[S Clark]

I'll go along with NAD.  I had a pre that sucked absolutely all the life out of the music..

[simoon]

I'd have to say it was a Quatre Gain Cell amplifier. DG-250 I believe.

The thing is, it actually sounded great. It was fairly highly reviewed.

But keeping it running was a bitch. Which was also known about these.

Finally, I was listening one day and one channel let out a loud upper mid frequency squeal and took out an expensive midrange driver.

It went into the closet after that. 

[clydethecat]

I have the Dyna SCA-80Q in my personal audio hall of shame as well.  I learned how to solder by building the kit in 1975.  I finished it the day that Dave O'Brien's McIntosh Amplifier Clinic was in town.  It measured only so-so, and then the right channel failed on the bench.  Fun. 

Back home, looking inside, there was a 1W resistor on the amp board that looked like it was sweating.  A more technically knowledgeable friend did some quick checks with a multimeter and assured me that the output transistors were okay, so I just pulled out the offending board and sent it back to Dynaco for repair.  When they sent it back the "sweaty" resistor was still there, but the amp worked when I reassembled it.

It always sounded kind of grainy though.  It didn't take me long to replace it with a Stereo 70 and PAS2.

[orthobiz]

Welcome to the gang, Clyde!

Paul

[*Scotty*]

My worst sounding piece of gear was a B&K Pro5 Preamp. To be fair it was worth about what I paid for it. Dull,grainy,non-dynamic and uninvolving are the kindest way to describe its performance. The box and knobs were nice and in retrospect I should have kept it just for the enclosure for future projects.

As you can see there is almost no power supply in the box, a swap of the volume pot,selector switch, opamps and an outboarded 200watt transformer would improve it markedly.
The preamp section of the NAD 3020 was much superior. Of course the NAD 3020 was the best piece of vintage gear I ever owned. Sweet music was made with it and a pair of Magneplaner SMGs.
Scotty
Modified for accuracy

[silver_strings]

I had some old minimus speakers that were terrible, but theres been plenty of more modern overhyped gear thats heen very dissapointing

[SteveFord]

I'd repressed the memory of my Nakamichi BX-100.
It worked fine until the Warranty expired and then it was in the shop, out of the shop, in the shop, out of the shop, repeat.
The repair guy referred to it as unbelievably low end which convinced me to chuck it in a dumpster after it screwed up again.
Not recommended.

[won ton on]

SteveFord.........I'm surprised about your Nak as i have a zx-9 and it has been flawless since i got it in 1984. Mind you i haven't used it for a few years now.

[Lefty052347]

I bought a Marranz 2270 around 1975.  The right channel blew 3 times during the warranty.  The last time I went to pick it up, the shop was playing sine waves through it and told me that nothing was wrong because it played sine waves without any problems. 

Of course, once I got home and plugged it in and ran it for a while the channel would start to break up.  Since I had a cassette deck that came with a 440 hz tape for setting the meters, I decided to play that and sure enough the channel starting working for a while.  I would then repeat the process as needed until I could replace it.

I then ordered a Dyna 410 kit and built my own amp and used the 2270 as a pre-amp tuner.  A year later I decided to build a PAT-5.
Since then either I or AVA have built my stereo electronics except for my Squeezebox.

Regards,

Dean

[ncblue]

Arcam receiver. Dull and lifeless, very disappointing!

[SteveFord]

Won ton on,
The BX-100 was their entry level deck so it was built down to a cost.
The repair guy did say that Nakamichi made some tremendous decks and some shockingly low end ones which was kind of hurt my feelings.
Throwing it into the dumpster cheered me up so there was a happy ending.

[Guy 13]

I'd repressed the memory of my Nakamichi BX-100.
It worked fine until the Warranty expired and then it was in the shop, out of the shop, in the shop, out of the shop, repeat.
The repair guy referred to it as unbelievably low end which convinced me to chuck it in a dumpster after it screwed up again.
Not recommended.

Hi SteveFord and all Audio Circle members.
I still own a Nakamichi BX-100 and it`s gathering dust somewhere in my house.
The belts have been replaced several times and now, I cannot get belts locally (Vietnam) for it.
Not a very good investment for the money I've paid.

Guy 13

[Elizabeth]

A Counterpoint preamp which sounded wonderful while it was working.. Too bad that was not most of the time.

The total worst piles of junk I had the misfortune of  possessing were some Garrard Zero 100's i picked up.
The most over complex pile of total trash i ever saw. Anywhere one part would do the job, Garrard had six. The platter alone had over a dozen parts. The arm, cool in theory, was a flaky pile. Wonky trash went into the dumpster.

[tomytoons]

Counterpoint sa20 amp left channel light show. Never even tripped the breaker on that outlet could have burnt the house down. Got it back after 6 weeks wait, 2 weeks later right channel, light show. Counterpoint Pre sa5.1 shunted transformer.
Junk! Fixed and sold asap.

[slbender]

Actually, the SCA-80 was introduced in 1969 and remained in production until Dynaco closed up shop in 1980.
Mine was very reliable but I did send it to Dyna once for a mysterious intermittent noise (sounded like a long fart for want of a better description). I still have it but it has Van Alstine circuits in it (all the old Dyna circuits ripped out in favor of their own).

Sounds like you definitely had a lemon. I had a friend that bought a late production unit that somehow cleared factory QC with the non-ventilated version of the top cover (the version used in the much cooler running preamps). Fortunately he called me up to ask about it before it had a chance to burn to a crisp.

A couple of months back someone gave me an SCA-80Q, he thought it was all blown.  The price, $0. was right.  But after a few minutes of testing, I found most of the 'lytic caps were weak, or bad, and there's a lot of them in there.  However, since it is now over 40 years old, its not worth my time and trouble, probably, eventually go on ebay for $10.  So Coop - I've got the vented cover?


Anyway, my worst component that I recall, was the ~ 1966 Harman-Kardon Citation "A" Preamp.  It was noisy like nobodies' business, with all those germanium transistors, I'd guess it was capable of a 40 dB signal to noise ratio.  OK, it was probably twenty years old when I got that Citation A, but give me tubes anyday!


-Steven L. Bender

[slbender]

I'd have to say it was a Quatre Gain Cell amplifier. DG-250 I believe.

The thing is, it actually sounded great. It was fairly highly reviewed.

But keeping it running was a bitch. Which was also known about these.

Finally, I was listening one day and one channel let out a loud upper mid frequency squeal and took out an expensive midrange driver.

It went into the closet after that.

I think I remember that amp, I never did own it, but as I recall, I think the DG-250 Quatre Gain Cell amplifier had tried to draw way too much current and power from a single pair of old style 1980's output power transistors. It possibly was using either the early triple-diffused drivers and output transistor types, or the Fujitsu Ring-Emitter parts, the latter, were especially fragile, when it got into an unstable (Safe Operating Area) SOA: Instantly Go Poof!  I also suspect that above room temperature on the die, it didn't have sufficient power dissipation capability, that and a little bit beyond the SOA - Go Poof!

Same sort of situation like the old Gold Faceplate Acoustic Research 'AR Receiver' did, especially when driving 4 ohm load AR Speakers, but the AR Receiver at least used older, slow, single-diffused output transistors, much like the Heathkit AR-15, and the Dynaco ST-120, only it pushed these output devices much, much harder.  The possible tradeoffs here were slower devices had more overlap between the output pair, for more distortion, and worse sound, due to turn-off spikes. The triple diffused or Ring Emitter parts, being much faster and having wider bandwidth into the tens of megahertz range, would tend to sound better, have fewer anomalies, react to the feedback loop quicker, for fewer Transient Distortions, but they were more likely to self-destruct.

Assuming that the Quatre DG-250 used an input IC, or the higher-frequency, faster output transistors, it easily could become unstable - at the drop of a hat.  Today, that amp could probably be used by replacing the OP transistors and drivers with parts that would be more temperature stable, and also providing higher power dissipation, providing more margin before instability.  Also replacing some of the 'lytic caps with better caps, might help, I wouldn't mind having one today (but it probably wouldn't approach the sound quality of either my ULT Transistor Amp, or my SET Amp but what does ? .

Still got it in the closet?  I'll take it.


-Steven L. Bender

[mgalusha]

A toss up between a Hafler DH-110 preamp or a Sony 1130 integrated from the early 1970's. To this day I still hate the Sony, if pushed a little too hard it would clip like a Urologist performing a vasectomy and incinerate a tweeter with glee. I was lured by the, I think, 100WPC rating vs the measly 20W of my little Scott 222. Now that I think about it, the Hafler's biggest issue was the tendency to blow the output moset (IIRC), that makes the Sony the most despised component I've ever owned.

[TheChairGuy]

Tomlinson Holman's (the guy of THX fame) made a corker in the old Advent 300...so I figured his next product (by then, on his own at his own company) would be only that much better and still affordable.

That was the Apt-Holman preamp...and it is and was a total crap sounding unit.  I couldn't listen to it for more than 10 minutes after it warmed up fully.  It was completely updated and reconditioned by a tech so it was just that it was total crap sounding.

Nice facilities, nice simple looks....but, garbage for sonics.

[Eric Strasen]

I've had many a lemon since I started collecting stuff in the early 1960's, but the absolute worst was a Pioneer PL-630 turntable. This may have been an early production job and it was nothing but grief from day one. While playing an LP, it would suddenly change speed or the arm would start to cycle midway through the record. Of course it went back to the dealer and to Pioneer, but neither could or would resolve the problem. I was told that the problem appeared to be excess static electricity (I live in North Central Wyoming, which generally has low humidity). I was also told that neither the dealer or Pioneer would take the PL-630 back.
I had to lawyer-up, and for $75 he sent the dealer a stiff letter threatening legal action. I got a full refund, minus, of course, what I had to lay out for the lawyer.
I then bought a Thorens TD-126 Mk. III, which I still have today and which is my main source of vinyl enjoyment.

[charmerci]

Digging up an old vintage thread! 


When I was a teen, my brother a few years older than me, wanted the Bose 901's because of their unlimited power handling. So bought a pair of Bose 301 SII. We both agreed - we sold 'em fairly fast.


When in college, I had a nice Yamaha SR620 receiver. He wanted it for his girlfriend so he sent me a late 70's Kenwood integrated amp. (The KA-6150, I think. [size=78%]http://www.oaktreevintage.com/web_photos/Stereo_Amps_Pre/Kenwood_KA-6150_Integrated_Amp_web.jpg[/size] ) Dull all around.


After that I stopped listening to my brother and made my own decisions outside of buying a pair of Klipschorns which he eventually bought off of me.