Your most disappointing purchase or audition?


I've had a few.

bought a Naim Nait 3. Loved it in the store. Returned it within a week- way forward at home

Brought home some CJ preamp to audition perhaps 22 years ago. Noisy as anything and a turn off transient destroyed a tweeter (though years later i bought a CJ 17LS2 which I thought was the finest preamp I ever heard in my home)

Auditioned a VPI table (HW19) in a store- the store just could not get the belt to stay on. Bought a Rega instead. This was in perhaps 1990.

Fortunately, I never really experienced buyers remorse say 6 months or more after settling on a piece of gear.

Finally, there have been too many speakers that got stellar write ups which I just didn't care for.
128x128zavato
I do not understand why Tubes108 does not post atleast the year of the incident, or even try to get Ralph to fix the amps for free!, A question I have for tubes108 is, Do you still own these Atmas-phere amps?, if you do not, I understand why you are not tring to resolve this matter!
Audiolabyrinth you are right. If an amp were not right it should have been sent back to fix or replace. This really does not make sense.
Maybe tubes108 did not expect to be crucified for his original comment in that no other responses seem to have garnered the same level of questioning.

I don't know. Just wondering.

Like I said, even God has some unhappy customers. One case should not be such a big deal. Nobody is perfect, and obviously Atmasphere seems to have a good rep. these days for both unique products and good customer service. As pointed out, its hard for a company to survive otherwise.
Roxy I agree however there gets to a point when it becomes an excercise in futility for the reader trying to determine all the FACTS, we'll never know. The truth lays in conviction. It seems both parties are being truthful. It is the reason I asked about dates from the very beginning to lend perspective on why there are such contrasting views. Ralph doesn't recall ANY of it I'm sure and he certainly brings up some interesting facts about what would happen to an electronic component if a diode is installed backwards. What does seems quite certain is that the details are fuzzy, some things don't add up at all. The persistence of memory becomes less so as the years pass and if this was decades ago it would come as little surprise. Who remembers exactly what they had for lunch 2 weeks ago? Poor analogy to a terrible purchase experience of a pair of expensive audio components for sure but unless one is blessed with a photographic memory, facts concerning ALL the details will be forgotten or altered. So may it rest, there is nowhere to go from here.
As I've previously said, Ralph has established a tremendous amount of credibility and good will over the years.

So, I believe in the STRONGEST possible terms that the almost 40 years he has run Atma Sphere needs to account for a lot of trust and good will going back to him as well. In other words, it's never a question as to whether he gets the benefit of the doubt.

In no way does it imply the product or Ralph will not be without flaw, or that no problems have ever gone out the door. The only people who don't make mistakes are the people who don't do any thing. Just that it seems logical, reasonable, and clear such a series of events would leave some sort of easily produced paper trail to jog the memory of the other party.

For what it's worth, I mean no ill feelings toward Tubes108...