Your single most significant purchase mistake?

@cleeds & other Aurender N100H folks: I have had similar troubles, although to date Ari has got me back & running. Question: knowing this will be just a temporary component on my digital side, WITH WHAT DID YOU REPLACE the N100H?

SOTM Dac and server.

A turntable.

NAD C275. Not an expensive purchase but was my first real foray into separates. Huge expectations. I had just purchased a NAD preamp and was looking forward to audio bliss.

Then for kicks, I put my old 1994 Carver TFM-15 in there and it killed the NAD. And I mean it totally murdered it. I had always used the Carver with CD directly into it. It sounded OK. But with preamp in front of it, WOW.

Break-in did not help...sold the amp the same month. 

It scared me into really vetting gear before I buy. 10 years later, I haven't had a purchase regret since.

Sonus Faber Sonetto III speakers - not detailed and transparent enough!!

@zavato  - Mr. OP, did you provide an answer to your own question? Curious, didn't see one. Were you thinking about a mistake you had made when you posted this question?

Rel s812 subs. Without a doubt the worst purchase I ever made. Kept believing all that hype but when it came time to perform, although they were fast, they just didn’t go low enough and were incredibly difficult to integrate. (I guess most likely because there’s no fine-tuning on the back of them)

Seeing how they were overpriced to begin with, I lost a lot of money in that transaction. 

Regardless, lesson learned, will never buy on media hype ever again.

Anything with the name Arcam on it....

Martin Logan Sequels. 

Smallest sweet spot ever.  Move your head 2 inches and it sounded like you put a bag over it.  Thin, brittle sound.  MLs may have some good speakers but those were not it. 

I have had good luck with a couple of items discussed here.  
1. I was a very happy owner of NHT3.3, after pairing them with what seemed to be the right amp and cable combo (BEL Mark IV and cardas wire). 
2.  Bel Canto: nothing but good luck with their amps.  
 

Worst decision: selling the BEL Mark IV

Best decision: Proac 1sc, for my ‘office’ system

There are those items I let 'go away' that I regret now.....but one must move onward and up 'different', which is my rationale...or excuse, if one prefers....*s*

One either enjoys 'where you're at', or off into the swap swamp or into the detail dilemmas (cables, ic's, specs vs. reviews vs. 'bench racing' ) and the eternal "...it costs What?!"

That can kill allurer faster almost as fast as snorting bleach...which, over audio items, is understood but rampantly inconceivable.

I like 'the cheap seats'.....but picky enough to get the good ones... ;)

There was a recent thread regarding McIntosh and a lot of folks trashed the brand. Interesting that only one mention where someone bought a Mc product and did not like it!!! FWIW I do own and very much like McIntosh.

Biggest Regret Purchase: Magnepan MGIII speakers.

Lol @fthompson251 

They’re great for PA Systems and or supplying the muscle needed for Home Audio sub drivers, but that pretty much sums them up.

"My ex wife."

Very tacky technik.

Back in the early 2000's I bought a Crown amp getting rave reviews, 1000 WPC. It lasted a week in my system, I let my friend try it to buy it he gave it back. Rather shrill sounding and good bass.

I also had an NRG Control amp after that and it sounded ok but was built poorly.

secretguy

596 posts

02-09-2022 5:45am

arafiq

1,061 posts

02-08-2022 10:59pm

Raven Audio Blackhawk. This product was over-hyped on these forums. I bought one and found it to be below average. Sold it at a significant loss. 
 

 Peachtree 125 - bright, bright, bright  

bowers and Wilkins CM10s - sterile, thin midrange. Sold it within a year. 

“That forum hyper gave out so much trash "information". I'm sure you're not the only one that got hosed,”

All trails leading back to one particular ‘Individual’ thankfully no longer able to shill products on here for his buddies 

arafiq

1,061 posts

02-08-2022 10:59pm

Raven Audio Blackhawk. This product was over-hyped on these forums. I bought one and found it to be below average. Sold it at a significant loss. 
 

 Peachtree 125 - bright, bright, bright  

bowers and Wilkins CM10s - sterile, thin midrange. Sold it within a year. 

That forum hyper gave out so much trash "information". I'm sure you're not the only one that got hosed,

Forgot to add Topping D90 dac. This was supposed to be best measuring dac that was a giant killer. Hyped up on ASR. Boring, sterile, etched sound. No soul. 

Raven Audio Blackhawk. This product was over-hyped on these forums. I bought one and found it to be below average. Sold it at a significant loss. 
 

 Peachtree 125 - bright, bright, bright  

bowers and Wilkins CM10s - sterile, thin midrange. Sold it within a year. 

Martin-Logan Monolith IIIx. Ultimately, my bad. Magnificent speakers that could never integrate into my room. Broke my heart. Sent them to Japan to an eager buyer, who paid the shipping! I got off easy, money-wise.

 My ex wife

Not measuring twice and buying an extra 1.0M worth of interconnects and power cords. It was compounded by the fact that I have mono blocks and two subwoofer amps and they are sited 12 feet from the preamp. That's a lot of extra cables/cords--and they are very fine (and expensive). Ouch. Wish I hadn't done that.

sksos,

I remember that company. It was started by an expat from Wilson Audio. I read good things too, they were supposed to be efficient for one thing. They went bell-up pretty fast though. That was a terrible financial loss for you. 

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

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.

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".

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

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!

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...

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 

@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 pre-pro

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

Everything I ever bought from Rega. Never again. 

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.

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.

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. 

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 

@yakbob,

I bet it was made during their Clarion years. 

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.

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 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.

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.

Nothing.

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.

But how does she sound?

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? :-)

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