What about a product can irritate you, other than the sound?
I thought of this today while attemting to install a new pair of cables. The cables came out of the package in the shape of a Slinky and no amount of bending them, shaping them, stretching them or otherwise trying to reshape them would do any good... they are permanently shaped like a big telephone cord.
I find cables that aren't installation-friendly to be incredibly irritating.
Power switches on the back are, purportedly, so the component is left on all the time... there's also some macho marketing involved methinks. The switch in front wouldn't bother the "on all the time" scheme now, would it:)
Ok, I’ve moaned about this before, but it bugs me enough to moan about it again. My single greatest cause of endless consternation with any of this audio stuff stems from the fact that the remote codes for my preamp and for my HT receiver have some “unfortunate overlaps,” let’s say. Background-wise, I’m running a dedicated 2-channel system with a HT add-on, for lack of a better word. The 2-channel stuff is nicer, while the HT stuff feeds into the pre-amp from the HT pre-outs and there you go. So, when watching movies, everybody is on and working. My former pre-amp had a HT bypass loop, which was nice. The new one doesn’t. Normally, this would be fine, simply dial in the pre-amp at zero gain (more or less), balance the channel levels at the receiver at that benchmark, and it’s done. HOWEVER, the remote volume control code on the pre-amp is the same as the one for the HT receiver (like to get my hands on the genius that came up with that one…). As if that’s not enough, dimming the display on the HT receiver mutes the pre-amp; standby on the pre-amp turns on the HT receiver; etc. . . .
Imagine if you will – lights are dimmed, it’s movie time! Wonder of wonders, it occurs to me to dim the display on the receiver and, VIOLA, the pre-amp is muted. Mains? You wanted to listen to the main speakers, too? Nope. Wanna turn down the volume? Joke’s on you (well, me) – try and do it from the remote and it changes the volume on both the receiver and the pre-amp and all that careful channel balancing is out the window. Ok, so you’ve had enough of the movies and just want to turn on the pre-amp – but no, you get the HT receiver, too. Right, so you learn to turn on the pre-amp by hand, that’s fine, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you can use the remote to turn it off because, that’s right, it’ll only turn the receiver on. Mercy.
Moral of the story is: Plinius and Marantz, two great tastes that donÂ’t go great together. Bastards.
A follow up on my last post - I just read an ad for someone selling some speakers that said the company "offers no discounts under any circumstances". Sure enough, I checked the company's website and it said the same thing. Well, guess what. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AM I DOING BUSINESS WITH THAT COMPANY. This is directed against that Company (who shall remain nameless - email me if you gotta know) and NOT the Audiogon member who is selling his used speakers from this company. Kudos to him for circumventing that companys hard-line policies.
Another one is dealers who won't Sell to you over the phone/internet. I live in Montgomery, AL where there are really no high end audio stores. I must go to Birmingham, for example, to purchase McIntosh equipment. Fortunatly there IS a place called Audiogon............ever heard of it??? ;)
1 crowded rear panels 2 internal switches 3 humming components (like my new cable box) 4 $500 remote controls 5 waiting for tubes to warm 6 slow responding cd players 7 I hate CD case wrapping with the intensity of 1000 burning suns. 8 products with advertisements that claim the product will change my life more than a face to face with God.
Unhinging the CD case is a novel approach, but is removing the sticky tape that big of a deal? I admit I can't do it quickly without the aid of a blade, so I keep a pen knife handy. If you try to remove the tape lengthwise along the edge of the case, you'll have problems. I use the pen knife to peel up the tab at one end of the case. Then it's easy to peel up the tape along the first face of the case, then lift the whole thing off the edge of the case and then the other side in one piece.
Then I ball up all these lengths of tape, sticky side out, and use them to clean my stylus and de-lint my clothes so I look sharp while listening.
I know i'll get massacred with this one, but here goes. It's the extreme high prices of some ultra-hi-end audio. Can a $10,000 unit really be that much better than say a $1500 one? Don't get me wrong, I am not critisizing the that hi-dollar stuff - it just rubs me the wrong way. I used to collect coins, but I got turned off the hobby when some coins sold at over $1 million for ONE coin. (Of course maybe I should shut up - I own a $10,000 and $8500 lawn mowers - LOL - but I am a commercial cutter.
One little pet peeve I have about products is that they will sometimes suddenly perform miraculously immediately before totally failing. You go off to bed saying to yourself 'wow, the stereo really played music tonight'. The next day it blows up on you. If it was performing like rubbish the pain would be much less severe, and you would use it as an excuse to just buy something new anyway.
IEC's - aftermarket power cords never fit tight so you wonder when is one of these monsters going to fall out while jammin and send a tweeter across the room.
How about The titles on CD jewel cases being written so small , or in illegible script. Trying to read a track name in a relaxed low lighted listening room is close to impossible and unnecessary . The purpose of writing something is so we CAN READ IT.
one pre I used, had the two pre OUTputs on EITHER side of "pro in", at the back of the unit, the unit being large and deep of course (so, no visibility from front). So, 9/10 when I changed IC, one of the amps was mute OR one channel on one amp was mute -- and I'd invariably get a small heart attack wondering what the H blew and why... until I realised I'd connected the pro-in.
The Thiel engineering hurdle, as per Ketchup above. To visualise the problem, think of THICK cable and trying to screw it on UNDER each spkr, when the nut rolls away... majestic!
The Valve Conundrum, as per Redkiwi:
*Am I burning IN or burning OUT?????
The "deep class A" solid-state challenge:
*whether 'tis better to leave it on all the time and foot the bill and risk burn out if high ambient temperatures BUT enjoy the music at guise OR, switch it off/on as required and sleep at nights and stick to being PATIENT (until it reaches optimum operating conditions by which time it's usually other peoples' bedtime).
Redkiwi, my tube amps level off after an hour or two of play. Not so bad, and I will spend the 20 minute warm-in picking music, cleaning records, going to the john, making a sandwich, whatever. Allows for a nice chill session before I sit down for some listening.
I frickin' HATE phono cartridges that aren't threaded. I just can't deal with those tiny little nuts...too much fumbling that close to a fragile stylus/cant. They're a complete PITA during cart alignment. It would have to be one seriously incredible unthreaded cartridge to get me to buy it.
Valve gear in general. Drives me nuts I have to turn it on then wait 20 minutes for it to warm up before listening to it, and knowing that it will keep improving for a couple of weeks if I left it going that long. But if I leave it on all the time those expensive tubes I bought are just wasting away while I am at work. And then there is the fact that my tubes are always either gradually running in or running out. Yeah, yeah, I'm neurotic, I know. I should just accept that whatever state it is in it sounds better than the solid state equivalent - but it still bugs me.
The little EZCD tool may still be worth the money, 'cos half the time when I try to open a CD wrapper by sliding my thumbnail up and down, I end up with the functional equivalent of a paper cut trying to unhinge more of my fingernail. Those hurt. Especially when you immediately thereafter grab a fistful of buffalo wings...
It's amazing when you think about how absolutely vital the wheel is in OUR daily life. And then find out the ancient Egyptians built the Great pyramids without it and 13th century Mongols transported over 100,000 soldiers, support people, food, and construction equipment all over Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and Eastern Europe without it. And kicked everyone's arses who used them damn wooden donuts too!
I'm with Gunbei. I unhinge the CD jewel case and the tape peels right off.
I'm not with the anti-Sony crowd. I've owned at least 15 new Sony products in the last 10 years. I've had one failure. I'm not happy about the one failure, but 1 in 15 ain't bad considering the complexity of modern electronics products.
Rannagarden, every time I get new cable[s] to try out in my system I always think to myself "2 or 3 minutes". Yeah right! 15 minutes later, raw fingers, sweaty t-shirt and arising with stiff, creaky knees, I'm reminded how much I hate doing this. Changing out a component is often easier!
Having the rack to close to the back-wall, trying to connect any cable back of the equipment.
New $$ cables to connect! Eager to try them. But you can´t reach leaning over, can´t see properly from the side - as you have to many cables all over - your dearest calling that "the dinner is ready" - bad timing, but you re-position yourself, having a hard think; Maybe from this side? Nope, speaker in the way. But perhaps I can sqeeze behind it and reach? Get down on your knees - "dinner is getting cold" you hear from the kitchen - you break a sweat. Can...almost...reach. Sweat in palms gives you bad grip. Them other IC´s in the way to get a proper hold on the rca. The position you´re in gives you a bad pain in the back, but you´re determined. "We are eatiing. Would be nice to see you iiin here". Stupid...cable, you think lovingly. And connector is of a locking type. And not given slack enough to slide over the rca easy. And at the end of your fingertips you just don´t have the power to ram it on there. NOT very co-operative. You hear stirring from the dinner room. "I´m coming" you say with your... sweetest... possible... tonal voice. You can feel the heat on your forehead. You can almost see were you´re at. Must be done now, or you´ll kill my back. "What´s so important that it can´t wait until after dinner"? More of a statement than that of a question directed to you from the diner. FINALLY you get it on there - quick now, next one - you grab it with stiff movements, lean in. Yes, yes and THERE we go. You get up, back is soar, you wipe your upper lip. Damn it´s hot in here...
Fire the gear up. Set for ´cd´ and...no sound. What?! You realize in about three secs that you have the IC´s in phono. And not even given time to moan you find your sweetest, most dearingly flower of a woman standing in the doorway. Ready to drag you to the dinner table.
I´m getting a bigger listening room in a month...
Sony product failure is something I don't personally have much experience with, but I've heard about it from friends. None of them are audiophiles, and their Sony stuff always breaking was mass consumer Best Buy or Good Guys items.
Am I wrong to assume that this wouldn't be the case for something like an SCD-1 or the like? I don't think I've ever seen posts regarding high end Sony stuff taking regular dumps. Heheh.
Mezmo, yeah five seconds is damn quick. I'm somewhere between five and ten, because I'm always careful not to break anything when unhinging the lid. It's much better than picking at a plastic scab for 30 seconds, heheh.
Good luck with it Ray! Just go slow when unhinging the lid. I cracked a few when I first started experimenting.
I followed Tvad's link to the EZ Opener. For a buck fifty, that's something worth having around.
I agree with George. I used to have a Cardas Golden Cross IC that was one tough sumbitch to remove from the jacks. Especially if I only had SIDE-RACK-ACCESS! At that angle I was only using finger power.
My other pet peeve besides "tight terminators" is overly stiff and fat interconnects and power cords. I remember a few years ago, one of them fat cables was practically balancing my Bel Canto DAC1.1 in the air like a brick at the end of a fat pipe cleaner!
Working with skinny cables like the Audience AU24 or Kimber Illuminations D60 is great. They're so flexible you could probably tie them in a knot in your mouth with using only your tongue just like young chicks do with cherry stems. Hahah!
I am on the 'no Sony' list with Stuff4Sale above. 8+ years ago, I finally just put a stop to the bleeding. I had 4-5 products in a 2-year span that either arrived dead out of the box, or bit it in the first month of ownership. All new products. The poor craftsmanship and QC on top of their horrible CS permanently put them on the 'never again' list.
Gunbei, that's exactly the trick. The guy who showed it to me was a clerk at one of those mini-CD stores in the New Orleans airport. I bought a CD and he claimed he had a trick and was going to try to get into Guiness as the guy who could open the most CDs in the shortest time (or something equally useful...). So anyway, told him to open mine. Probably took him less than 5 seconds, unwrapped, untaped, clean, quick, no fuss, no muss. Now, I'm certainly not as fast, but it definitiely does the job.
I have a system for removing the wrapping from CDs that works well for me.
First, I run my thumbnail along the front crease where the spine[black plastic on some] and clear front lid join when closed. This is a natural gap that aids in splitting the plastic. From there it is easy to remove the rest of the wrapping.
Second, CDs usually only have that fun tape on one side. So I unhinge the pivot on the opposite side so the lid comes off the CD tray. The only thing holding it to the tray now is the tape, so all you have to do is pull it off the back of the tray, then using the full intact leftover tape as a handle, peel it off the lid.
Very quick and easy once you get the hang of it, and best of all the tape comes off in one piece. No more digging with your fingernail and smearing goopy glue all over the case.
DVD movies are another thing. An Xacto or pocket knife does the trick on those. Just cut a slit between where the front and back meet at the top and bottom of the case. Cut through the tape and wrapping. From there peel everything off. Not quite as neat as the CD trick, but it works just the same.
Stepped volume controls are the pits. It always seems the volume is too loud at one position and too quiet at the next one down. Also, any mechanical noises heard through the speaker, hum and hiss tick me off.
Other Thiel owners have no doubt struggled with this one: Binding posts under the speaker. What were they thinking?! If you want to swap cables you're basically stuck with repositioning your speakers. If you have them spiked through carpet it's an even bigger chore.
The only benefit I can see to putting the binding posts under the speakers is a slightly cleaner look, but I would trade that for convenience any day.
I have decided against trying different cables many times for this very reason... On second thought maybe it's a good thing.
Plastic wood! Any poor design choice. Regarding you cables - try using a hair dryer to straigten them out (assuming they have a vinyl casiing). Should do the trick.
Poor design/location of speaker binding posts even on high $$$$ speakers- really makes you wonder about what you don't see on the inside of the cabinet. Also on some amps.
Massive amps that don't have dual binding posts for bi-wiring.
For George with the ics problem---Did we mix up the contact cleaner with the super glue??? Recessed connectors of any kind--esp rf screw ones that Mr. Big Fingers hates. You know what burns my ass???___ (visual of me holding an arm down and my palm horizontal)--A flame about 'so-high'.
I once had a preamp that arrived DOA. It would light up, but there was no sound.
While not technically inclined, I always open DOA pieces just to make sure it is not something obvious like a ribbon cable that is not firmly seated or some other such thing. Well, on this unit there was not obviously wrong, so I sent the unit back to the manufacturer.
When it returned there was a note inside the box that said "No problem found"... but when I took the cover off the unit I found the mother board, which was green, was now blue. It had been changed.
Poor customer service: A lot can be forgiven from the above if there is someone at the company of manufacture who gives a hoot that you are not satisfied with their product. Everyone makes mistakes. But, if the company is unresponsive, rude, accusatory or otherwise unaccountable for their shortcomings, I find that totally unacceptable (not to mention irritating.)
My biggest are too-coarse or too-fine volume controls and tempermental remotes. The sticker on the CD edges also get to me so I echo Edesilva on that one.
The "Standby / On" toggle switch on the back of Joule Electra Vamp is located waaaay to close to the right speaker cable binding posts. Oh well. It sounds good, so I deal with it...
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