[Mike-48]

Things that just don't work in stupid ways, even when new. Here are some examples (none from Bryston, but all from other respected high-end manufacturers):

1. A power amp with an audible mechanical hum from the power transformer, and that the mfgr couldn't fix. Why bother with an 80 dB S/N ratio if your gear makes noise?

2. A power conditioner with the same affliction.

3. A CD transport that wouldn't read gold CDs, most CD-RWs, and a random selection of normal CDs.

4. A DAC that makes noise when a particular feature is turned off.

5. Any streaming music player that won't do gapless playback and/or won't pause and resume.

6. All promised manufacturer's updates that never arrive.

7. Any item with a display that can't be read by the average 60-year-old from more than 1 meter away.

And a couple of general ones:

8. Software without manuals, even online ones.

9. The big fuss made over DSD playback, when SACD's are almost impossible to rip; DSD is almost impossible to edit (meaning most DSD releases have been converted to PCM and back again); and the downloads take up an entire hard disk.

And, I do join others in bemoaning the terrible quality of most pop and jazz recordings these days.

[Guy 13]

Hi Mike in NC and all Audio Circle members.
A 54 pages instruction manual that is only available via the Internet when your computer
and device to be programmed are far apart.
Burning hot power transformer that the manufacture say it's normal, no problem.
Some manufacturers will even say that a burning hot transformer works better
when at it's opimal burning hot temperature.
Extended drivers that needs 500 hours to settle in.
Any connecting device that has microscopic wires and screws.
Especially thrue with Made in China products.
Products new out of the box that already needs software up date.

Guy 13

[bladesmith]

A vender ( who will remain anonymous. ) sells me a new amp, it comes to me in the mail, broken. I send it back, paying for shipping, both ways, (rude I thought.) Then I get the amp a second time,  breaks again, and now he will not respond to my emails.

Welcome to the  "high-end audio world of integrity".

[stereocilia]

Stupidest thing ever: speakers for sale in big-box stores "priced as each, sold as pairs."

[stereocilia]

Oh, and this one.  RCA connectors.  The ground disconnects while the signal is still connected every time it's plugged or unplugged. BZZZ!  So derpy.

[Guy 13]

Hi all Audio Circle members.
You get into in a audio store
and the salesmen greet you
and ask you want you want.
You tell him that you have a 500$ budget for an audio system,
then the first thing he shows you is a 1,000$ system.
What do you do?
A) Ask him if he's deft?
B) Walk out the store and mumble : What a jerk!
C) Tell him face to face if he's a graduate from the university of stupidity?
D) While smiling, you tell him politely (While grinding your theet),
if he has 500$ systems?
E) You punch him in the face and what to be arrested.
Any more suggestions?

Guy 13
 

[R. Daneel]

I like to collect audio cassettes. Not prerecorded ones but unused blank ones that are still in their original wrapper. I have a few hundred, ranging from super-rare ones like the TDK OD from 1979 and Sony LN which originates from the 1960s. Then there are some really cool Goldstar, JVC, Maxell, That's, Agfa, Aiwa and other tapes that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere. I also have those that are considered the best sounding ones like the Sony Super Metal Master and TDK MA-XG. All of them demand careful handling and proper storage and good quality electronics to take full advantage of them. Some of my friends are astounded to find an analog tape "everyone is now getting rid of" can sound better than their CD player. That is the reply I usually get but this whole hoby is not without it's shortcomings and some of these tapes are so rare that if I were to actually use them, they would really be impossible to replace.

I used to collect walkmans but I have recently downsized the entire collection to only a few models which sounded the best to me. It's an interesting but exhausting and sometimes frustrating hobby.

Cheers!
Antun 

[Guy 13]

I like to collect audio cassettes. Not prerecorded ones but unused blank ones that are still in their original wrapper. I have a few hundred, ranging from super-rare ones like the TDK OD from 1979 and Sony LN which originates from the 1960s. Then there are some really cool Goldstar, JVC, Maxell, That's, Agfa, Aiwa and other tapes that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere. I also have those that are considered the best sounding ones like the Sony Super Metal Master and TDK MA-XG. All of them demand careful handling and proper storage and good quality electronics to take full advantage of them. Some of my friends are astounded to find an analog tape "everyone is now getting rid of" can sound better than their CD player. That is the reply I usually get but this whole hoby is not without it's shortcomings and some of these tapes are so rare that if I were to actually use them, they would really be impossible to replace.

I used to collect walkmans but I have recently downsized the entire collection to only a few models which sounded the best to me. It's an interesting but exhausting and sometimes frustrating hobby.

Cheers!
Antun

Hi Antun and all Audio Circle.
After 30 years of loyal service, my Nakamichi BX100 died.
I have been told by different repair men that it's un-repairable,
because parts are not available.
I still have some cassettes in un-open original wrap, it even has the price tag marked The Sony Store $ 3.49
With a low price like that, I am sure they are not hi-end cassettes.
They are Sony Metal SR 90
TYPE IV Metal bias 70us EQ for ULTRA High Quality Recording.
They say !
I think I have about ten of them.
I keep them because one day I will find a tape cassette player and record my favorite music.
I have VHS video cassettes that are still lockable, even after 30 years.
I just hope my JVC VHS player will not fail soon.

Guy 13
 

[rollo]

One other great curiosity is folks arguing from audiophile 'theory' (which they mostly make up as they go along) aguing against someone's practical experience with thier own equipment.
Like the person who actually did the experiment has to be wrong, becuse the other persons' made up theory says it has to be wrong.

This is a real problem if it was not so funny and stupid at the same time.

  Spot on Elizabeth, spot on.


charles

[Devil Doc]

Opinionated audiophiles, but that's redundant, isn't it?

Doc

[turnovertherecord]

Can not find or understand why there is no remote that I understand for my CD player

SL-P1200X

[viggen]

Just adding to what elizabeth said: "bits are bits".

Some hifi brick and mortar stores I've been to are just flat out depressing.  Sales guys trying to sell yesteryear products at future land prices while complaining about kids not appreciating hifi and everything else going wrong in their lives.  I should charge them for "couch" time.

[rockadanny]

Compressed recordings.

+1 Jim. That, and otherwise just rotten recordings. Disgustingly unecessary. Probably my biggest gripe of all.

[viggen]

+1 Jim. That, and otherwise just rotten recordings. Disgustingly unecessary. Probably my biggest gripe of all.

Actually, yes, that is THE BIGGEST PET PEEVE EVER.

It seems like the majority of the music industry has absolutely no respect for the average music consumer as they keep manufacturing crappy recordings. 

I don't know if it's just me but just about every redbook CD coming out of Taiwan and Japan sounds great.  But, CDs here in the states mostly sounds compressed.

So, it seems like recording engineers in other countries have a great deal more respect for their audience.

This is almost just like Ford pre 2008 putting out crappy cars in the domestic market but selling up market cars in european markets.  Purely a matter of respect or should I say disrespect for the domestic market.

[HsvHeelFan]

Unless you have a good system, you can't tell what the crap recordings are!

For me, that's the whole point of high end audio. 

Before I bought my Bryston, all recordings pretty much sounded the same.  With the 4B-ST, if it's poorly recorded, it is REALLY obvious to me.

In fact, some things that I used to listen to, I don't listen to as much because the sorry recording quality gets in the way.

I like that sweet spot combination of a stellar recording with a terrific performance.  If the performance is exceptional, it can trump a a recording that isn't top notch.

For instance, I have a number of recordings of music from "Victory at Sea".  The Cincinnati Pops did  several of those charts in the early 90's. The recording is to Telarc's usual high standards.  The performance just lays there though.  So, when I need a "Victory at Sea" fix, what do I listen to?  The recordings from the late 50's.  The performance of that recording is so much better from an overall musical point of view that just isn't there on the modern recording.

Same for Respighi's "Roman Festivals".  The one I prefer is the late 50's recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Sure, it's not a perfect, modern, recording, but the performance gets it done.

HsvHeelFan

[Don_S]

Friends who promise to invite me over to hear their system after they get it dialed in---then never get it dialed in.   

[Don_S]

Pretty voices with nothing to say. 

I just finished listening to a compilation Best Audiophile Voice III.  What a total yawn of lounge lizard chicks with no hint of emotion and lyrics as bland as stale white bread.   

[bladesmith]

Pet peeve,  oh yea, listening to my 'Alison Krauss' radio on iTunes radio.  They play one AK tune, then go to playing country. I mean,  wtf.   

[R. Daneel]

Hi Antun and all Audio Circle.
After 30 years of loyal service, my Nakamichi BX100 died.
I have been told by different repair men that it's un-repairable,
because parts are not available.
I still have some cassettes in un-open original wrap, it even has the price tag marked The Sony Store $ 3.49
With a low price like that, I am sure they are not hi-end cassettes.
They are Sony Metal SR 90
TYPE IV Metal bias 70us EQ for ULTRA High Quality Recording.
They say !
I think I have about ten of them.
I keep them because one day I will find a tape cassette player and record my favorite music.
I have VHS video cassettes that are still lockable, even after 30 years.
I just hope my JVC VHS player will not fail soon.

Guy 13
 

Those Sonys are good. What colour is the wrapper? If it's a green one, then it was the last Metal-SR that was available only in US while the rest moved onto the Metal-XR. If it's the black wrapper, those are really good tapes. The price you mention is irrelevant because a Sony Metal Master cost 12$ back then and now they are sold for 50$ or more on the internet.

There is no such thing as an unfixable cassette deck. Depending on your location, I can recommend a number of good service technicians that would bring your Nakamichi back to life.

I am considering of getting a Nakamichi as well because I never really had one and the awesome 600 series was released long before I was born.

[Guy 13]

Those Sonys are good. What colour is the wrapper? If it's a green one, then it was the last Metal-SR that was available only in US while the rest moved onto the Metal-XR. If it's the black wrapper, those are really good tapes. The price you mention is irrelevant because a Sony Metal Master cost 12$ back then and now they are sold for 50$ or more on the internet.

There is no such thing as an unfixable cassette deck. Depending on your location, I can recommend a number of good service technicians that would bring your Nakamichi back to life.

I am considering of getting a Nakamichi as well because I never really had one and the awesome 600 series was released long before I was born.

Hi R. Daneel and all Audio Circle members.
Please find below one of the eight (08) cassettes I have.
Wow ! I did not know that I had a little fortune on my audio shelves.
I don't think I will offer them for sales,
because one day I would like to get my Nakamichi fixed.
My location is on planet Vietnam.
Here they cannot repair it, as a matter of fact,
they made things worst by loosing a little belt for the time counter.
May I ask you to give me one or two names of good, honest,
knowledgeable technicians that can fix my Nakamichi BX100,
the problem as something to do with the belts
and/or the pulley(s) according to the Vietnamese technician.
One day, I will go back to my home country Canada
and get it fixed so I can record some music,
because with vinyl, cassettes can last a very long time.
I have some VHS cassettes that were recorded more than 25 years ago
and they still play fine.
Waiting for your recommendations.
Thanks.

Guy 13