DMS started this discussion on his channel and I believe it’s one that should continue. I’m certain many of us have been down the proverbial rabbit hole. Perhaps, we can spare people getting into the hobby much financial loss and disappointment. Bad customer service, poor quality, chasing, whatever your experience is, let’s talk about it.
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Doubt it’s particularly radical - or even very helpful: in which case apologies in advance; but…
… I’d very seriously advise music lovers (at least of classical music) to leave CDs behind and reap the benefits of FLAC etc.
Convenience, SQ, cost, instant availability, space, repertoire available, relative safety.
And get Roon.
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Buying 2 sets of headphones at the same time
I bought in a Black Friday sale a pair of HifIman Arya Stealth and then saw a really good deal on Focal Clear Mg (claimed as a perfect match for my Naim Uniti Atom HE) so I bought those too . I am now flitting between the 2 and trying to convince myself that the Focal’s weren’t a mistake.
The Arya are my first fling with planar dynamics (I had Stax SR3 electrostatics 40 years ago) and they sound so much more detailed than the Focal’s
Auralic Aries g2.1 if it works its fine, but several times a month i need to flick the power switch on the back. because the streamer doesn’t react on anything. it’s used only as roon end-point so i find it very overpriced for my use.
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Thank you for sharing, everyone. Looking back, one of my worst purchases is a custom set of iems from JH Audio. $500+ dollars spent on a pair of iems that are outclassed by universal iems that cost 10% of that dollar amount today.
My most regrettable purchase was the first purchase. My wallet hasn’t been the same since.
But seriously, a Spectron Musician III amp. It spec’d well, but sparks and smoke should not be part of the audio experience.
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Not calling myself an audiophile, I have no regrettable purchases. I did, however, sell a pair of Dan Clark AEON headphones I didn’t need after purchasing a pair of Focal Clear headphones which I much preferred. I also sold an extra RPi4 with screen I didn’t need. I try to own less, not more.
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I bit regret the long waiting (I think over eight months) for the Okto Research DAC 8, which I’ve sold after some weeks. No support (driver, firmware, …) and also not the sound I’ve wished (I prefer the exaSound multichannel DACs much more).
Also the first processors from Emotiva were really disappointing. It tooks really years until they become more or less stable.
Then I don’t like (only tested a few) the most DACs/PreAmps/Headphone amps, which are measured on ASR, but here you get mostly a good price after testing…
Hey Rob,
That is clever. I am sure we all agree with your comment about your first purchase 
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NAD T778 absolute garbage got my money back thankfully after 4 units went bad.
Tannoy XT6 speakers, I bought them without listening first big mistake they didn’t work in my room at all. Ending up selling them on.
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Not unhelpful. As I understand it, CDs played through the right source chain still offer the best sound.
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@David_T -
I still have a vast collection (several thousand) of CDs. I doubt I’ll ever rip even a tenth of them to FLAC.
But even my old ears can tell the difference between 16/44 and 24/192.
I agree, though, it’s easy to get waylaid by grasping for minimal differences when it’s always the music which counts.
The convenience and moderate cost of maintaining a Roon library is now, for me, preferable.
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Convenience is important Mark. You certainly aren’t experiencing inferior SQ from FLAC files.
Hey CristalGyspy. While nothing sucks like defective equipment, at least, you didn’t have to wrestle with bad customer service to boot.
Sorry about the typo in your handle.
My NAD 6155 cassette recorder. I had some kind of fixation with cassettes since the 1960s when i used to hold a microphone up to my transistor radio using an Aiwa cassette recorder ( with primitive VU meters ). I recorded LPs onto cassette, then later CDs. Even with the cassette’s inability to locate separate tracks and slow FF and REW feature I was enamored. One day in the 1980’s I was doing an A/B comparison between cassette and CD ( using Depeche Mode ). The dynamic range limits of the cassette just floored me. From that day forward I stopped recording and went strictly with CD’s.
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No the dealer I bought it from was very good, should have bailed at one return really but it offered so much. But it did make me return back to dedicated 2 channel only and ditch surround and I couldn’t be happier with the Marantz Model 40n I decided to get instead.
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“Regret” is probably too strong a term, but I started with a Sonore microRendu to act as a Roon endpoint to my old Quad 44 preamp - and I couldn’t hear any difference between that and a Rpi3 with an iQaudIO HAT, so I sold the microRendu…
And now I just use an RPi4 + RoPieee with a USB connection to my Quad Artera Link, and enjoy the music.
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Coincidentally I have a support thread on the Auralic forum about this issue.
.sjb
Hi John,
you can automatically reboot the Aries every night at a given time. that limited the times it was dead, for me
marco
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