What did we regret in our audio life.

[andreasmaaan]

I have a beaut. I had a pair of Rogers LS3/5as which I purchased in 1978 for around $475. I had them for around 10 years, and could not successfully mate them with a subwoofer. (I had a DQLP1 and a pair of BassMint 10/24s). So when I saw an ad by Mod
Squad which promised to magically improve this classic speaker's mid bass frequency response and smooth out the upper midrange "colorations" I bit on it. The kit required surgery on the birch plywood cabinet (cutting off the cabinet lip) and rebuilding the crossover board. Yeah, I butchered an absolute classic. Would up giving them away, because they were absolutely ruined. Worst audio mistake of my life, and turned me off to irreversible "mods" for life.

I had a similar experience with a pair of Celestion Ditton 44, actually! The voice coil started rubbing on one of the woofers so I took them to a repair shop where the guy told me that, as well as reconing the woofer, they could replace the tweeter and midrange driver with "custom" parts and completely redesign the crossover so that it used "superior" first-order slopes, all of which would transform the speaker into something magicalsounding. That was many years ago when I had no idea about how speakers worked, so I gave the green light. What I got back was bass-anaemic, tonally horrific, and hideous (they put yellow kevlar cones, which were very in at the time, on a vintage speaker!).

 

[Phorize]

Getting admittedly very mild tinnitus at 46 with the added bonus of having a lifetime of ‘I told you so’ from my audiologist wife.

Being offered tickets to knebworth 96 and declining because I hated oasis and most of the bands on, missed the effing prodigy in their prime when I could have just left after seeing them, I only lived 3 miles away.

Selling all of my late 80s/early 90s us hardcore/independent rock lps to by a CD player. Not that I’d still like 90% of them, but I could have sold them and bought an entire system now.

Seeing Dylan do love and theft/modern times at Wembley arena-horrible venue, horrible experience. Only time I saw him.

Going to see Steven stills with a mate (a huge fan) and being appalled by his nerve in pulling out a harmonica that he plainly couldn’t play-an absolute crime in my book.

Buying a class a amp in 2019. Now gone to give way to a purifi amp.

I should regret spending about £3000 on my admittedly pristine garrard 301 motor unit but I’m going to refuse to for reasons of pure cognitive dissonance. A lot of money for the joy of watching a perfectly balanced idler wheel spinning but hey ho.

 

[Wombat]

I think I missed out on Golden Ears.

I am cursed with being satisfied with 16/44.1.

 

[Matias]

I regret not equalizing headphones and correcting room responses for so many years. Such a cheap and effective way to get big improvements!

 

[Mnyb]

I regret not equalizing headphones and correcting room responses for so many years. Such a cheap and effective way to get big improvements!

Yes DSP and adding subwoofers !! I could have avoided a lot of speaker upgrades sidegrades . Could basically have keept my Thiel's from 1990's and just added some subs and EQ until the multich bug bit me and i decided to have a combined movie and music system ...

Speaking of mch for music thats seems to have become a dead end for reasons iterated a lot on this forum . for example HDMI and abyssamal performance of any product in the genre . So maybe i should have kept the systems separate ?

So I'm quit locked in to a Meridian multichannel system with thier DSP speakers , it was probably very forward thinking back in late 90's and early 2000's but they become stuck in the past and are just offering more expensive variants of the same thing they always offered. And not compatible with anything else . So falling for a proprietary solution even if it was a good one is a mistake (to this day it's the only system i know of who does 5.1 Hirez digitally all the way trough inputs past DSP codecs and room correction straight through the speakers xovers and only then degrades it to the analog domain ) .

Why cant the industry design a modern digital speaker interface for home audio, that all brands can use ?

 

[Snarfie]

I regret not equalizing headphones and correcting room responses for so many years. Such a cheap and effective way to get big improvements!

The same here the measuring mic for room correction was the best investment i did in my whole audio life.

 

[Snarfie]

Could basically have keept my Thiel's from 1990's and just added some subs and EQ until the multich bug bit me and i decided to have a combined movie and music system ...

I did bought back the Vandersteen Model1c speakers comparable with the Thiel's regarding Time an Phases (are they not the same?) coherente design. They sound in combinbation with Room Correction fabulous way better than without taking in acount that you have a lousy room acoustics/modes.

 

[StefaanE]

I am cursed with being satisfied with 16/44.1.

Me too.

 

[anmpr1]

I've mentioned this before. I regret my first wife leaving me. Actually, I didn't mind that she walked out the door. What I regret is that she walked out with the Pioneer SX-1980. I know she did that just to spite me. I probably deserved it, but no one deserves that!

 

[brimble]

Buying an Audio-gd NFB28 DAC ... not because of the appallingly bad measurements (although I totally believe those measurements, they don't affect the sound tooooo much) but because it has a super-bright display that you can't turn off, which made it so annoying to use at night. Heed my advice and pay attention to LED displays before you buy anything.

 

[sergeauckland]

I've mentioned this before. I regret my first wife leaving me. Actually, I didn't mind that she walked out the door. What I regret is that she walked out with the Pioneer SX-1980. I know she did that just to spite me. I probably deserved it, but no one deserves that!

I'm surprised she could carry it. 35.4Kg / 78lbs!

I like a strong woman.

S.

 

[anmpr1]

I'm surprised she could carry it. 35.4Kg / 78lbs! I like a strong woman.

She had help. At least I think she must have. I wasn't there to watch, but instead was living in a C&W bar in Apopka Florida, throwing back cool ones. The juke box was playing and George Jones was singing "Still doin' time in a honkey tonk prison." It was me an George against the world, back then!

 

[Bugal1998]

I just bought that Chet Baker & Paul Bley album. Beautiful music and a wonderful recording... Thanks for posting it, Snarfie!

 

[Daverz]

- Not putting in the time to learn to play an instrument, at least to level that I could play for my own satisfaction (I had piano lessons.) Yeah, I suppose I could still learn something (I'm not schlepping a piano up here, though!)
- Way too much time and money put into records and analog gear (and this in the 2000s) that sits gathering dust now.
- Way too much time and money spent fussing with tube gear. At least I got that out of my system, but at a high cost.

I'm also still a sucker for products that get a lot of internet buzz. Been burned too many times that way.

 

[TimF]

Yea, not attending the Prince concert, I can relate to that. I have no excuse but regrets about that because I live in Minneapolis, MN. I did see Hendrix once though. I spent some time today making a list of notable performers I've seen. Some big names but I must mention those that most knocked my socks off or you could say "carried me away": Salif Keita, and Ivo Papazov (incredible), and number of GREAT Cajun and Zydeco masters (I won't name names here). Life is given sparkle and extra spiciness by such persons. I've been fortunate. He's a couple performers I've seen who might not be expected: Bo Diddley and John Lurie with the Longue Lizards.

 

[Slobmw]

Not springing for the Oppo UDP-205 when I bought my 203 a few months before they pulled out of the market. And yes, quite clear this is a very minor regret. My high school HiFi was based on an NAD 3120 (thanks for the great advice older brah!) And my next major HiFi purchase was a pair of Dennis Murphy's BMR monitors in Salk cabinets. So no doubt I'm due for some terrible decisions. Suggestions welcome!

 

[Robin L]

Not springing for the Oppo UDP-205 when I bought my 203 a few months before they pulled out of the market. And yes, quite clear this is a very minor regret. My high school HiFi was based on an NAD 3120 (thanks for the great advice older brah!) And my next major HiFi purchase was a pair of Dennis Murphy's BMR monitors in Salk cabinets. So no doubt I'm due for some terrible decisions. Suggestions welcome!

Turntables 'n' tubes!

 

[oldsysop]

Buying a class a amp in 2019. Now gone to give way to a purifi amp.

Don't make that mistake .

 

[Katji]

Buying an Audio-gd NFB28 DAC ... not because of the appallingly bad measurements (although I totally believe those measurements, they don't affect the sound tooooo much) but because it has a super-bright display that you can't turn off, which made it so annoying to use at night. Heed my advice and pay attention to LED displays before you buy anything.

One thing I dislike about Reddit r/audiophile - sometimes I feel like I need sunglasses because so many pics of McIntosh - multiple McIntosh.

 

[Harmonie]

Hamburg - Sept 10, 2017,
I regret not having attended their concert but lucky (pure chance), I could make that shot

The Rolling Stones, Hamburg 2017, Gimme Shelter, Live, HD