What was your most disappointing purchase for your audio system?

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #60 on:** 7 Apr 2010, 01:22 pm »

Quote from: 6rs on 7 Apr 2010, 11:54 am

Alphason..., HR100,

Wow! That was the best arm I owned by a long shot. It should be mentioned that I had to add about 2grams of ballast, but it blew the Syrinx PU3 away and that PU3 was a TAS favorite - top of the heap. Maybe you had a bad arm?

kingdeezie · « **Reply #61 on:** 7 Apr 2010, 01:56 pm »

Mapletree Audio 4SE preamp.

Everyone talked about how this thing was a giant killer and sounded so good. The whole time I had it, I always felt like I wanted to run screaming from the room.

I tried rolling tubes to absolutely no avail.

My Response Audio preamp, even though significantly more expensive then the MAD, totally smokes it in every manner possible.

This was when I learned that you usually get what you pay for, and that when someone says there 1K piece of equipment performs the same as a 10K piece of equipment; they are usually delusional.

6rs · « **Reply #62 on:** 7 Apr 2010, 09:12 pm »

Quote from: Wind Chaser on 7 Apr 2010, 01:22 pm

Wow! That was the best arm I owned by a long shot. It should be mentioned that I had to add about 2grams of ballast, but it blew the Syrinx PU3 away and that PU3 was a TAS favorite - top of the heap. Maybe you had a bad arm?

No, the turntable (including the arm) is marveolus! I am sure it would compete very well with the Amarra/Weiss Dac2... Sits in the basement though. Have no room for all the records, and no funds for an adequate preamplifier at the moment.

Will2 · « **Reply #63 on:** 7 Apr 2010, 09:14 pm »

Quote from: KCI-JohnP on 6 Apr 2010, 04:39 pm

I guess mine would have to be a rather expensive(for me anyway) set of speakers that I paid for in full, including shipping, and never received. As they say; "A fool and his money are soon parted" and I was a fool....

You're not alone John ..... in fact I bet I out-did you in this department

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #64 on:** 7 Apr 2010, 10:05 pm »

Quote from: 6rs on 7 Apr 2010, 09:12 pm

No, the turntable (including the arm) is marveolus! I am sure it would compete very well with the Amarra/Weiss Dac2...

With a decent recording, a serious cartridge and pre - I used an Electro Research Ek-1 strain gauge - it would eat that DAC alive.

decal · « **Reply #65 on:** 8 Apr 2010, 12:14 am »

Without a doubt,silver speaker cables.Tried 4 different brands and all were too harsh.Hey,I gave it a shot!!

boycephoto · « **Reply #66 on:** 8 Apr 2010, 12:27 am »

By far and away the easiest answer to come up with:

The worst audio product I have every purchased was a Sumiko Blue Point high output moving coil cartridge. It was terrible.
I was glad to shoot it and put me out of the pain (before you can say it, my LP-12/Ittock was properly set up and connected to a Creek phono pre-amp).

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #67 on:** 8 Apr 2010, 01:38 am »

Quote from: Nuance on 5 Apr 2010, 11:18 pm

: which of your purchases was way over-hyped?

That's easy. Anything that streams or travels USB.

jhm731 · « **Reply #68 on:** 8 Apr 2010, 01:43 am »

AVA Insight 440H amplifer.

6rs · « **Reply #69 on:** 8 Apr 2010, 06:44 am »

Quote from: Wind Chaser on 7 Apr 2010, 10:05 pm

With a decent recording, a serious cartridge and pre - I used an Electro Research Ek-1 strain gauge - it would eat that DAC alive.

Hm, maybe I should get it out of the basement. The Garrott P86 is a serious cartridge I think... and I have about 1000 records or so.

viggen · « **Reply #70 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:02 am »

Carolina Audio JTM probably. Never could get the speaker to sound right in my system. Gave up and "downgraded" to a pair of JMR Twins. Instant musicality after downgrade. Can't believe the JTM is selling for 4x more than what I paid. And, that amount is already twice the amount from a year previous to when I purchased.

Galante Rhapsody is right up there although I sold it only after 1 week of ownership.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #71 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:17 am »

Some of you know I go through gear like TP. I posted quite a bit in the day over at AV321 and I got a kick that someone has quoted me in their signature. I purchased a Lyngdorf room correcting pre that prompted me to use these words, but it was funny and also reminiscent of making bad buying decisions:

"Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Red Machine View Post
The unit arrived Saturday, I installed it Sunday, and sold it Monday. What was I thinking?"

http://forums.av123.com/showthread.php?p=712744#post712744

Also, I'd say the Rowland 201 amps were ridiculous, the Cary SLP98 was "tubby", and the Pass Lab boat anchor amp was overrated.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #72 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:19 am »

Back in around 1975, in an attempt to help my father set up his system so it was less confusing, I replaced a Quad 303 amplifier with a Sony receiver of nominally the same power.

Ugh!

That was when I first realized that there was a significant sonic difference between amplifiers. At that time popular wisdom had it that amplifier power and distortion figures were all that mattered.

Apparently that was not true.

Later I made a similar mistake in presuming a more expensive, more powerful NAD amplifier would sound better than the cheap low powered model I had. Another mistake - it was completely trounced by a Mission Cyrus I amp of 1/3 the nominal power and half the price.

mclsound · « **Reply #73 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:39 am »

My most dissapointing purchase was allowing Dave Shulte of the Upgrade company to touch my Marantz DV-9600.After I had enough of him it is still sitting at a repair shop and I sent it out May 24 last year.
LESSON LEARNED
OUCH$$$$$$$$$$
Probably Odyssey Audio,I puchased a pair of new blue board Monos and after 500 hrs could never get past half volume because of distortion so I sold them.I was told breakin time??????

china · « **Reply #74 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:41 am »

This was back in the day...late sixties....which will sort of date me to say the least!!!

But the worst ever mistake was switching from tubed McIntosh (275) & Marantz (7 and 10B) and going to the glories of "solid state".

I still pray that the gods curse that salespersons love making!!!!

WGH · « **Reply #75 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 12:59 am »

After owning a lot of solid state equipment I wanted to try something with tubes so I bought a Bottlehead Seduction phono pre-amp. The initial excitement lasted a few months then I noticed I was playing records less and less. There was no excitement in the music anymore because both the highs and lows were rolled off no matter what tubes I swapped. The Seduction sucked the life out of any record I played.

A close second was the Scott Nixon tube DAC, it was another music vampire.

Wayne

arthurs · « **Reply #76 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 01:26 am »

Mine was a whole B&W and Krell HT setup with a hot new universal player from Denon (2900) and the first Samsung DLP that came out...I discovered a few months later I'm not really a Home Theater person....at all

Pete - great post from the way back machine, my post a couple below yours shows my new "Banned" status at that place...

pjg66 · « **Reply #77 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 01:51 am »

China, you think you are dated? I can do better than that.

It was the late fifties and I was a college student and budding audiophile. For my first real "hi-fi" system I had purchased an el cheapo Garrard changer (cost around 40 bucks) with a GE VRII magnetic cartridge (BTW, a great pickup - it helped put audio on its feet in those early days).

But I yearned to get a "real" audiophile turntable. So I went to work during the Christmas break doing night duty (sorting mail) at the main post office in D.C. Saved my money and excitedly went TT shopping, deciding on an absolutely gorgeous Fairchild turntable (don't remember the model, but Fairchild was a well-respected brand in those days - and yes, it was a branch of the famous aircraft company).

Well the thing may have looked like a work of art, but it rumbled like Hell's Angels! I was crushed and practically in tears until finally the dealer agreed to give me a full refund trade-in on a Thorens TD-124, which turned out to be one of the best components I ever owned. So happy ending after all. Such delicious memories!

Happy listening.

Paul G.

toobluvr · « **Reply #78 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 02:39 am »

Quote from: viggen on 9 Apr 2010, 12:02 am

.
....."downgraded" to a pair of JMR Twins. Instant musicality after downgrade......

Galante Rhapsody is right up there although I sold it only after 1 week of ownership.

It's not clear....
are you saying Rhapsodys sounded good or not?

And I agree with you about the musicality of the JMR Twins. I owned them years ago, and I would own them again.

hmen · « **Reply #79 on:** 9 Apr 2010, 03:34 am »

Quote from: Niteshade on 6 Apr 2010, 02:04 pm

Was it really the cord or the claims behind it? Power cords should never be thought of as power conditioners. If a power conditioner is required, it's best to buy a power conditioner OR see if something can be upgraded in the effected gear's power supply.

This thread could be good for debunking stuff.

As long as a power cord can deliver the proper current to your gear, there should be no issues. It is important to check cable quality- but that's typically a simple resistance check.

A power cord should be made with a good conductor and have the terminations wired properly. The plugs should be good quality as well. The only concern: It has to effectively deliver the current your gear requires. Solid contacts throughout and high quality wire will do just that! As far as weeding out noise, boosting bass, warming up the mids, etc... No. There can be positive effects relative to a defective or under-rated cord, but that's all.

There should be a guarantee of rated performance. A 15 amp cord should deliver 15 amps without breaking a sweat. It should not become hot at the terminations. Heavy electron flow can create some warmth, but it should be subtle. As far as other performance factors- I think the manufacturer would be simply guessing. Hit & miss.

None of the after market PC's I've tried have ever made a positive difference that I've been able to notice.