Is there any bad sounding high-end gear--?


I was reading the thread here today about biased reviewers-
it got me thinking, out of the stuff which is reviewed in the publications which serve the high-end arena, is there really any bad sounding gear?----I am talking about from what I call the golden era of High-end, 1990---2000, stuff from the major players like ARC, CJ, Krell, MLevinson, Jadis---etc-----I use this time frame as this was the pre-Chinese era when most gear was from the US, we also saw stuff from Italy, France and Swiss made stuff.

When I have purchased something and not liked it, I always struck it up to a system mismatch----

If anyone can provide what they bought and really thought it was terrible, I'd be interested to know what it was.
justlisten

Showing 1 response by systembuilder

I personally agree completely that the 90's were the best time for audio based on several facts.

The Computer revolution had made many parts available and resources for higher grade parts available at prices that were never seen before

There was finally an upturn in the economy after the 80's were I dont think 1 decent car was made IMHO amongst other products and there was finally a demand for quality products along all spectrums

Computers showed many people that their computer would play their beaten CD's that would skip in cheap players and started realizing the capabilities of HIFI that would have never made such a connection (Late 90's but before Y2K)

Also there was a greater selection of tubes available at the time and there is still a great one but when you design a product you need a TON of tubes on hand at all times.

Also theater hadnt dominated nor had MP3's Which have led to IDocks and HTIB's Running the industry

Also one last point a company like the good guys could still exist where they sol some decent gear as well, Now I dont know of another Chain besides Best Buy, I hear there are still a few magnolias (Owned by Best Buy)

Now adays it seems like everyone sold out and you have to find the cool independent folks or go with golden age and maintain it unless you have an awesome budget IMHO