Most recent speaker you audited in room and returned? Why did you return it?


Just as the title says, what was the last speaker you got hyped by, purchased and returned subsequently? If you returned it, what did you not like about it in your room? What equipment did you try matching it with?

Hearing about such experiences of unmet expectations could be an interesting topic.
 

deep_333

Although I didn't return them, I was very disappointed in my KEF LS-50s, in my living room, both with and without a subwoofer. I even put them through a thorough break-in to make sure that wasn't an issue. They just just sounded small and lost. Then I realized they were indeed a nearfield monitor, and the critical distance in my room worked out at about 3 feet, my listening distance almost 3X that. So I packed them up and replaced them with a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 300 7Gs. I really wanted a set of Maggie 1.7s, but they are totally unfeasible in my room. I absolutely love the MA 300s. They have the dynamics of a JBL and the character of a well executed British speaker. As for the KEFs, I thought about selling them, then decided to build a nearfield system in my office Consisting of them, a Bluesound Node driving one of Adcom's Nelson Pass designed MOSFET GFA-5200s. In here, they sound great. 

my list is not bought and returned but speakers I’ve been disappointed in and offloaded probably longer than I should have. So excuse me… little different than your question.

Dynaudio Contour 20. Tried for a while and really tried to like them. Maybe didn’t have the power they needed but just way too smooth and no real dynamics. Loved the little Dyn focus 140s years ago, they were super fun and refined enough.

Pioneer S-1ex. Man did I try to love these speakers! They did some things amazing. They are definitely not for a rock guy of any type. Great bass! …… 0 mid bass punch , like nothing.

Ahhh.. When I lived in Shanghai I bought a Chinese brand HiVi pair of towers that were toughted all over the internet as “ good as BW 800 series”, giant killer yada yada. What a piece of Sh.t that was. Tried to return them the next day but …. Yeah American probably overpaid for their POS speaker at the fancy mall they ain’t takin it back. Tried to sell them for penny’s on the dollar on the Chinese market and finally basically gave them away. Those were the worst.

Sent back Tekton Double impacts. That tweeter array was not for me. Instead ended up with Legacy

I think the short version of it is: every company wants to make and sell good speakers. So it's a bit harsh to single them out. But it's also constructive feedback.

btw Dynaudio Contour 20s are my dream speakers. Not for the foreseeable future though, it's about 5K over my budget. But I have heard them many times and they sounded fantastic to me.