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Your top 3 worst purchases ever


Hopefully none from me!

While many are asking what are the best preamps, best amps, best this or best that, wouldn't it be nice for others to know our worst nightmares with certain products?

:-)

My top 3s are:

1) Kora Eclipse preamp
From an Canadian member, the preamp arrived DOA. SInce it was shipped from Canada, return shipping cost and logistics are typically expensive and brutal. So the preamp was sent to a self-proclaimed Kora fan and expert in VA. Turned out, the repair cost was way more than I bargain for. The seller refused to fund it adequately. Ended up a super overpriced purchase with 2 months down time. Lesson learnt: Just return anything that is DOA even the seller talks sweet and offers to repair it to save you money.

2) Kora Galaxy Reference power amp
From the same Canadian member, this unit arrived with all output tubes mixed up. The amps kept blowing fuses and overheat. Bias pots do not work. Again, I was too nice to have it 'repaired' at seller's expense. Not a single penny was collectible from this seller, however. The unit was sent to the same Kora 'guru' who wasted near a grand of my money to fix it - turned out nothing was fixed, the unit suffered additional shipping damages, and I was labelled as a tube idiot by this repairman who just conned me $1k. Out of total frustration, I hammered the amp into pieces and sold it as scrap for $4 in Audiogon. That's a near $3k loss! Lesson learnt: Take anger management class.

3) Krell PAM-3 dual-mono preamp
Arrived working for first few days with noisy volume pot, then the unit caught on fire - the caps melted with lots of tar inside. Seller refused to take it back obviously since it was not DOA. Sent to Krell for repair, only to be told the repair estimate was near $3k (including $350 return shipping cost from Connecticut to New Jersey - $250 of which is for a Krell shipping box). Made perfect sense to me when I had purchased it for $550.

What are your lemons?
bsimpson

Showing 2 responses by kurt_tank

kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
I haven't really made too many mistakes when it comes to high-end stereo equipment actually. But here goes:

1. Sony DVP-S9000ES SACE/CD player. A fair 2 channel SACD player and a mediocre, at best, CD player. (Thankfully bought used - still own it for the few SACDs that I own, but it was not good enough to get me hooked on SACD as a format.) Overall I would grade it as a C- piece.

2. Audio Research PH-3 phono preamp. A decent enough phono preamp, which worked well, but the mute switch did break. Not a very flexible unit though. I'd give it a grade C+.

3. A Nakamichi BX-2 cassette deck. Bought used for $50. Broke about the fifth time I used it. Oh well, it was only $50, so I did not expect much. I'd give this unit a grade D-. Still have it. Maybe I can fix it.
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
Hey Zd542,

Yeah it is still hooked up, but it is turned off, (rarely ever turned on actually), and since I have 3 dedicated circuits, (one for my preamps, and analog source; another for my amps, and lastly, one for my digital sources), I have never felt that the Sony unit ever affected the sound.

Thanks for the tip though.
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