
Keith

It’s never too late to switch to the dark side. Maybe get a few cans of liquid nitrogen, fancy looking interconnects from a cheap labor country, and chatGPT-up your website?

 

[dedobot]

Yes !

 

[ErinPraline]

Not really, in fact finding ASR made me realize I lucked out and made decent purchase choices in the past

 

[Snoopy]

No not really.
ASR has certainly introduced me to cool gear (RME adi , Dan Clark Headphones, Dirac).

But if I would just get the „usual“ ASR gear like a fosi amp with a topping dac , a Hifiman headphone and a wiim streamer I wouldn’t enjoy this „hobby“ as such.

If anything I see the purchase of some of the well reviewed SMSL gear as a waste of money and wouldn’t buy it again (firmware , software support, cheap parts used here and there corners cut ).

 

[JiiPee]

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)

No regrets about any of the audio gear I have ever bought, but I do regret selling some of my old gear. Then again, I forgive that to myself, because I have the classic excuse: "I was young and I needed the money".

 

[Mort]

I spent much less on gear before ASR precisely because I didn't trust the market.

Dad was a golden ear. I was always doubtful about the $2,000 cables. But I did always have expensive hand me downs.

ASR opened up this hobby for me.

Dad died last year and I sold off his silly system for $15k and bought Genelecs, Philharmonic Audio and Dan Clark.

 

[Mart68]

'Regret' might be too strong a word but if I had the time over again I would certainly do it differently.

At least from the age when I had the money to get what I wanted but no idea how to achieve it, resulting in many random purchases (That was maybe in my early 40s).

Not so much the wasted money as the wasted time. I can always make more money.

Having said that my system now is not really 'ASR approved' but it is where I wanted to end up, which is what matters.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Not really - being an electronic engineer has its benefits. I would never have spent stupid money on cables, for instance. I did experiment in the 90s with single-strand (in wall solid mains cooker cable) vs multi strand speaker cable as well as screened vs unscreened interconnects.

I bought a Naim preamplifier and power amplifier (used, so cheap). I bought an expensive cartridge. That's about it.

 

[respice finem]

Regret? Not really much, except a DSR (digital satellite radio) in the 90s, which was good, but became obsolete a few years later.
Back in the day, my budget was too slim to buy "snake oil" anyway, and later I knew enough to avoid expensive mistakes, also thanks to ASR.
Now I have enough money, and even time (as an early retiree), but my two rather minimalistic active setups are good enough for me, after PEQ and some room treatment.

My only "lapse of reason" - I recently bought a turntable, because I've found a bunch of rare, forgotten records and got curious. After I've listened to them and digitized most of them, the turntable is just "busy looking good" most of the time, but it wasn't expensive either. At least I can play LPs should guests bring some.

 

[JeremyFife]

Hindsight is a funny thing...

If I knew then what I know now, I'd have spent less and have a much better system.
I didn't though, so no regrets. That's just how life works.
Music is, and has always been, wonderful.

 

[sealpin]

No regrets - Amir confirmed my own experience. But since I joined this community I always check if devices were measured by him before considering any purchase.

But I still use some vintage gear (Technics from the late ˋ70th) with speakers of same years (German brand called Magnat Mig Ribbon) and this stuff will never be tested by Amir. Not a problem, because I have these devices purely for nostalgic reasons.

 

[NoteMakoti]

I never made a bad choice because I was always budget minded, lol. Amps went from the O2 -> JDS Atom -> Topping A90. Dacs were ODAC -> Loxji D10 -> Topping D30. Never went out of my way to buy "fun" or "magic" sources, and I don't mind how my cheapo headphones or speakers measures if I like the sound as-is.

Weirdly enough, having a setup that's TOTL outside of edge cases makes me want to experiment with tubes.

 

[Kr2d2]

Non, je ne regrette rien!

No, I don't regret anything I bought before I discovered ASR almost 2 years ago!

I am someone who enjoys everything first, I can listen to music with old gear with pleasure, I don't mind the sound even if it could be more perfect. I also like the look of my old equipment.

In the meantime, all the rooms I have at my disposal are full of the audio gear I've bought over the last 40 years - and I didn't ever want to sell any of it:
- Philips CD104 from my student days - Kenwood KR950B receiver - Hans Deutsch ATL HD 310i loudspeakers.
- QUAD 33/34 - 303/QUAD II - ESL 57 once bought from a colleague 20 years ago, later added a vintage QUAD CDP 66
- my dream system, bought for my 50th birthday: Lyngdorf CD-1 - DPA-1 with RoomPerfect - Octave tube power amplifier - beautiful Fischer & Fischer SN450 loudspeakers; with a previously bought Linn Axis TT
- in the living room Kenwood 8020 CDP - Rega Planar 2 TT - Revox B780 receiver - a pair of smaller, custom made Fischer & Fischer loudspeakers with slate cabinets
- and my large collection of headphones, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, QUAD and above all vintage Stax Earspeakers (Lambda Pros, SR-5) with accompanying Stax Driver Units
- plus other CD players that are getting on in years (Rega, Mission, Onkyo...), a beautiful Accuphase E-206 amp, and, and, and,...

I still love to listen to all of this often, I always like what I can hear and see rather than thinking what might not be so good about it. Even if it might not be so great objectively - in my eyes everything has it's story, looks great and is enjoyable!

And now, finally, thanks to ASR, some Topping, Fosi, SMSL and Douk Audio equipment because of Amirm's reviews - many thanks for that!
But most of all for the great RME ADI-2 DAC, that's my favourite electronic device at the moment!!!
And not to forget the WiiM world of streamers!

The only regret I have is that I didn't discover DIY loudspeaker building before I'd already filled everything up with my old stuff. I only built a pair of Le Petit à la CHP-90 (with Markaudio drivers) myself last year - and I don't regret them either, they serve as my TV speakers and I enjoy them!

Edit: Just forgot to mention the little box containing a miniDSP UMIK-1 that I have received today, so another world waiting for me - thanks to your inspiration here on ASR!!

 

[Scytales]

Around the year 2000, as an old teenager and a very young adult, I was very much influenced by the subjective gear reviews published in French music or Hi-fi magazines when I bought my first Hi-fi system, because I was inexperienced and uneducated (I have studied in law, not science or mathematics).

But curiosity led me to learn electronics as a hobby and I discarded those previous influences fast. I pretty much embraced a rational approach to tackle the issue of choosing electronic gears more than 20 years ago, when I replaced all the unsatisfactory devices I had previously purchased on the basis of subjective reviews by others chosen only after objective analysis. I pretty much still use the same gears nowadays, unless commodity features have led me to buy something new or to replace a device no longer adequate to do the job assigned to it.

What I am grateful to Amirm and ASR is to have made a rational approach to Hi-fi popular again among the general public. That was the case at the beginning and flourishing of Hi-fi, but has been forgotten by many till. ASR contributes a very welcome return to the roots.

 

[Gorgonzola]

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)

Whew!! I've been buying hi-fi equipment since 1971 and some of my choices along the way have been better than others.

One of the more dismal in recent times was a Transcendent Sound Products tube preamplifier kit, (no longer current). I bought it on the recommendation of a tube die-hard on another forum who recommended it as a "budget" preamp. I never did find out how it sounded because I couldn't get finished and working. In fact I've had rather mixed results building kits; nowadays, given diminishing visual acuity I wouldn't try.

With benefit of retrospect, a huge failure was my Phase Linear 400 power amp which was my main system amp for over 20 years. In its day it was a low THD leader yet, at least in latter years it sound like shiite. That was despite a recent inspection and capacitor upgrade by a highly regarded technician -- harsh, strident highs yet lacking lacking in resolution and detail. A horrible, horrible sounding amp.

 

[Zgrado1970]

No way. Regret (a very unhealthy mode of thinking) is too strong a word for the chagrin I occasionally feel about my past dumb purchases. Besides, other than my Grado HF2 (purchased during the depths of my Head-Fi fever, and which I still occasionally enjoy), I only bought the cheap stuff.

 

[Marc v E]

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)

I view my life pre-ASR as a drunk person doing purchases. Why you ask? Because my view was so colored by complete bs that to make a good purchase was 50% ears and 50 blind luck. The reviews were mostly a starting point for me, but in hind view only led to confusion and audio nervosa.