Has anyone else auditioned something that really was terrible?

Some dealers are customer friendly, but they seem to be getting scarcer.  Decades ago, when I ran one pair of B&W DM14's, I went to a well-regarded store in Miami, Audio by Caruso.  The owner, a frail little man, told me that he had a really great trade in, and I could buy it and return it within a week. Despite the beautiful, sculpted wood cabinet, and overall quality, it was not what I needed.  When I returned it with 30 minutes to spare, he dug through his cluttered desk and handed me the actual check I had written him.

McIntosh Amp at a high end dealership.

I wanted to hear a pair of well regarded speakers, low sensitivity, at one of the most respected NJ dealers. I took some music with me, one being Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, a lot to deal with, and one specific part: Does Richard Burton sound right?

They had a McIntosh system, hooked up the speakers, music with very strong dynamics, and I noticed to my right, a bit behind me, the salesman was riding the gain up/dn manually, tweaking it (to keep the McIntosh Power Guard from engaging frequently I discovered). Stupid.

I knew enough, had my own 300wpc McIntosh SS system at home, to realize that size McIntosh amp could not handle those inefficient speakers. Someone else might not have realized it, might have taken those speakers home to an under powered amp, or, been sold an under powered amp with them.

Of course I had/still have great respect for McIntosh, it’s all about their transformers, and I like having Power Guard, especially if not needed.

Just swapped that SS system for McIntosh tube tuner/preamp mx110z, couldn’t be happier. I never needed 300wpc, it had been a gift, I replaced it with 45 wpc tube integrated, (Cayin A88T, they say designed to ’sound’ like McIntosh tube MC275). I could have easily gone down to 30 wpc with my efficient horns, drove them with 30wpc mono blocks for years.

Anyway, I always wonder(ed) what might have happened to a less informed/aware customer.

Or, come to think about it, they might have concluded the speakers sucked, or McIntosh sucked, not realizing more power would have changed everything.

Because it doesn’t work in your system doesn’t mean it’s a terrible product. Maybe something it’s matched with in your system is a terrible match and its performance is severely compromised, but I wouldn’t go around claiming it to be a terrible product. I doubt in this day and age you’ll  find anyone building a terrible product. That being said, I’ve no doubt there are manufacturers who build products that are way overpriced for their performance vs cost. Even then I wouldn’t call it a terrible product; maybe way overpriced.