Your single most significant purchase mistake?

My wife🤭 

Von Schweikert VR33 speakers.  Were supposed to be the best 15K speaker for a measly $3500.00.  Greg Weaver gushed over them, but they sucked, big time.  Couldn't find the bass and sold for a $1800.00 loss.  I will never believe another reviewer, ever again.

Aurender N100H. Unstable, couldn't withstand power outages, factory support that couldn't be bothered to read the user's email complaint. Dumped it at a loss through TMR because I couldn't with a clear conscience sell it directly to a fellow audiophile.

I had purchased the N100H new from my ARC dealer. It wasn't defective other than arguably by design. Ugh.

early class d mark levinson mono blocks circa 2006/7... omg... how can something that looks so pretty sound sooo bad...

@mijostyn ... the missus is on line 2 holding for you...😂

mijostyn - I like the way you think😎 although I have many more mistakes. For audio, selling my SAE X-25A.

@jjss49 they were as sexy as they were sterile. Talk about a company that had it all, I really wonder what happened.

Yours in music,

Ted Denney III

Lead Designer/CEO Synergistic Research Inc.

A 1990 Sony BDP CDP. Too long ago to remember which one but for “light but tight bass” read “next to no bass at all”.

Bob Carver Line Source Speakers. I bought these because I really liked the Bob Carver 350 Mono block amps. But were those speakers bad! Sucked power big time the needles on the amp were pegging even at moderate listening levels. And the sound quality was terrible. I too sold these to TMR at a considerable loss.

Oh, by the way they also had fantastic reviews. They are no longer made.

ozzy

Onkyo and Emotiva home theater processors.

Wyred 4 sound SX1000 (no R) they were bad. Then I left them on for a week playing a set of speakers with woofers.

Magic. I hooked them back up to a set of my normal monitors (no bass) and left them on. They worked perfect..

Everyone said they were to dark, they were. BUT after a week of being left on, powerful mids and highs with small planars and ribbons.. It was night and day..

I still have them.. 

Regards

Spatial Audio X3. My endgame speakers. So badly wanted these to work out. Sadly, one of the most disappointing speakers I’ve heard or owned.

Focus Audio FS- 888 speakers. Recessed midrange, way too polite. Gorgeous burl veneer though.

Also, De Havilland 845 monos. Simply didn't sound good with any speaker I had.

- Things we bought that were mistakes

I bought an open box Line Magnetic 218a? Mini INT $400.

It had EL 84s. Made no magic at all.

Sold it in a day for what I paid.

Still not clear what went wrong.

- Things we sold that should have been kept

 Altec Lansing M500 Maestro-(Pro version of the Model 19)

- Things we did not buy that we should have

Pair of Quad 2912s for $4k

QSA Violet fuse - 711.00 down the drain. Bright, analytical, and non-musical. Gave up after 2 months and re-installed the stock fuse for 2 weeks while waiting for the SR Purple. The stock fuse beats the QSA garbage hands down and the SR purple version is everything Oregon Papa (RIP) said it was. A game changer at close to one-fourth the cost.

@ted_denney , simple. Mark Levinson the person sold the company. I also think John Curl has had little to do with the company for decades. There are maybe a handful of audio electronics engineers as good. 

As a matter of fact, there are many pieces I regret buying even though they were learning experiences. Top of the list would be the Transcriptors Vestigial Tonearm. I would be polite calling it garbage. Here is a twist. What about equipment that everyone else thought was garbage but turned out in your experience not to be? I put the Phaselinear 700 in that category. It was not a bad amp relative to other SS amps of the day. It made Crown amps sound like ----. If you needed the power there was nowhere else to go. I tortured mine for 10 years and it never complained.

Bob Carver had his hits and misses. His ultimate line source speakers were big misses and so has been every other dynamic speaker designed that way. The Nearfield Pipe Dreams are another example. If you want line sources you have to go Planar magnetic, Ribbon or ESL. 

NHT 3.3's. I bought them after Corey Greenberg's rave review. I could never get them to sound good in my house. I moved on to Vandersteen 3's.

Mid to late 80’ s, my Harmon Kardon 730 blew a channel. It was 10 years old, so I bought a Luxman R115 receiver. Specs were great. I even heard it in the store. However,when I got it home a set it up, my first listen was a giant letdown. The bass line consisted of the bass drum only. Speakers were original large Advent. I sold it within the year and got the HK 730 fixed and enjoyed it for another ten years. I still cringe when someone recommends  Luxman.

This was a great lesson. It was the only piece of gear that I made such a mistake. And I had listened to it. Since then, I have put together what I believe is a reference quality system without hearing anything except the speakers.

My mistake was in not buying something- two 10B tuners- $1,200; that was for the pair- 

VAC PA 100/100. Sounded horrible. Took it over to a friend's house. Horrible there too. One week from opening the box to packing the box.

Sonic Frontiers Power 2. Very sterile sounding with a midbass bump that was very annoying. Kept this one for a couple of months thinking I had a room/speaker issue. As soon as I replaced it, the problem went away.

My first wife.

Your wife wasn't a purchase, she was a commitment.

Tell her. She divorced me.  

A tie between Thiel 3.6 and Muse Model 175.

this is a fun informative thread

there are numerous items listed by others, highly respected, experienced users, that i have tried myself in the past and actually liked a lot... while i moved on, these items certainly would not be on my ’top worst mistakes’ list

big thiels, muse amp, vac pa 100 (i had/still have the 4 chassis 90-c’s), nht 3/3's... of course every component, at any level of quality and cost, has strengths and weaknesses, but i think this just shows how varying personal tastes can be, how different specific use cases/applications are, how important synergy is in systems with mating components... fascinating stuff...

Purchase of wives - or husbands - not funny. If you wonder why there are few women on this forum - look here.

My wife was a gift from God 42 years ago, of which I still cherish her. She is very understanding of this hobby too. What more could I ask for? :-)

But how does she sound?

Agree with o_holter.

Bose 901- 3 they was good back in the mid 70's but overstayed their welcome as they kicked around 40 years until I got out there and listened and heard what I was missing.

Nothing.

cleeds

4,177 posts

02-06-2022 5:25pm

Aurender N100H. Unstable, couldn't withstand power outages, factory support that couldn't be bothered to read the user's email complaint. Dumped it at a loss through TMR because I couldn't with a clear conscience sell it directly to a fellow audiophile.

I had purchased the N100H new from my ARC dealer. It wasn't defective other than arguably by design. Ugh.

I think I bought this unit from TMR. This was my exact experience on that specific unit. I way over payed on the front end. I didn't realize I had to pay sales tax on top of it.

I couldn't keep it working for more than 2 weeks at a time. I was constantly on the phone with Arie/Aurender support. Arie was very gracious with his help. I believe I sent it in for service at least 3 times. The last repair they rebuilt the whole unit. I kept it to make sure it worked properly. After that I traded up with an authorized dealer. It ended up okay....but was a horrible purchase and experience while I owned it.

Goldnote PA-10 I ran them as mono-blocks and after 500 hours they sounded worse. Sold them and the guy who bought them loved them. ???

One mans garbage is another mans gold...note.

I love McIntosh (despite all the hate they draw) and still own it, but the MC7106 I bought years ago could not leave my home fast enough. Granted, it was a 6 channel amp designed for HT, but could be bridged to the tune of 320 watts of bad sound for even more bad sound headroom. I'm not sure I would even use it for home theater.

@yakbob,

I bet it was made during their Clarion years. 

Paradigm Persona 3f.  Had been out of audio for a while. And went to try the golden ear speakers.  My wife loved the paradigms. To me they seemed to detailed, so we initially passed.  Went back to try some other brands but this time the anthem streamer wasn’t working and it sounded more neutral on nad.  Still wanted to hear others.  I know it’s my fault but really succumbed to sales “pressure” and basically got the combo amp and speakers for less than the speakers.  Was ok, and eventually used the nad as a preamp streamer into a spectral amp.  Needed to get a new cartridge and heard another brand of speaker and was blown away.  Despite the retail price going up 2k no one wanted the persona at 1/2 price in mint condition 

Paradigm studio 100 s great review and they were a total pos. The trashcan tweeters really made them the complete junk that they were! Just another crappy Canadian speaker. 

2 Solid-Tec Rack of silence, they flex and twist more than an overcooked spaghetti.

VPI signature, I tried to like like it, but never got me.

there.

Reference MM de Capo speakers. Everyone said they were great; reviewers and owners alike, so I bought a pair and hated them. They were soon gone.

Everything I ever bought from Rega. Never again. 

Emotiva pre-pro

Sold within a short time.  Lots of issues.  Sounded OK when it wasn't constantly switching "modes".

@stereo5 , it was a Clarion years unit (production run of 1992-1998).
I'll admit that Mc has built some "duds" over the years in an attempt to chase trends, but feel they hit the mark more than they miss it. My C2300 is certainly a keeper.

Emotiva Amp/preamp.  Distortion distortion.  That what I get for succumbing  to sales pressure and not researching.  
 

@retiredfarmer, I felt my Studio 100s were lacking, but then coupled them with Cambridge CXNv2 music streamer and Parasound A21.  They never sounded so good.  That said I really want a Sonus faber Olympica Nova for there tweeters.  Fell in love after hearing them 

OK, this is interesting. There are 2 products listed here that I've enjoyed immensely.

I previously owned the Reference 3A MM DeCapo(i) for more than 5 years and enjoyed every minute with them. I can say that I had a pair of highly updated Reference 3A Veena floorstanders that I didn't love. They may have been great for someone who prized detail over musicality, but they  didn't work for me, in my system, with my electronics.

I've also owned 5 Rega products over the years, including my current electronics - Rega Elicit-R Integrated amp and Rega Saturn-R CD/Transport/DAC. The Rega combo has essentially stopped me looking for different electronics. I think they are a great value and they are both very musical pieces IMHO. 

I'll be interested to see what other 'mistakes" people have made, that I love...

Probably a Carver pre-amp back in the 90s. Someone here wisely advised me to lose it and I did and it was a new day dawning.

Carver amp was fine applied properly.  Still have Carver tuner.  Still very nice!

Back when I was young and dumb(er): A Garrard Zero 100. Junk.

OK, this is interesting. There are 2 products listed here that I've enjoyed immensely.

Someone mentioned a pair of speakers that I just recently acquired as a "mistake".  I've been really enjoying them but found them a bit "bright" when pushed. 

Over and over the comment I've heard made most consistently about them was they "are very revealing of the source" and the source I listen to most is vinyl.  I've been running my phono stage with no loading since I bought it and love the detail and "air" and pretty much everything about it.  I decided to try adding some loading last night, and everything changed for the better.  Did these "bad" speakers suddenly become "good", or was it operator error at worst or lack of properly tuning the entire system at best?

I think I need to still play around with loading settings, but my point is that some gear is more system/room dependent than others.  I have a feeling some of these "mistakes" were more mis-matched components than something inherently "wrong" with the gear itself. 

In most instances I buy things without having ever listened to them and haven't made too many "mistakes", but there have been a couple along the line.  Even those were more listening preferences than there being something inherently "wrong" or "bad" about whatever it was.  One person's "bright and edgy" is another person's "highly resolving and detailed".  Another person's "warm and engaging" is someone else's "boring and subdued".

This is easy for me, the biggest mistake I EVER made was buying the ESCALANTE DESIGN FREMONT Loudspeakers. Nothing else comes close. They retailed at $18,990 and had some positive reviews so bought them unheard. Never sounded good out of the box (4 boxes totaling almost 600 pounds!) and was told they take 250 hrs to break-in. After 500 hrs they were still unlistenable. Sold them for maybe 3k. Biggest waste of time, effort and $$$$$$. Here's a link to a review.

Sorry - but I had two - in a row !!!

Enticed by the alure of tubes I purchased a stunning looking Raysonic SP120 tube amp

It looked fantastic but burned through a set of tubes in 6 months

• it had the wrong transformer installed and overheated the tube heaters
• cost me $300 to get it rectified.

It sounded better afterwards but I was told the output transformers were also poor and it wasn’t worth trying to fix it.

SO I replaced the SP120 with a NAIM 5i integrated amp

• sounded fantastic - much better than the SP120
• But after 10 years the caps gave up the ghost - boom!
• apparently - it’s a feature of NAIM amps
• had that fixed for $450 CDN + 3 weeks down time

Moral of the story

• Never trust a salesperson
• be sure to checkout only quality branded products,
• especially on tube amps.

Now I’m Very Happy with my Bryston solid state amp - 20 year warranty!!!

Nothing against tubes - just my own personal preference

Regards - Steve