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

eric the red · « **on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:23 am »

For me it was the DK Design MK ll integrated. That thing lasted two days here at component central

NealH · « **Reply #1 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:44 am »

The Art DI/O dac. It has to be the most underwhelming piece of audio equipment that I ever purchased. And, it's the only piece of equipment that I have literally thrown in the garbage. I didn't think it was worth the effort to try and get $50 for it on Audiogon. Or $25.

orthobiz · « **Reply #2 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:45 am »

A DBX box ca. 1975 sound expander. In college, listening exclusively to rock, albeit good rock, but no need for the expander! It did make a big difference, however, on Thick As A Brick, but that alone did not justify the expense. Wonder if there are products like that now. Probably worked great on classical.

Anyway, took it to the dorm for an audition, my buddies still say "I hear the difference" as they continue to make fun of me in my early pursuit of perfect audio. Wasn't so bad: Tandberg 1055, Dual 1215S, Shure M55E?, ADS 710, B&0 Beogram 3000.

biz

Rocket · « **Reply #3 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:51 am »

Hi,

The most overhyped gear i've bought was a ps audio hca - 2 which i imported from the states. Talk about an over hyped product which barely ever received a bad comment from the industry or audiophiles

. I had it modded and it sounded very good but you shouldn't have to do that to get it to sound decent.

Also the nad pp1 phonostage. I listened to it for 5 minutes put it back in its box and sold it for half price.

Regards

Rocket

mcrespo71 · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 01:51 am »

I'd say the DK Design Integrated MK II. Totally not my taste and overhyped IMO.

Michael

Carlman · « **Reply #5 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 02:00 am »

I think it's a tie for me... either the Panny XR-25 or the KEF Koda 70's. Both were over-hyped so much that by the time I heard them, they wouldn't work for me in their intended purposes. Both were good value but not 'giant killers' by my standard. Hey ETR, Didn't you buy my Koda's or did I buy yours?

I thought the DK sounded really good but it wasn't 'special'. The AKSA was special, the EE Minimax gear is also, and so on... but the DK just didn't have 'the love' to quote 'Hantra'.

-C

eric the red · « **Reply #6 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 02:05 am »

Quote from: Carlman

I think it's a tie for me... either the Panny XR-25 or the KEF Koda 70's. Both were over-hyped so much that by the time I heard them, they wouldn't work for me in their intended purposes. Both were good value but not 'giant killers' by my standard. Hey ETR, Didn't you buy my Koda's or did I buy yours?

I thought the DK sounded really good but it wasn't 'special'. The AKSA was special, the EE Minimax gear is also, and so on... but the DK just didn't have 'the love' to quote 'Hantra'.

-C

Why yes Carl, that would be me. They now somehow have a slightly wrinkled tweeter cover on one speaker and I have been trying to literally GIVE them away for weeks. Even tried trading them for a good bottle of bourban: no takers. My last resort will be to give them away with an extra Sharp SD-EX111 that I will be selling if the buyer is local.

bhobba · « **Reply #7 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 02:14 am »

By and large Bose gear.

Thanks
Bill

Carlman · « **Reply #8 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 02:28 am »

Hey, I like the Sharp... in fact I have one now that needs speakers for a workout room.. the Koda's would be fine for that. I wish I were nearby... I'd be more than happy to bring buy a 12-pack/Bourbon/etc...

_scotty_ · « **Reply #9 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 02:55 am »

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 you realized you just didn't care anyway. The entire store,all three floors
full of well respected name brand gear, either sucked outright or failed to deliver enough information. Basically a laundry list of Class A,B,C rated equipement that failed to deliver the goods and on the whole was outright irritating to listen to.
Scotty

meby · « **Reply #10 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:02 am »

Triangle speakers even running through 300b amps they made my ears bleed. That and a Kenwood surround sound receiver that I bought listened to in stereo for about a minute and sold it at a loss on Ebay.

Marbles · « **Reply #11 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:11 am »

A TEAC tape (Cassette) deck back in 1979...

mgalusha · « **Reply #12 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:18 am »

Probably the Norh LeAmp's for me. I bought a pair after all the hype and my cheesy Parasound HCA-1201's from Audio Advisor wiped the floor with them. I was very disappointed. Fortunately they were still popular and I don't recall taking too much of a beating on them.

zybar · « **Reply #13 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:32 am »

Bryston 4BSST - not in the same league as the names it gets mentioned with (Pass, McCormack, Edge, to just name a few)

Lexicon MC-12 - great for HT, but hardly mid-fi as a two channel preamp.

George

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #14 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 03:50 am »

Mostly happy purchases here (I tend to research exhaustively

). But, the one that strikes me as having been fairly expensive and bad value was the PS Audio P300 Power Plant.

Source components fed thru it benefitted substantially in some areas...but was outweighed by the unnatural tone they imparted to all of them for north of $1000 new.

maxwalrath · « **Reply #15 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 04:19 am »

An Anthem Integrated 2.

The specs were nearly the same as a Jolida 1501 I was using, but it cost much more so it had to be better. I really wanted to hear a difference.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #16 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 04:54 am »

Klipsch K-horns. Pretty unimpressive given the size, price & hype.

lord dubious · « **Reply #17 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:12 am »

ALL horn loaded single driver speakers I have heard sound underwhelming. I want to believe but I am still waiting to see God or whatever else happens when you become a convert. I am still looking for such a thing as a good sounding single driver full range speaker. Hmmmm

nathanm · « **Reply #18 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 05:46 am »

Ack! DAC, Benchmark DAC and ART DI/O. All external DACs I've tried have been underwhelming. Actually to be fair, they were just whelming.

jswallac · « **Reply #19 on:** 6 Jan 2006, 06:11 am »

I have to agree that the two external DACs I have owned have both been highly hyped and just whelming to my ears. Actually the Mensa Smart DI/O was underwhelming and the Ack! was whelming. Neither sounded better than the plain old Pioneer 563 I was using as a transport. But my most underwhelming product was the Magules Magenta ADE-24, "THE BLACK BOX" I think the real reason it was called a black box is because that is what it sounded like, a plain black box with only a wire connecting the input to the output. It literally added nothing to the sound. I guess it could have been worse, the Mensa Smart DI/O was worse than the Pioneer.