Mini DSP SHD studio for Dirac live room correction on my 2 ch rig. Placed prior to the DAC it was never able to "sync" with my system and made it sound a little "strange" and I lost the tube magic. I did hear a bit better bass and it fleshed out some details but I kept switching it off. I paid for 2 sessions of remote tuning.
What Gear Has Disappointed You?
While it's clearly not an absolute fact, we tend to have an expectation that a more expensive product should be better. Within a given brand it really should be a fact, but because there's a wide range of factors in play when it comes to pricing it's not necessarily true when comparing different brands. I think that it's fair to say that when we purchase a more expensive product we generally have an expectation that it'll perform better. In the cases where our experience confirms this belief it can be the result of the product actually being better and/or some expectation bias. In a sense, it doesn't really matter which it is.
With this in mind, have you ever purchased a product expecting it to be superior only find that it was clearly inferior in your experience?
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Years ago, worked my way up B&W’s speakers to Nautilus 800s. Mistake, they never sounded right in a 9X15 living room. Traded the B&Ws in on Wilson Watt-Puppy 7s. Perfect. Then went to Wilson Sashas, wonderful. Traded my Wilson Sasha’s on the Wilson Duettes when I moved to Florida. Duettes were lost in a large reflective room down here. Traded them in on some heavenly sounding Yvettes. Bought stillpoint ultras for the Yvettes. Maybe different but not better. They are under amps and stuff now. Just ordered a set of Wilson’s Acoustic Diodes. Will advise. Replaced my old original Shunyata Hydra 8 power conditioner with an Audioquest 5000. No improvement, back it went. Now have Shunyata Denali 2... sounds great. Love the Audioquest Hurricane power cords though. It’s been a great trip. |
Individual product: Naim Unitilite, $4000+ after 5 years CD stops working, 6 years the screen totally fails. Naim admit both are faults but still want $1000+ dollars to fix. Brand: Linn, ridiculous prices for ordinary products. Product type: high efficiency speakers never found one I liked most sound so bright (horns) I can't listen or so dull why would you bother.
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Over the years I have been fortunate to work with dealers who not only had decent rooms to demo gear, but who let me take things home or delivered them so I could demo them in my listening room. So in my case here’s a list of gear that I auditioned extensively but declined to purchase. B&W 801 and 802 D3 - At first they sounded good, very detailed with excellent reproduction of timbre of instruments. But after 30 minutes of listening to some of our favorite recordings we found the sound tiring and thought it shrill and grainy. The switch from Ayre Acoustics monoblocks to McIntosh solid state monoblocks did not improve things. Perhaps a warmer, high powered tube amp would have helped, but I was not interested in buying new amps too. Luxman L-509X - Loved the sound at the dealer, but when I brought it home it clipped audibly in my large room at high volume on my relatively inefficient 4-ohm speakers, which drop to 2 ohms. Perhaps the impedance of the speakers, and the power requirements of my speakers and large room. (My amp is 250w at 8 and 500w at 4 ohms continuous, and good with 2 ohm loads, so twice the power of the Luxman integrated and never a hint of clipping.) Wilson Sabrina - Really nice sound but not worth the money in my view and not audibly enough superior to my old Aerial Acoustics Model 8b’s.
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My most recent underwhelming experience was trying the HiFi Rose 150. Bells and whistles aside (which didn't interest me anyway), it was not $3k better than my Auralic Aries G1 so I sent it back. Also buying the Lumin U1 Mini to replace the BS Vault 2i was very much a backwards step and I sent the Lumin back. |
I can't speak to any specific examples, but iirc, many SS receiver/amp makers in the early 70s were engaged in a race to the lowest possible traditional distortion figures. The result was the emergence of transient intermodulation distortion (TIM). I'd avoid amps from that era unless you have specific knowledge of them (as perhaps you do). Amps from the 80s & 90s are a much safer bet. |
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Mine was the Top of the Line Marantz AV unit a few years back one side stopped working I called the 800 number had it less than a year never received a callback. A year later I gave a one-star review on Amazon and got a call from a Marantz VP could he help me I said no returned it to the store and purchased an Arcam
Regarding the guy who had the issue with PS Audio, I had heard about the issue with that CD Drive. I personally own a power plant 20 a BHK 250 amp a BHK preamp and DAC Additionally I own two Pass lab amps and have always every time had nothing but OUTSTANDING Service from PS Audio. I love purchasing great equipment from a company that you can still communicate with the founder. A friend of mind was calling Pass Labs and forgot about the time difference so it was very early in the morning in CA and Nelson answered the phone when he called. Compare this to my experience, with Marantz |
Let's see.....what gear has disappointed me.... Emotiva ERC-4 CD player. Just......no. Returned to sender. Any of the Schitt DACs I have auditioned or tried. Just not a fan of the sound, feel or look of their products. Marantz CD/SACD players. They don't seem to have any kind of signature sound. Meaning, their different models all sound completely different from one another. I can listen to one of their higher end models and it sounds horrible. Then I listen to one that's a few steps below it, and it sounds wonderful. I never could figure how this could be, and in the end, pretty much gave up on trying/caring.
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bigtwinGotcha...horses for courses! |
@larsman funny you should mention subs. I've gone with four Velodyne dd18+, and I'm very happy☺ |
Bryston amplification up to the SST range. I extensively auditioned them (in the ought’s) on 3 vastly different types of speakers (from Sonus Faber to Focal) at different dealers. The Bryston signature came through on all of them- thin, harsh, fatiguing with glare and grain. |
@jl35 each piece I had was professionally and meticulously refurbed, with supposedly all the best caps etc. Still not up to even the modest nr1200, on sound quality even (clarity, separation, imaging, bass articulation,... the whole of it) let alone the features. I'm sticking w recent gear from now on. I want coax, optical, hdmi, ... etc. Also, remote controls are always nice, lol. |
@gavman - from what I've heard about big Klipsch speakers in reviews and such, their defining trait is most definitely NOT 'epic bass'. Tight bass, sure, but not wall-shaking. I think it was 'criminal' of the dealer to misrepresent the speaker if that is the case. Sounds like whatever you end up getting, you might get a lot out of adding a good subwoofer or two. |
@aolmrd1241 I'm not saying the Crescendo isn't a great speaker, if fact I loved it. And the cabinet work (mine were burled walnut) is some of the best in the world. My point was that moving from the Triton Reference to a speaker that was more than twice the price, was not justified by the improvment in sound quality. Were they better? Yes, not by that much. But maybe they are the perfect speaker for your ears, in your listening space. That's waht makes this an interesting pursuit. Cheers. |
Klipsch LaScala Just criminal the complete absence of sub-bass. I was persuaded back to a dealer's home after he promised me epic bass. Put on my first record, some drum and bass, and the point where the bass slam usually descended into the mind boggling nether regions there was just a dry clap with no substance. Pathetic |
No particular order: Crown Amps--shrill and broke quickly Quad speakers--definition of "listening fatigue" Mark Levinson anything (1970's)--really bad sound from awesome components McIntosh anything--well, their scope thing is pretty cool to look at Bose speakres--joke of the audio world with "direct reflecting." Still laughing. Stax headphones--1970's--SHRILL! Dynaco 70--really noisy through headphones Most box speakers Trascriptor TT--BEAUTIFUL, but does not actually work Lots more, but enough for now. Cheers!
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KEF LS-50s - just all wrong in my room. They are a near field monitor for small rooms. In my living room, they just sounded tiny and lost, even with a sub. Replaced them with Monitor Audio Silver 300 7G, and am very happy. The LS-50s will go into a second system in a smaller room. My VPI Scout was originally ordered with a Grado Sonata 3 from Music Direct. Supposedly preinstalled, aligned, and tested. Not only was the installation alignment visibly horribly wrong, the tracking force clearly had not been set, and to top it all off, the Grado hummed as badly as any badly grounded device ever. Music Direct's response was great, swapped the Grado for a Hana SH, which I installed and aligned myself. As for the VPI, other than an initially sticky cuing damper, it has been flawless. Horror stories about unipivot arm setup are mostly urban myth and the low tracking error of the 10.5" 3D printed arm suits the Shibata stylus well. Very happy now. |
Yes: I went on a vintage binge, excited about the cool aesthetics and supposedly superior construction. All of the following were inferior in all respects (other than the LOOK of the units... I mean, come on: those old Marantz receivers are true eye candy... and the HK and Pioneers are lookers, too, and nice to handle as well) sonically and functionally to the simple, inexpensive Marantz nr1200 receiver... all the vintage were sold off at no loss, following the revelation: Marantz 2238 receiver Pioneer sx450 receiver Harman Kardon HK430 receiver all beautiful to look at, but the new nr1200 beat them all handily. I was rather surprised, but when I was honest with myself I had to admit it... |
I still bear a grudge against Mytek (both the maker and the internet site I bought it from) for not giving me even a trace of accommodation when my Brooklyn Streamer/DAC/Phono Amp died pretty much the day it went out of warranty. And, damn, the thing sounded good! On the other side of the ledger, my Electrocompaniet preamp/phono stage did indeed last a very decent amount of time past its warranty coverage. So I can't really complain. For a while I replaced it with the preamp portion of my NAD integrated amp. In any event, I'm now leery of all Class A transistor gear. By contrast, when a tube goes dead you can easily mail order another one. And when I lived in L.A. there were several places around town that kept a variety of tubes in stock. They were fun places to visit, too. |
Recently, I decided to try out a AmpliD Modern Class D amp from Pathos. Had high hopes that it would take me to the next plane of audiophila, but it was not to be. Class D might have come along way, but to my ears I didn’t like the sound of it. It’s a very clean studio sound and while I couldn’t say it was bad it was just super dry sounding with sharper edges which was not to my preference. The bass was stronger and the sound was overall more forward. Some might prefer that type of sound, but I didn’t, so I’ve decided to stick with AB. That said, it did work great for cinema though. The straw that broke the camels back was that I was running the amp via unbalanced single ended preout from an AV Receiver. That generated a hum I wasn’t keenly aware of the listening position but had an impact on the sound. It wasn’t until one day, I happened to get close to the right speaker whilst watering a plant that I heard the hum. Immediately sent it back to the retailer. |
Not too much lately so maybe as my system has matured toward a sound that I enjoy, my buying choices have improved. One lately was the Benchmark LA4 preamp. How could I not like the sound of one of the most accurate preamps made, and the preamp that measured better than any John Atkinson has tested? Don’t know, but I just could bring myself to like it better than a couple of others that I have here. I would simplify my description of the sound as precise, strong leading edge, at the expense of body and tone, at least in comparison. Do I like the sound of distortion? Probably. Another disappointment was Class A amplification. I spent a lot of years trying to make 4 different Class A amps sound good to me in my system and while they did a couple of things really well, the end result was disappointing. I am very happy with my current class A/B amps that are maybe not outstanding at any one thing, except dynamics, but that do everything pretty well, with no fatal flaws. |
PS Audio PerfectWave Transport. This thing retailed for $4k and I'm on my third CD drive. PSA used the cheapest computer rot-gut drive they could find. The fact that they would put a cheapo $10.00 drive in a $4000 transport has galled me to no end. PSA replaced the first drive for free then they charged me $500 for the second one. When this one goes out (it's already starting to act up) I will replace it with a higher quality Plextor drive myself. Based on this experience I will never buy another PSA product again. |
Aurender A10 lack luster sound for excessive money. its built well but has a boring presentation. Roon Nucleus other than room software itself what a disappointing sound from a well review streamer, not surprising when you open one up and see an empty box. Spendor D9.2 speakers, a very thin sounding presentation, lack of tone, and tipped up top end. yes, they are hyper detailed and have good speed but that's about all. |
B&W Matrix 802 series 3. I couldn't believe how thin these sounded compared to Infinity kappa 8's. I put them for sale the same day and never had not one call. So I kept them replaced the xovers, added a sub woofer swarm, they still sound a little thin at times but I'm keeping them for now. I was told there a collectors speaker whatever that means. |
NAD 7 channel Surround Sound Receiver. I forget the model ( sort of intentionally) but it was the top of the line & pretty expensive. Performed well, sounded quite good for both stereo music listening & for movie watching & had plenty of power. After about 4 years of only moderate use, the right channel started to get occasionally noisy for a second or two & then be fine for weeks. Finally, the right channel died. Goodwins High End in Waltham MA where I bought it seemed to have very little interest in helping me, took way too long to get back to me, & quoted about $1000 to get it repaired w/ no guarantee of success! The unit was supposed to be easily upgradable w/ plug in modules as technology changed which also turned out not to be true. Both the equipment & the store left a bad taste in my mouth. I bought a nice Anthem receiver to replace it & been happy ever since. |
Like okhunter and mahler123 with their Brystens, I have a major user interface disappointment only mine is with miniDSP and Volumio.The hardware (SHD Studio) is fine, but the Volumio os/ui is so frustrating that after a year of trying to get comfortable with it I am ready to throw in the towel. I find my listening time has gone down because the streaming interface is so unpleasant to use. Incidentally, I got the SHD because Dirac Live dsp comes integrated with it. To my great surprise the dsp made little difference in SQ. Thus, another product that did not meet expectations, but in this case probably not the fault of the product. Either my room was OK to begin with (I have some tube traps, diffusers, acoustic panels already in place), or maybe it is just plain irremediable. |
