I opened my washing machine yesterday to discover I had wisely washed a pair of IEMs along with my clothes. Fortunately not super expensive but still 
…
Well that got me wondering if others have some “whoops” stories out there? … No judging, though laughing may occur.
Recently tried to clean a pair of focal clear earpads. I sprayed the surface with alcantara cleaner and the cleaner won’t come off with a microfibre towel. I had to hand wash it hard to get rid as much of it as possible. Turns out, I was supposed to spray the cleaner on the microfibre towel first and then use the towel to clean. In the process of my hard cleaning one of the holes in the pads got larger and small bits of the inner foam started to come out while washing. -.- At least the pads were clean afterwards.
I actullay posted here inquiring if anyone had the same volume issues I was having after an iOS update.
I tried on multiple devices, my phone, iPad, my son’s phone and iPad, and I was getting the same results: a lowered level of volume.
Then one day I looked down at my headphone cable (Koss Porta Pro SE). The volume level was turned down… 
I felt like a dumb **s. 
Was watching a show with my headphones and the imaging was reversed!! Tried different interconnects, different amps options, other headphones with my basic set up and to my horror I determined that there was something wrong with my cans, which was true, but it was not a manufacturing error.
Biggest dumb **s thing I have done so far is cross connecting headphone cables (L to R and R to L).
On the positive I was quite happy that the mistake was my own and if that’s as dumb as I get then cheers to me!
Background:
I have a desktop mixer in use so I can mix voice, system sounds and music/game sound from various sources or second computer. That mixer feeds my two headphone amps.
Story:
Hop into a discord channel and hear nothing. Music is playing, but I can’t hear anyone. As there are green circles, it is obviously not a problem with my internet.
After checking the obvious in windows and discord settings, I reboot. Just because turning off and on again more often than not fixes wierd issues. No luck.
Instead of changing audio device, I just route voice chat on top of primary out! Workarround for the night.
Next day I get trouble shooting. Make sure plugs are in all the way, double checking settings, self-doubt and “this can’t be broken”-thoughts, two hours later…
Turns out, when you plug a cable in on side A and side B, make sure it is the same cable, not two different pairs of loose ends!
Moral of the story: Buy cables from different brands, label them or just plug in everything all the time.
I put my WF-1000XM3 through the wash, but they still work 
This just happened last week.
I’m trying to “insert” a 2.5 x 5.5 female plug in the tight difficult to see portion of my cabinet. Well, I missed making a straight on connection and broke the male housing jack, rendering my Channel Islands Audio MKi 9v power supply inoperable.
Lucky me, my older brother is a wizard at fixing this kind if stuff, and we made a trip to the parts store today, and my brother spent a couple of hours modifying the unit to fix the supply with non-proprietary parts. Unit repaired and is back in service. His fix is better than the stock 2.5 x 5.5 jack, so it all worked out well, but lesson learned.
I couldn’t see what I was doing and messed up the power supply because I was lazy and in got a hurry.
I’ve had a couple of lab accidents:
When repairing Sony 7506’s whatever plastic they use reacts with super glue and starts melting and giving off some (probably toxic) fumes.
Another time I wasn’t paying attention to the kinds of wipes I was cleaning my custom IEM molds with. I thought it was a lens wipe but it was some kind of cleaning wipe and the molds started to dissolve in my hands 
Connect BOTH channels to the right. Your imaging problems will disappear.
Randomly came across this old thread. A couple of people mentioned putting their IEMs in the wash. I’ve done that a few times, including a pair that cost a few hundred. Ouch.
But I’ve since learned that if you find out you’ve laundered them, stick them in a bag of raw rice, and leave them for a couple of days, and there’s a good chance they’ll be as good as new. The rice will draw out all the moisture. Unfortunately I hadn’t learned this tip when I washed the expensive IEMs (which were thrown away) but I have successfully done this with Apple Airpods a couple of times.