What's the most underwhelming piece of gear you've heard?

James Romeyn · « **Reply #20 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 06:41 am »

This is fun. A Musical Fidelity preamp, circa late '90's (nineteen, not eighteen), MSRP circa $1200-1500. The home-built output-transformer equipped tube preamp I was borrowing from a friend was so much better it wasn't funny. Sometimes I agree with Stereophile, but that one was a joke. I have no idea what they heard in it (maybe ca-ching' on the cash register via the MF advertising checks?) It was rated Class A or B.

I'd still love to borrow Michael Fremer's reference MF Nu-vista 300 amp.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #21 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 06:51 am »

Yeah, fun till your ox gets gored...

Folsom · « **Reply #22 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 07:17 am »

I think we would all be kidding ourselves if we did not give it up for the Bose

.

Magic Robert · « **Reply #23 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 08:10 am »

I bought a Yamaha natural sound amp. It really was outstanding for the cost. Still being sold on 'Gon and eBay. Had the wooden case and silver front. THEN, I bought a new amp to give the old one to my brother. One of the first A/V amps. Natural sound my ass. They failed to mention that they had sold their sold to the devil in the meantime. The only thing good about it was the front panel lights burned out regularly. It was entertaining to guess which one would go next. Oh,yeah, and it sounded like Bose gear.

tubeytubeamp · « **Reply #24 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:39 pm »

All of these products I have owned at one time or another:

1) All Harman Kardon products from the 1990's that I owned at one time or another. I was really into HK when I first got into audio.
HK620 integrated
PA2100 poweramp
PA2200 Poweramp
AP2500 preamp
Kenwood Ar104 receiver
2) Speakers:
JM Lab Chorus 706s
Kef Q15
Phase Technology PC1
Phase Technology Power 10 sub.
3) Source components
Marantz CD17

Bill Baker · « **Reply #25 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:48 pm »

Quote

1) All Harman Kardon products from the 1990's that I owned at one time or another. I was really into HK when I first got into audio.

I was also a fan of HK for a while. I owned the 6500 and 5100? integrated units for a while which at the time, were decent pieces. Late 80's, early 90's? I sold these to a friend of mine up the road (along with an HK HT Receiver. I was an HK dealer for a while) and he is still using them today.

Now HK is platic mass market ..............

gstraley · « **Reply #26 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:50 pm »

For me the biggest dissapointment was the overpriced Parasound JC-1 amps. Solid State at its worst. Tons of power but a sterile dry sound. Sorry, but the late Bob Crump with his touch could not make them things sing.

miklorsmith · « **Reply #27 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 04:01 pm »

Gallo Acoustics Ref. 3's driven by HCA-2. Needless to say, I'm much more critical of reviews now.

zybar · « **Reply #28 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 04:05 pm »

Quote from: miklorsmith

Gallo Acoustics Ref. 3's driven by HCA-2. Needless to say, I'm much more critical of reviews now.

Having heard the Ref III's multiple times in different rooms and with different gear, I would wager that it was the HCA-2 bringing down the Gallos.

I have experienced major swings from Ref 3's sounding very good to terrible so I know the potential is there...

George

miklorsmith · « **Reply #29 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 04:14 pm »

I think they're terribly lacking in the midrange - something that the superb tweeters and reasonable bass cannot make up for. I'm sure the amp wasn't helping but even my Modwright pre couldn't make those midrange balls sound natural. I found myself focused on the airy, shimmering tweeters as the "high point".

I put them up for sale two days after completing my homemade Fostex 206 BR boxes which ain't perfect but they kicked the teeth out of the Gallos in the midrange department. They are much faster too.

Dan Banquer · « **Reply #30 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:18 pm »

I could fill a book on this one. I'll just leave it with 99% of the speakers out there you couldn't pay me to own, and I'm not going to even get started about audio electronics.
d.b.

elnero · « **Reply #31 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:21 pm »

Quote from: _scotty_

It has to be the Wilson Grand Slam X1. My wife and I heard it in
a $125,000 system comprised of the latest and greatest Krell everything, CD player through power amp with top of the line MIT cabling and we lasted about 15 seconds before we had the salesman turn it OFF. You could point with your eyes closed at the location of the tweeter, midrange and woofer and the sound the system made would sterilize frogs at 500 yards. The sound was so bad you couldn't figure out where to start trying to fix it and y ...

I had a similar experience with the original Grand Slamms, a store I worked at for a short period had them and they consistently underwhelmed me. About all I could credit them with was big bass but otherwise there was nothing particularly great about them and for the most part just sounded sterile. One would expect at least some "WOW" factor from $85,000 speakers.

tubeytubeamp · « **Reply #32 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:30 pm »

Speaking of Parasound;

I can also add the Parasound PHP850 preamp and Parasound HCA1000 to my list.

Dennis

eric the red · « **Reply #33 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:58 pm »

Quote from: Rob Babcock

Yeah, fun till your ox gets gored...

It's all fun and games until somebody breaks a window

toobluvr · « **Reply #34 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 07:57 pm »

I have owned, and been very disappointed, by these two highly regarded pieces of gear:

Merlin VSM: Lean, hard and aggressive sounding despite surrounding them with simpatico gear. To my ears, not worthy of all the slobbering in the press, nor the awards bestowed upon them. And certainly not worth the price!

Cary CD 303/100: I thought Cary was all about musicality?? I found this player to be dry, analytical and completely uninvolving. Given Cary's reputation, I was left scratching my head.

To give them every opportunity to succeed, I kept them for long periods time and partnered them with many different combinations of gear. Because of their reputations and great reviews I thought it was a synergy thing.....that they needed TLC or the right gear. So I really worked to make them work. In the end, regardless of what I did, their character as I describe above always shone through.

Zero · « **Reply #35 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 09:01 pm »

I am going against judgement here, and will participate in this thread. The reason for my hesitation is due to so many elements that go into audio that range anywhere from unknown 'synergy' issues, room, and even your own mental state. With all of that considered - the list of equipment I have been disappointed with is massive. I will just narrow it down to my biggest gripes;

REVEL speakers. Whether its the M20's or the big Saloons, I just could never get into their sound no matter the room or electronics. Every audition left me feeling that the sound was only worth a quarter of the asking price.

REGA planet 2000 and the Mira 3 integrated. I had these pieces for awhile and kept my expectations reasonable. Both pieces just failed miserably to convey any sense of emotion, dynamics, detail, well - just about anything. They sure looked cool in black, though.

Paradigm. I have a lot of respect for this company. I can see how some may like the Paradigm sound. Personally, I can't stand it. Brittle high's with a hollow mid-range with tight (but not tuneful) bass. The reputation of Paradigms value and sound just fall flat on this end.

Lastly; Scott Nixon Tube Dac +. There is a twist here. Before I got the tube-dac+, I read only positive things from users. I listened to a few people that I trust and made the purchase. I had very high expectations and the tube dac made virtually no improvements over the modified AMC CD8B that I had running. I was supremely disappointed.. so much so that I sold it to a friend only a few weeks after. However, it did not take me long to realize that it actually did do its job very well in a subtle manner. Too subtle for me to really pick up on considering how high my expectations were.. So the twist is, while I was initially incredibly let down by this dac at first... I've now 'learned' and would not hesitate to bring another in.

Skynyrd · « **Reply #36 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 12:29 am »

Denon 1560 CD player circa 1991. Wonderful transport. Horrible, horrible, digititis from its analog output.
Up yours, Denon! Very unlikely I will ever purchase anything named "Denon" again.

Skynyrd

TIC · « **Reply #37 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 03:53 am »

Hey Guys,

I've been away from this forum for a few months. Glad to be back and add to this excellent thread.

I've been totally underwhelmed by the following:

Paradigm Mini Monitor-three words-Boxy, Boxy and , uh, Boxy Sounding. They are not as good as the Paradigm Atoms I was using for rear surround. And the Atoms weren't very good either!

Musical Fidelity CD/Pre-24-What a great concept. A high end CD Transport, DAC and analog pre-amp, in one box. Unfortunately it sounded like a tin can to me.

Every Wilson and ProAc speaker I've heard at my local dealers saloon! I just don't get it. Either the dealer has a very poor setup, or these speakers are all very "thick" in the upper bass/lower midrange area. BTW, the Thiels at the same dealer did not sound this way, so I don't think it was setup.

Bryston B-60 integrated amp-I've read soooo many great things about this integrated, but it was lifeless in my system.

Anthem Amp 1, Anthem Integrated One-tube amps that didn't have any of the attributes that make me want to own a tube amp.

Hsu VTF-2 subwoofer-"buzzed like crazy, til I turned the amp upside down. Didn't live up to the hype. Not a bad sub, but not nearly as good I had expected.

I've owned a lot of audio stuff, so I'm sure there are more.......

Enjoy,

TIC

TIC · « **Reply #38 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:04 am »

I remembered another good one:

JPO Memorial Loudspeaker-This single driver speaker built by Wavelength Audio was in my system for only 2 days! This speaker uses the expensive and rare Diatone Driver. It should be called the mono-tone driver. This speaker sounded absolutely fantastic on solo piano, but everything else was horrible!

Enjoy,

TIC