Your most disappointing purchase or audition?


I've had a few.

bought a Naim Nait 3. Loved it in the store. Returned it within a week- way forward at home

Brought home some CJ preamp to audition perhaps 22 years ago. Noisy as anything and a turn off transient destroyed a tweeter (though years later i bought a CJ 17LS2 which I thought was the finest preamp I ever heard in my home)

Auditioned a VPI table (HW19) in a store- the store just could not get the belt to stay on. Bought a Rega instead. This was in perhaps 1990.

Fortunately, I never really experienced buyers remorse say 6 months or more after settling on a piece of gear.

Finally, there have been too many speakers that got stellar write ups which I just didn't care for.
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I wanted to add, I talked to Ralph of Atmasphere on the phone over the last couple of days, not about this issue of tubes108, However, we talked about some other issues, and considering his thoughts on the matters we talked about, I believe Ralph is innocent here!, he also through this thread did his best as far as I can read to remedy the matter to satiesfy the customer beyound what most others would care to do!cheers.
Low expectations, amazing results: McIntosh MC275. Sounded so-so in the store. Sounded amazing at home.

Highest expectations, failed hopes: McIntosh C2500 sounded great in store, very so-so when brought home even after 100 hours.

Amazing audition, blew my socks off: Audio Research Reference tube pre, Anthem solid state monoblocks, Rockport Avior speakers. Couldn't bring home because of a $100K+ price
Wow ,you didn't like you Large Advents ,I always thought they sounded pretty good .I still have a pair but havent hooked them up in a while .I only paid like $80 bucks for them .
Emotiva upa 1L mono blocks these amps blew about 7 times trying to power my Magnepan 1.7 speakers.
I had expected much better since they were rated so high in wattage at both 8&4 ohms.
I've had a few bummers over the years. The two biggest disappointments that come to mind are the Pass Labs X250.5, and the Reference 3A De Capo.