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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?

 

mceljo
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curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,186 posts
 

I can’t really say any of the equipment I’ve bought has disappointed me, but I am disappointed with how every engineer mixes tunes differently so sometimes my subwoofer sounds perfect and sometimes I have to shut it off or at least turn it down! But I guess that should be another thread.

mg16's avatar
mg16
113 posts
 

Audiomat phono stage

Lehman Black Cube phono stage

Mesa Baron tube amp

Threshold S/300 power amp

Pass Aleph 3

Too many others to mention.

mg16

russcoughenour
11 posts
 

Number 1 without a doubt were Theil 3.5's.  Way bright and they were being used with a Threshold Stasis amplifier.  I only kept them for a weekend.    

petaluman
140 posts
 

@curtdr 

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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