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Equipment sight but not sound.

Who has bought equipment from sight and not sound. Sight meaning reading about them. Reviews etc , and not hearing or demoing them at all and had the good fortune to make all the right decisions. I’ll go first. I first bought my B&W Matrix 800 speakers after reading about them in the 90s. I fell in love with their looks and loved what I read about them from stereophile. Next I read a lot about the Krell amps and loved that they had a huge bass sound and very powerful. Bought the Krell FPB 600. Loved it powering my 800s. Along with the Krelll I bought from the seller the ML 38s pre amp. VG first preamp that I ever bought. Next I bought all Straightwire Crescendos. Speaker cables and ICs. Next also read about the Rega ISIS CDP. Bought that next without ever hearing it. Loved this setup for many years. Then had the urge to upgrade. First was my pre amp to an ARC REF 5SE.Loved it so much I upgraded it to the REF 6. And finally to the 6 SE. Once again without ever hearing them I bought the Audio Research REF 750s mono blocks. Phenomenal amps. Then recently I bought the ARC REF 9 Cdp. Wow. All without ever demoing it or hearing it. Finally bought the AQ Dragon source PC for my ARC Ref 9 cdp. Another Phenomenal purchase without hearing it in my system or even demoing it at a dealer. In fact I love that Dragon PC so much Im looking for one for my pre amp. All I can say is I really think I did pretty dam good without ever hearing anything and just buying through reviews. Who else has had this kind of experience? 

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xtattooedtrackman
mitch2
3,974 posts
 

Yup, been there, done that, and in most cases it was a huge mistake.  

Alon speakers was the worst.  Totally wrong for my music, tastes, and partnering equipment.  Ayre CD player, preamp, and DAC, none of which had enough meat on the bones for me.  

All of those items were well-regarded and from well-regarded manufacturers.  Just goes to show that only you can judge the sound that you will enjoy in your system.

eddnog
54 posts
 

50/50 with recent purchases. SVS SB-3000 sub has really, really blown me away with the results. Absolutely love it. Bluesound POWERNODE, not so much. Love the functionality and the app, but the sound is quite meh, even when feeding it via analog input from a proper DAC (which completely negates the benefit of the lovely app!).

-Ed

ghdprentice
6,969 posts
 

In 1979 when I bought my hugely expensive Threshold S500 ($5K then, $19K equivalent now)… with my first ever bank loan there was no choice. This Pass amp was very cutting edge at the time… no samples any where. I did not care about looks, I was only interested in the best sound quality possible.

overthemoon
417 posts
 

Well for me I bought a demo unit at a great price purely based on brand reputation...McIntosh C2600 Preamp! It worked out for me as I enjoyed music as much as ever.

 

stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,388 posts
 

@tattooedtrackman,

I hope you didn’t purchase your speakers based on Louis Lipnick’s Stereophile review. He claimed the speakers had no flaws and was pretty much laughed out of the industry. I heard them once and they were pretty impressive. I am glad it worked out for you. For myself, I didnt like the looks at all. Do you use it wit the triangle part facing out or in? There were lots of discussions on that back in the day.

 

I purchased Von Schweikert VR33 speakers based on looks and the gushing review by Greg Weaver.    Long story short, I hated the speakers as soon as I unboxed them and never got them to sound good in my room.  Even Albert Von Schweikert couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting great sound.   The person I sold them to loved them so there is that. 

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