[nathanm]

Norh Pyramids - Just not a good cabinet.  Had more in common with one of those clunky car boxes you'd put in a pickup truck.  I love the same drivers in the wood drums, though, and use them daily.

Norh Prisms - Extremely cool looking speakers, extremely not sounding right in my shitty room.  Let's face it, shitty rooms are the real disappointment, but good ones mean dough I don't have, and real estate agents.  Still, I choose to blame the speakers for the benefit of this shitty gear thread.

Gallo Nucleus Reference 3.0(?) - The sauce pans were not doing it for me, but their older spherical brothers shall not be parted from me willingly, even though I could use the money.  Bring back the balls and cans Mr. Gallo! *sniff*

Stupidest things ever purchased:
$70 lump of sorbothane which cleans dust off the stylus.
$400 worth of silver interconnect cables.  By far the biggest disappointment of all.  But luckily it was like touching a hot stove, as I have not done anything that stupid since then.  They were very pretty, though.

[batmanslc2]

HEADPHONES, I spent 4-5 months lurking at head fi and bought some great cans and amp, nothing wrong w the equipment, sounded good, just hated to put them on my head, sold it all in a week.

I also had the same problem w silver interconnects, given up on that

the belles 150A did nothing for me

Mackie HR824 >>> i kept telling myself they were good ??? why did i do that??

[Rick Craig]

Adcom GFA-555

Rave review in Stereophile, it was affordable and powerful, but hard and thin sounding...

[Scottdazzle]

My house. Let me explain. When we moved into our current house in 2001, the boys were little and I got the big family room with good acoustics for music.  Within a few years, my wife and the boys evicted me in favor of a home theater system.    I now have a smallish bedroom for a music man cave.  The room has taken much effort (placement, GIK pedestals and tables, real traps, corner traps, etc.,) just to get acceptable.  The next time we move, I'm getting a room I like and an iron-clad commitment! 

[Freo-1]

Adcom GFA-555

Rave review in Stereophile, it was affordable and powerful, but hard and thin sounding...

Yep.  Had one, and noticed the same issues. 

Wound up with a Nakamichi PA-7.  Same output at 8 ohms, but much smoother sounding.

[Nuance]

My house. Let me explain. When we moved into our current house in 2001, the boys were little and I got the big family room with good acoustics for music.  Within a few years, my wife and the boys evicted me in favor of a home theater system.    I now have a smallish bedroom for a music man cave.  The room has taken much effort (placement, GIK pedestals and tables, real traps, corner traps, etc.,) just to get acceptable.  The next time we move, I'm getting a room I like and an iron-clad commitment! 

Why not combine the two?  Its not "ideal," but many of us family men have had to compromise by doing this.  In most cases it has turned out pretty well.  Of course, nothing beats a dedicated room for both.

[Rocket]

Hi,

Well I feel that I'm almost done with hifi and probably won't be upgrading in the near future.

1999 - I bought an N.E.W. dc 66 amplifier and I struggled with this battery powered amplifier for a number of years.  Eventually changing the batteries that cost me $600 to replace but I kept having problems with the recharge circuit. Prior to replacing the batteries I would get about 2 hours of play from them until recharge kicked in (about 8 hours to recharge the batteries).  After the batteries were cooked because of a problem with the recharge circuit it sat at the hifi shop for a number of years.  Eventually I sent it to a guy in Brisbane and its been there for about 2 years.  He was supposed to send it back to me but no luck at this stage.

2005 - I bought a ps audio hca 2 direct from the US.  I read many many positive reviews and I only read one that was negative.  Guess what the one negative review was spot on the amplifier didn't sound good to my ears at all.  I replaced some caps in the signal path and I had all sorts of problems.  Sending the amplifier back and from the US and having someone upgrade the amplifier for me cost another $1500au.  Anyway this amplifier does work and sounds fairly reasonable in my system but has cost me a ton of money to fix.

2007 - I bought a Son of Ampzilla and this amp has worked flawless for me with no problems.

2009 - the upgraditis bug got me again and reared its head for me and I decided to import the Ampzilla 2000 monoblocks from the US.  I bought these new thru a dealer but initially they were configured for US voltage and they swapped the transformers for me and checked that they operated for aussie voltage.  Well they didn't work at all and I think I've listened to them for 10 minutes after spending $6000US.  In the process the dealer and manufacturer had a falling out and the dealer doesn't offer the products anymore.

I live in Perth Western Australia and a repairer in Melbourne (2000 miles away) promised that he would be able to fix the amps for me.  They have been in Melbourne since Mid November and the guy doesn't respond to my emails and his phone is continually on answer machine.  I leave messages all the time and when I leave a message I'm always really polite (even though I feel a bit frustrated).  I did talk with the repairer about 4 weeks ago and he promised to have them fixed in the next couple of weeks.  He did tell me that he was snowed under at the moment.

I am being unfair that I feel a bit disgrunted?  Anyway I'm now pondering flying to Melbourne to see if I can collect my amps.  Btw I contacted the manufacturer and I have now voided my warranty because a non approved repairer has opened the amps  .

Now I will say on a positive note that the only time I've been truely satisfied with an Overseas manufacturer has been Jim Salk.  The speakers arrived perfectly and perform very well.

As a consequence of my frustration I have taken up a new hobby and I'm now a comeback trumpet player and eagerly expecting a custom made trumpet from the US.  Hopefully there won't be any electrical problems with this instrument  .

Regards

Rod

[Gopher]

My biggest disappointment came on one of the most expensive components I've purchased new.  During my first year of law school I bought a Meridian G08 which I had hopped would be my end all source after hearing it briefly in a headphone system and being wow'ed.

I burned it in, rolled ICs, tubes in my preamp, nothing brought it to life.  Was ultimately a huge let down.  Fortunately it was when the source was JUST out and I managed to recoup everything I'd spent.   

[lcrim]

Rod:
I'vealways enjoyed your posts over the years.  You've been around this site since the beginning  and even through the bad luck you've had importing US equipment, you never seemed to get really down or negative about things. 
I hope you continue to check in from time to time to let us know how you're doing.

[John151]

The only audio gear that was a big let down was the NAD T-762 Receiver.  Loved the looks, design, operation, but the digital HT circuits started having issues after a few years, causing pops in the speakers.  This issue got worse over time, to the point where the unit whould shut down after sending a pop to the speakers.  I then reconfigured my system to use the NAD soley as an amp, which worked until the amps started to fail.  I got it out of the system before it blew any speakers (lucky it never did).    I googled my issues, and it appears that I was not alone with having these issues with the NAD T-762.

[Rocket]

Hi Icrim,

Even though I've had my ups and down with some of the gear I have purchased over the years I have to say that the current issue with the Ampzilla's have really made me feel disillusioned  .  I do have a brother in Melbourne and I may just have to get him to collect the amplifier for me if the electronics repairer isn't contactable.

The amplifier was bought because I was after a high powered amplifier to use with a low efficiency pair of speakers that I may buy in the next couple of years and I was hoping this would be me last amplifier in the foreseeable future.  I have a Son of Ampzilla and it has worked flawlessly in my system for 5 years.  I've paid the amp off now but I haven't had the opportunity to even hear it running properly in my system.

Anyway I will update my post if and when I bet this sorted out.

Regards

Rod