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

Most speakers , especially magnepan , are sensible to amplification and work accordingly but so important amplification must be , the source dac could be too...

All that so impactful it is , compared to acoustics of the room and location , as for all speakers, but especially them, fade into importance ...

I know because i listened already  magnepan 1.7i in a bad room ... I can assure you than it is not better than my low cost active small speakers well embedded ...

Acoustics rule the gear workings and even design, first and last not the reverse .....

 

Magnepan 1.7i, No matter what I did the mid-range sounded muffled and thin.

Spendor D9.2,

I listened to them in a fully treated smallish room at the dealer. they sounded better to me then the others i listened to. Then i got them home in my larger room and less room treatment. They sounded bright, lacked midrange depth and tone, they had almost zero low bass. the speakers are spec'ed at 27hz to 20khz and I'd think they barely made 50hz in the bass. I'll give them the detail level top to botom was outstanding but that's about it. Sold now thankfully. Even the distributor later told me they are not for everyone as they focus on detail and lose out on the musicality and tone of real music.  I do not recommend the Spendor D line at all if you like music. 

I’ll jump on the Tekton bandwagon! I bought a pair of Lore Reference with a beryllium Satori tweeter ($500 each!) which I was familiar with because my DIY speakers use them. The Tektons were horrible! 

I have had more than a few pair sound good in the showroom, that left my house after a short stay. Most were not returned. They were sold to friends or on sites like this. Some sounded good in one or more of my systems, but I could not make them work in the room that I had purchased them for. These include Martin Logan Motion 60's and KEF R700's. Interestingly enough, the smaller Motion 40's sounded great in any room that I tried them. I have also had LS 50's sound good in all of my systems and keep a pair in the house. I currently am in the same situation with the Mofi Source Point 10's. They were fantastic in the showroom, but are too large physically for the room that I purchased them for. They wound up crammed into the corners. I can't use them in my other systems (WAF or same size problem}. I view this as my problem, not the dealer's.

In the past dealers have worked with me, but I never expected more than store credit. I never asked for a refund if the product was not defective.