Other than my mid fi HT gear, which i Iiked but always has horrible resale due to format and connectivity obsolescence, the following are my worst purchases:
Cheap BDplayers- my 1st Blueray player, Samsung , sounds horrible on music and is worth nothing on resale market.
Tom Evans Groove - lived with it for about 7 yrs, never happy with the sound and could never get rid of the hum picked up from my pre amps transformer.
2yrs after buying it used, one channel went out and the really wierd US distributor charged me $900 to have Tom fix it, plus i had to send it back to England myself. Finally bit the bullet and bought a Zesto which fixed the hum and was significantly better sounding. Even tho I bought groove at 50% off $4000 retail, I still took a 35% loss to sell it not including the $900 repair.
Tom generally has a very good rep, so don't want to bash his company, but the Groove was not a good fit in my system.
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Grado PH-1 phono stage. Worst sounding phono stage I have heard. Other than that, I have had good luck. |
"You didn't learn your lesson after the first one? Or the second one........? Shakey"
It must've really sounded good. |
"For me, all 3 came to Audio Research VT100! I got all 3 versions and they all needed repairs after repairs!!"
You didn't learn your lesson after the first one?
Or the second one........?
Shakey |
Interesting, two posters have already mentioned the TT Weights Black Onyx. It's mere supposition, but I can't imagine that there are too many of them out there. This can't be good......... |
"Blowing boards all the time until it was too hard to repair! I wonder if I am the only unlucky one?"
Mine blew up and pieces flew out the top and hit me in the face while I was sitting in my listening chair. It was kind of funny. And a good excuse to upgrade. |
For me, all 3 came to Audio Research VT100! I got all 3 versions and they all needed repairs after repairs!! Very good sounding amp but just poorly designed. Blowing boards all the time until it was too hard to repair! I wonder if I am the only unlucky one? |
TTWeights black onyx- very poor design Canary 339- overpriced Atma sphere s-30- can't drive good headphones |
TTWeights black onyx- very poor design Canary 339- overpriced Atma sphere s-30- can't drive good headphones |
Thanks for your support :) |
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To sum up... Is my system perfect? No. Do my speakers go very low and very high? No. Do they have full coherence through their frequency range? Yes!! Am I satisfied with it? Fully %100! (Until I move) Am I an Audiophile? Apparently not. Am I a Music lover? Yes, %100 |
As Winston Churchill said, "My tastes are simple: I'm easily satisfied with the best" But really, I had decided on a SET based system, without hearing one prior. I finally decided upon a particular maker. My Preamp choice was complimentary by "specs". To be honest, most of my cables were somewhat quickly purchased here by choosing popular brands and models that would be easily resold when that part of the chain is ready to be more "refined" by listening, and given the fact that I am in a temporary small apartment, that will have to wait until I move. You can read the thread titled "calling all horn lovers" where I describe a pair of speakers that I have which are waiting in the wings to be for a larger location. A very well respected manufacturer, (and certainly by me) who shall remain nameless for now, said "You'll have about 100 percent chance chance of getting them wrong" That will be more challenging. We'll see in due time :) |
Iso 10-21-13: Isochronism Sentence example: You are delushioned with feelings of self grandeur. Think outside the padded cell :) 'Actually' very funny. |
Isochronism,
"Maybe I was just plain lucky or perhaps delushioned into thinking that it actually does sound good :)"
I was going to say that if it sounds good then it is good. It really can't be an illusion. But now I find that delushioned isn't a word. I'm pretty sure I understand what was meant by it, but it leaves me in a bad spot. By me using the word illusion in reference to the word delushioned, I can't help but think now I'm at fault. And I can tell you from experience, when something is at fault, its usually my fault.
While I'm trying to figure how to get myself out of the above mess, I have a question about how you put your system together. Maybe you are lucky, but the results are what matters. You have a system that you are happy with. What I want to know is, that if you didn't demo anything, and went just by reviews and opinions, how did you get around matters of personal taste? For example, I'm very sensitive to high frequencies. If a system doesn't get the HF's right, I can't listen to it. The point I'm trying to make is that without actual listening experience, I would have never known that. And that's just one example out of many different types of personal choices you need to make when building a system. Without any type of reference, how do you make those kind of decisions? |
Sentence example: You are delushioned with feelings of self grandeur. Think outside the padded cell :) |
Actually the correct verb is deluded.
The word delushioned does not exist. |
Zd542, I spent a few years of many nights reading of others more vast experiences on the internet and then researching many components. No auditioning of anything. I bought %95 of my system here in six months checking the ads everyday. Never sold or traded anything, what I bought I have and use. Maybe I was just plain lucky or perhaps delushioned into thinking that it actually does sound good :) |
"10-17-13: Isochronism Zd542, I had researched each component in my system at great length before purchase. I am happy with my culmination."
What kind of research did you do? Please share it with us. As far as I can remember, I think you are the first person that I've come across that hasnÂ’t made any mistakes when buying audio equipment. We all make mistakes with our systems. For the most part, that's our research. I know I joke around a lot, but please don't take offence. I really am curious as to how you do it.
Where I go wrong, and probably many others, is how to bridge the gap between all the research you do leading up to the purchase, and then face the reality of how the component performs over time. There are always qualities that don't reveal themselves until after you live with the piece for a while. |
Good one. You would know best. |
ttweight Black Onyx- poor speed control and very noisy, way overpriced Synergistic Research MIG- did nothing VPI Scout- lousy tonearm |
Wc65mustang, "Only the shallow know themselves"- Oscar Wilde |
Zd542, I had researched each component in my system at great length before purchase. I am happy with my culmination. |
"10-17-13: Isochronism The thread asks for worst purchases, .... not worst responses."
I agree. But unless you contribute your own list, you fall victim to your own statement.
Now, as far as the "d" goes, I think both of you guys make a good point. |
You don't know if the "d" key connected or not. That's your opinion.
If I were you, I'd familiarize myself with Oscar Wilde's take on assumption. |
Shakey, VAC seems to enjoy an inordinately high amount of customer satisfaction. What didn't you like? I've never heard them, just curious. |
Wc65mustang, Apparently the "d" key did not connect. Also apparently you are very hyper critical. You had PM'd me not long ago. The full body of your message was "move on" I had no idea what your problem was with me as gave no indication. Positives always out-weigh negatives. |
The thread asks for worst purchases, .... not worst responses. |
Actually he spelled obtuse and idiot correctly.
However you misspelled "and".
Don't sweat it though. That can be a tough one. |
I don't know if Shakey has a good sense of humor.
"Naw, I just sold it all because it didn't go with my decor."
That's really good. It got a good laugh out of me. But then he goes an spells obtuse wrong. |
I don't think he's obtuse Shakey just.............. |
Marantz PM72 integrated, quite a few years back. defective all the way, output transistors blew a couple of times, bad phono stage too.
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"Did you try and play music through any of that stuff? The tubes they put in those amps aren't the same kind of tubes you weld with."
Naw, I just sold it all because it didn't go with my decor.
Don't be an obtuse idiot.
Shakey |
"Yeah it is still hooked up, but it is turned off, (rarely ever turned on actually), and since I have 3 dedicated circuits, (one for my preamps, and analog source; another for my amps, and lastly, one for my digital sources), I have never felt that the Sony unit ever affected the sound."
It makes sense that you don't have any problems given the separate lines. I had mine on the same line as everything else. For me, a JPS Digital AC power cord fixed the problem. It has some type of a filter in it.
"10-14-13: Shakeydeal VAC PA 100/100 Meadowlark Shearwater HR Sonic Frontiers Power 2"
Did you try and play music through any of that stuff? The tubes they put in those amps aren't the same kind of tubes you weld with. |
VAC PA 100/100 Meadowlark Shearwater HR Sonic Frontiers Power 2
In no particular order, but they are definitely the top 3.
Shakey |
Hey Zd542,
Yeah it is still hooked up, but it is turned off, (rarely ever turned on actually), and since I have 3 dedicated circuits, (one for my preamps, and analog source; another for my amps, and lastly, one for my digital sources), I have never felt that the Sony unit ever affected the sound.
Thanks for the tip though. |
One of my lemons was the Klyne System 7 phono. Based on all the reviews and praise this should have been very good. It was blown away in terms of the level of detail, soundstage transparency, speed and timing quite comprehensively by both my modified 1960 Marantz 7 and also my 1980's Theta B tube preamp ( standard apart from some cap upgrades ).
The other was a Helius Cyalene tonearm purchased second hand that arrived covered in silicon and the antiskate broken, necessitating a rebuild from the factory. Either the seller covered the vertical pillar in silicon for ease of adjustment or the silicon inside the elastomer anti skate mechanism leaked. |
The problem is many worst purchases may be a result of a system mismatch of some sort, and is no reflection of the quality of the product itself In my opinion is a mismatch a problem with technical datas, for example the output of a Preamp does not match with the input of the connected amp. A total different story is the quality of Tone for example or speed problems with a turntable. Here you can find indeed a lot of units which accelerate depression. But at the end of day, there is a Fangroup for everything and a thread like this one is interesting. |
The problem is many worst purchases may be a result of a system mismatch of some sort, and is no reflection of the quality of the product itself. |
1. Sony S9000ES SACE/CD player. Terrible flat, sterile CD sound.
2.Plinus CD LAD. Another highly reviewed and rated extremely crappy sounding CD Player.
3.Cary SL-05 Preamp. Very weak sounding bass and treble despite tube rolling with some very expensive vintage tubes. |
. Audio Research SP9.... real thin sounding. I kept it 48 hours and sold it immediately.
Sunfire tube preamp...real thin sounding. I kept it 48 hours and sold it immediately.
Pass Labs X0-2 preamp...$10k retail...Audio Research Ref2 Mk2 stomped all over it. I sold it after two months. . |
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Huh? They're as viable and sound as many of the other comments. |
.....because the're not exactly "Moby Dick".... |
I no longer care. That's how unimportant this " hobby" has become to me. |
The worst of my purchases were early on: 1)I bought a pair of those direct-reflecting bose 501 to replace my $50 Pioneer two-ways, and returned them. Man, they were awful.
2)I did not realize how bad my (home-made) flexy rack sounded until it was replaced by a lighter, more wobbly ikea lack.
3) LFD Mistral looked good; sounded bad. Replaced with a far better SA-2000, which of course broke. |
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Aragon 2004 MkII - very clean sound with tight bass but lifeless, not musical at all
Sonic Frontiers Power 2 - sounded OK but the selector switch went bad. I emailed Chris J from Parts Connexion who confirmed an issue with the cheap plastic switch for a small percentage of his amps but he refused to cover repairs (although was not under warranty). Would have thought a $5000 amp would not use $6 plastic selector switches. My friend, a good tech, needed 8 hours to under wires, boards.... to replace a simple switch. Terrible design if you ask me. I sold this beast and acquired Monarchy Audio class A amps which cost less and sound considerably better
NAD C542 cd player - great HDCD sound, CD is average. Skipped almost from the get go. Found out NAD had serious issues with early production runs of this player. My friend also had 2 other more current NAD cd players - both having issues. I will never purchase another NAD cd player
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Why are you not publishing my comments? |
guess i'm better than most, w/ no horror stories. my list... 1) soundlab U2s---just took me getting them installed in my home to know i hate stats. no cojones. 2) audioquest redwoods ---these cables were single handedly responsible for another $25k worth of upgrades due to their transparency. damn things. 3) nimbus isolation stand---the mad scientist isolation platform, about as high maintenance as a coked-up supermodel, but it did work well. |