Hi Paul, I don't think you have wasted the cash - but I do think that what you have bought may not be what you thought you were buying.
If that makes any sense.
It seems to me, that a lot of the time when I buy gear, what I actually buy is the experience of what I like or do not like about that piece of gear in the context of my own other components, musical preferences and personal quirks, idiosyncrasies and hearing abilities and disabilities.
I am also thereby learning how to interpret what others may say about various components in terms of how I perceive the things that they describe. (and whether the things they find important hold the same degree of importance for me)
I have heard it said that experience is what you have right after you needed it
I have only been seriously pursuing improved music reproduction for a little over a year and a half.
In the early 70's I was very interested in all that sort of thing as were various friends and one of my brothers in law was very serious about it all.
Life intervened and I listened to music on whatever was available, often portable.
A brief resurgence in the early 90's saw me have a brief affair with rebuilding some speakers, buying a CD player (some sort of Sony carousel thing) and some other gear which I set up in my workshop. The best things from that period were being introduced to the music of Enya, Zydeco and a fabulous 3 CD set called Africa Never Stand Still.
Fast forward, in the last 18 months I have gone through 5 sets of speakers, 2 turntables, 2 amps, 5 CD players, 4 phono stages, about 5 cartridges, a couple of tonearms and various (not particularly expensive <$50) interconnects.
All of which I bought (mostly 2nd hand) unheard - not particularly recommended - but that is how it has been.
The closest I went to audition was the latest speakers (I owned lesser models from the same manufacturer) and I did audition the alternative, highly reviewed and locally available and similar in price - my experience of those did not tally with the reviews as they read at first although reading between the lines revealed more the sort of thing I found with them.
I would really have liked to buy them but could not live with the compromise I heard in their performance.
The ones I have now I had to import and had only the review of a larger model with the same driver to go on (apart from the "house sound" of the smaller model I had at that time).
I had by then bought the Era Gold on the strength of the same reviewers recommendation and not been disappointed and had a fair idea of his tastes in music so that counted for something.
Much musical happiness came in the boxes with them
They are huge things in my small cluttered flat but they may well be the last speakers I will buy.
How does all this reminiscing relate to you?
I am pretty happy with the sound of all this now but I had to buy a fair amount of experience along the way - I am not at all sure how I could have learnt what I wanted without spending years listening to other peoples systems with all the other variables attendant on that process. By then I may well be deaf and buried.
Either way it is all school fees, either time or money.
Enjoy the journey (and the music) and sniff the flowers along the way