Your most disappointing purchase or audition?

Ok one more time….I actually forgot…the MOST disappointing product I owned of all time: and the envelope please……..da daaaaaaaaaa………. the Audio Research Classic 150 amplifiers.

Having owned the ARC VT130 amp driving Magnepan 3.3's, this combination was absolute heaven. Major wrong decision to trade the VT130 + cash for the CL150s as these stupid amps always shut down with the Maggies and that magical decay and harmonic richness was dramatically reduced. And these crappy things got major hyped up by the reviewers. Dumping these and going with a lowly Counterpoint NPS 400 at half the cost and far more significant performance was great. I still use this amp as a backup and it works very well with the SoundLabs A1 speakers.

I wanted to add, I talked to Ralph of Atmasphere on the phone over the last couple of days, not about this issue of tubes108, However, we talked about some other issues, and considering his thoughts on the matters we talked about, I believe Ralph is innocent here!, he also through this thread did his best as far as I can read to remedy the matter to satiesfy the customer beyound what most others would care to do!cheers.

Low expectations, amazing results: McIntosh MC275. Sounded so-so in the store. Sounded amazing at home.

Highest expectations, failed hopes: McIntosh C2500 sounded great in store, very so-so when brought home even after 100 hours.

Amazing audition, blew my socks off: Audio Research Reference tube pre, Anthem solid state monoblocks, Rockport Avior speakers. Couldn't bring home because of a $100K+ price

Wow ,you didn't like you Large Advents ,I always thought they sounded pretty good .I still have a pair but havent hooked them up in a while .I only paid like $80 bucks for them .

Emotiva upa 1L mono blocks these amps blew about 7 times trying to power my Magnepan 1.7 speakers.
I had expected much better since they were rated so high in wattage at both 8&4 ohms.