Your most disappointing purchase or audition?

Magico Q5 (dead, lifeless, thin, analytic and far away from a reproduction of a real sounding tone)

say the Pass Labs X 250.5. I used it in single ended mode, which I was told later was not optimum, although I never read that in all of my pre-purchase research. I bought it and auditioned it with 5 different speakers in my system, and in each case, the sound was thin and electronic. It was a really shocking disappointment.

Here are some units listed which are absolutely the opposite from sound quality what is written in their "reviews".
The golden rule is, EVERY unit gets a positive review, be it awful sounding or good sounding. The vocabulary will be the same (and is identical). Blind buy is really dangerous, the majority is really down at the docks....

When I did own Pass units I was sitting in a Demo listening to the latest Pass amps, at that time it was the "X" series and it was exactly as described. Ultra boring for me, so unbelievable dead that I could not believe that the same guy made the outstanding Aleph amps. Anyway, left side was a Pass Fan and he asked me what I think about those super-duper-reviewed amps, I lied and said "amazing". He loved me from one second to the next, smiled and told me his impressions about the "super soundstage", the "holographic detail" and so on and that they are M-U-C-H better than the model before (which I also knew very well). When I listened his explanations I really was interested to know what he did smoke that made him speaking about abilities which were simply not present. I mean, I was right beside him.

You see, there is a Fangroup for everything out there.

Going by your extensive equipment list, I'm guessing you are a Dealer or Distributor who does not represent Magico....

I am a private consumer, no commercial interests. I did a long listening with those speakers and the result is written. I think it is important, that someone can write his personal opinion about something, we all know how the audiophile community works: 5 Audiophiles--> 6 opinions :-) and it is wrong to create personal conflicts about a commercial product which will be replaced sooner or later anyway. The real deal today was and is marketing, the worst turntable Design for me is Linn LP12 and they sold it very successfully. so, I am pretty lonely with my opinion about that unit...

Such threads are always a bit "cruel" because there will be always someone who loves exactly this product which is a disappointment for the next. But it is always about a product, nothing more. When someone takes "this" critic/disappointment as a personal slap in the face, well, I feel sorry of course. On the other side, I have no problem with Wilson speakers....but when someone wants to know what kind of speakers in that Magico price range are "better" for me --> Verity Audio Speakers. But as usual: Each his own :-)

Lyra Kleos (very limited reproduction range)