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The ones that got away- your biggest regrets over items you should have bought.

JTC's Quad ESL57s a while ago, he lives a few villages away, If they eventually failed the council could have taken them away. Perhaps they would have shown the characteristics of my Naim CDX2 too much though.:)
 
chris turner said:
Over the last weekend a freshly factory serviced Naim XPS-T appeared on ebay, it was BIN for £1500, and is supposedly one of only twelve ever made

I've actually seen one of these for sale before and couldn't believe it but I waited too long and when I decided to go for it shortly afterwards, within 5 minutes it had gone.........
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I saw it at an expensive price on Audiogon in the US a few months ago and it hasn't been on sale for a very long time.
I wondered if it was worth spending a lot of money on the power supply.
 
Can't say I regret not buying hifi. When I had the money I would like to have tried Tannoys but way out of my research now. Will have to make do with my old SBLs.
 
Art Audio vinyl 1
One on eBay recently, while I was trying to decide whether to put in an offer someone else did :(

Never heard one, but so impressed with my recent purchase of a Quintet that I thought it would be nice to try and now I keep on wondering "what if ?"
 
What a tortuous thread. Not sure why we do this to ourselves but I want to join in the communal pain.

For me, it's been Huge Altecs. Oh my. How many? So many. A pair of model 19s for $150. Why? Well, the wire going to the woofer was broken. And they were so big.

A pair of A7 VOTT for $600. Happened across them right before we were moving across the country and already had an entire household of stuff that would prove a tough project to fit into the truck. Geez. They were the same size as a washer and dryer set...

Then, in St. Lous, more pairs of VOTTs. At $1000 or 1500/pair. Monstrous things.

Then more recently, a minty-looking pair of Altec Valencias, with that impossible-to-replace fascia in perfect condition. $2,600/pair. Why didn't I pull the trigger? Too much of a side-grade from my current JBL 4430s. Oh well.

The biggest ones I ever let go of? That is, I didn't miss out on them, I decided to advise the buyer I would not proceed with my purchase. A pair of JBL 4355s. Yes. The unobtaniums. For the extremely reasonable price of about $6,000. Yes, if you see them for sale they're typically about $15,000. The seller even had a guy who would re-do the veneers for $600. They would have required bi-amping and would have really been too big for my listening room. But oh, they would have been fun. I considered buying and flipping them but didn't feel that was ethical, in this situation, as the seller already had a standing offer of over $10,000.
 
In mid nineties offered a marantz tt1000, didn’t have a spare kidney so missed chance. so pretty.
 
I went to look at a nice 1989 Gibson ES335 in the summer. The bloke said he'd take 1500 for it, which I accepted. I pulled out on the way to the cashpoint, because I had just bout another guitar the week before. Fool.

I get the regrets pretty bad. So much so that I struggle to purchase the same thing again, knowing that I could have got it for a lot less before. It even happens when I am just browsing!
 
Thinking further; a nice pair of Leak TL12s, upgraded by Audio Note -before they WERE Audio Note! And a nice stripped down Dynaco Pre-amp.
 
I had a phone call with Graham @G T Audio a couple of years back when he was selling off some Devore 0/93s at a very reasonable price. I'd only had my Super 8s for a few months so didn't head down the M40 for a listen ro take him up on his offer to drive them over to Oxford. I'm sure if I had done I'd have come home with them. I've regretted it ever since.
 
Some massive Beard valve pre and power combo that I don't recall the models of, but do I recall the power amp being huge and the preamp looked pretty serious too. Had arranged to meet the bloke (who had only recently inherited this gear) at a location halfway between the two of us but on the day said he didn't want to do that and asked me to come to him. It was only about an hour and quarter drive away but it was in the evening and the kids were very young etc. and at that moment it seemed like too much effort so I declined and pulled out. Think he only wanted £500 for the pair.
 
Worked for a sheet metal company on the south coast from 1999 to 2004 who supplied a lot of the metal work for Naim. This would apparently have entitled me to the 30% staff discount.

Unfortunately at the time I never had the spare income to take advantage even with the discount!

Only bought my first Naim component, a Nait 5si, a couple of months ago. Really enjoying it.

TS
 
There have been a number, and in all cases it was because my upgrade schedule was slower than those of the relevant manufacturers.

First, should have got a Linn Ikemi when I could. To my younger self it seemed extravagant to spend that much on a CD player, but not sure I didn't spend just as much in the long run on other things. (And it would have gone much better with the Kolektor and LK85 than the CD5x I got some time later.)

Second, Naim Allaes, which would have been a nice upgrade from the Intro 2s.

Moral might be that life can be simpler, maybe more satisfying, if you stretch yourself early on and get what you really want, rather than compromising to save amounts that in the long run are neither here nor there.
 
The late Kef 107.2s with Kube that went for just over £1200 on e bay last week.

Hopefully they’ve been bought by someone here whose wife swiftly tires of them after they’ve refoamed them.
 
Does it have to be HiFi ? I really should have bought that Aciera F3 with ALL the bits a few years back. Then the odd Hardinge of course, but perhaps I should have got that Rolls-Royce lathe (yep, they did make a few :- http://www.lathes.co.uk/rolls-royce/ ) when it came up; oh well !

HiFi ? Nothing really.

CHE
 
About 10 years ago I bought a s/h Roksan Caspian Mk1 with the blue transparent remote. Toprepairman gave it the once over and reported its specs as extraordinarily good. It sounded fantastic. I should have hung on to it.
 
calorgas said:
Some massive Beard valve pre and power combo that I don't recall the models of, but do I recall the power amp being huge and the preamp looked pretty serious too. Had arranged to meet the bloke (who had only recently inherited this gear) at a location halfway between the two of us but on the day said he didn't want to do that and asked me to come to him. It was only about an hour and quarter drive away but it was in the evening and the kids were very young etc. and at that moment it seemed like too much effort so I declined and pulled out. Think he only wanted £500 for the pair.
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I think I can make you feel better...

If it was a P100, I bought one due to all the hype. Ugly looking and ugly sounding, iron fist in an iron glove!
 
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