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Your top 3 worst purchases ever


Hopefully none from me!

While many are asking what are the best preamps, best amps, best this or best that, wouldn't it be nice for others to know our worst nightmares with certain products?

:-)

My top 3s are:

1) Kora Eclipse preamp
From an Canadian member, the preamp arrived DOA. SInce it was shipped from Canada, return shipping cost and logistics are typically expensive and brutal. So the preamp was sent to a self-proclaimed Kora fan and expert in VA. Turned out, the repair cost was way more than I bargain for. The seller refused to fund it adequately. Ended up a super overpriced purchase with 2 months down time. Lesson learnt: Just return anything that is DOA even the seller talks sweet and offers to repair it to save you money.

2) Kora Galaxy Reference power amp
From the same Canadian member, this unit arrived with all output tubes mixed up. The amps kept blowing fuses and overheat. Bias pots do not work. Again, I was too nice to have it 'repaired' at seller's expense. Not a single penny was collectible from this seller, however. The unit was sent to the same Kora 'guru' who wasted near a grand of my money to fix it - turned out nothing was fixed, the unit suffered additional shipping damages, and I was labelled as a tube idiot by this repairman who just conned me $1k. Out of total frustration, I hammered the amp into pieces and sold it as scrap for $4 in Audiogon. That's a near $3k loss! Lesson learnt: Take anger management class.

3) Krell PAM-3 dual-mono preamp
Arrived working for first few days with noisy volume pot, then the unit caught on fire - the caps melted with lots of tar inside. Seller refused to take it back obviously since it was not DOA. Sent to Krell for repair, only to be told the repair estimate was near $3k (including $350 return shipping cost from Connecticut to New Jersey - $250 of which is for a Krell shipping box). Made perfect sense to me when I had purchased it for $550.

What are your lemons?
bsimpson
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
Mark Levinson No. 23 amp. Nothing but problems with this dud of an amp. The first unit went up in smoke. The second one overheated and shut off. When driving Apogee speakers (which love power) I kept blowing ribbons. And the sound was complete dullsville. Muffled and closed-in. You needed a lot of EQ to open up the sound.

Ensemble mini monitors. This speaker was made by the Swiss company Ensemble. It got great reviews and it was supposedly Swiss made. So, I figured why not? Anyway, I was appalled by the build quality. Hollow cabinet, and what looked like a styrafoam cup for the midrange/woofer. And the sound was dreadful. Dull, muffled, no dynamics whatsoever. Flat as a pancake. They were driven by an FM Acoustics 611 amp, so it wasn't the amps fault even though the stupid dealer insisted that it was.

Goldmund Mimesis 12 dac: This got a great review in TAS. I bought it used. Build quality was ok, but the sound was very restrained, not dynamic, and uninvolving. A real turd in my book.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
I bought a name brand amp on ebay from someone on some Caribean Island once.

It worked fine but physical condition was quite shabby and dirty beyond anything expected. It looked like it was used in some tropical jungle shack by a group of heavy smokers!

I polished and cleaned it up myself inside and out and got it looking pretty good as well.

Over-payed for the condition it was in originally, but not a horrible deal. Sold it a good bit later after using it for a while when I decided to move on, in much better physical condition for close to what I payed, so happy ending for all I suppose, though I would not have pulled the trigger had I known the true condition going in.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
1) Jennifer Warnes "Famous Blue Raincoat". Some good things came out of it though; I learned that many audiophiles are idiots. Horrible music enshrined in early digital sound. She makes Krall, Cole, Monheit, et al sound like Fitzgerald and Washington.

2) CD player and CDs. Yes, I was an early adopter, well kinda anyway. I ponied up for the new format and a handfull of CDs. I was cured after the first few minutes. I finally bought in again when Rega released the Planet. I guess we both ended up being late adopters.

3) Low efficiency speakers. Don't get me started. I started reading the mags in the late 1960s and ate up every word. A long sucession of unhappiness until finally finding solace in very high sensitivity speakers. Probably not right for everyone - nor does everyone have the room, but I'm finally off of the merry-go-round. Kinda.
timrhu
2,778 posts
 
1) Jennifer Warnes "Famous Blue Raincoat". Some good things came out of it though; I learned that many audiophiles are idiots. Horrible music enshrined in early digital sound. She makes Krall, Cole, Monheit, et al sound like Fitzgerald and Washington.
Viridian

Hmmm, I thought it was just me. Lackluster performance of some great music IMO.
baranyi's avatar
baranyi
664 posts
 
AMR CD 77 was one the worst purchases. It was only marginally better than a playstation. I would have sworn the playstation was the simplified version of this CD player. Got caught up in the 6 moons review and paid dearly for the privilege. When I tried to sell it used the importer fabricated a story about my unit so he could sell a unit directly to my eventual buyer.

Hcat preamp. Ok, I am a sucker! Luckily I was able to return it. Even went to the designer's house to hear the Doppler effect. Some people will go to any lengths!

TRL Marantz SA 14. I liked the SA 14 unmodified. I spent the money for the mod based on the 500 post Audiogon thread. I found it sounded very mechanical after it was modded. I took a bath on resale and it took forever to sell.
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