Lemons are an actual thing in high-end audio


The last couple of years I have been on a quest to get my system to the point where I am satisfied that it is as good as I could get it within reasonable budgetary limits, which for me was about $20K.

Along the way, I sampled quite a bit of gear in my home for extended periods. In particular, I went through a surprising number of amplifiers before I arrived at my preferred piece of equipment.What I discovered during this process is that lemons can and sometimes get released by high-end audio manufacturers. I am not going to name the manufacturers in question because I honestly believe that my experience was the result of purely random factors and could occur with ANY manufacturer.

One of the lemons I got was a high-power solid state amplifier, very well reviewed, from a highly regarded major manufacturer. I kept hoping that the fabled "burn-in" would fix what I heard. It did not. After about 200 hours I gave up.The sound, though powerful, was harsh and unmusical. In this case, I suppose that I only had myself to blame because although I bought it brand new, I had found it on the gray market. I just couldn't resist the substantially discounted price. Lesson learned. Interestingly, the amplifier I eventually settled on was a different model but from the same manufacturer. I bought it used, but it was from a reliable and known source. I couldn't be happier with the result.

The second lemon I got was altogether different. I bought a high-end DAC directly from the manufacturer, and in this case I was quite lucky. The shipper had made a mistake and sent me two separate units. The first one I got was a upgraded version of the same model that I bought that was intended for another customer. Until the manufacturer reached out to me I didn't know this, and I was terribly disappointed by what I heard. Not only was it not an improvement over my existing DAC. It actually sounded worse. When the manufacturer told me that my unit would arrive in a day or two and would I please ship the one I had been sent by mistake to the intended customer, I was elated. The unit originally intended for me arrived the same day I shipped the wayward unit to its rightful owner. As I had hoped, this less expensive version of the same DAC sounded MUCH better than the one I had been listening to. In fact, it sounded better than any DAC I have ever heard. So, now I am happy. The DAC was the last link in the chain of my dream system.

Much has been written by those in this hobby about snake oil and how manufacturers of high-end audio can take advantage of audiophiles by producing sub-standard gear at exorbitant prices just as a cynical way to turn a buck. For the most part, this has not been my experience. I have run across gear whose sound was obviously refined and well-executed, but just not to my taste. That didn't surprise me. But what did surprise me was the sub-standard gear I encountered from manufacturers acting in good faith who, for whatever reason, just got it wrong and let second-rate gear slip through their quality control efforts.

Buyer beware.
tomlhuffman
I took the initial responses as mostly negative aimed at the OP for no good reason. Why address whether he named the manufacturer or not. Or whether his definition of lemon stands up to yours. Or whether he hooked it up correctly.
the main point he asked is whether anyone else experienced out of the box components that were just not right.
i bought a pair of  speakers that took everyone by storm, won awards, all reviewers, shows...everyone proclaimed how wonderful they were.
got them and they were just wrong in bass.  I listened for months, then a year trying to convince myself the bass is there, it’s just more “elegant”.
spoke to the manufacturer who likened it to someone that’s been drinking coffee with too much sugar.  Saying  When you at first bring the sugar level to normal it doesn’t taste sweet enough. Once you get used to it, it not only tastes sweet enough but you get the real flavor of coffee. I struggled to appreciate the “correct” level of bass for several months more.
at this point in my response I’m sure there are a handful of readers here thinking “did you move the speakers around to improve bass, or maybe you had it hooked up wrong, or maybe your amp is the culprit.  Save it.
internet searching on the bass of these speakers turned up mostly rave reviews but a good handful of owners saying they had to add a subwoofer to make it sound right, that the bass was lacking.
i put the Speakers aside for a year and tried some other brands.  Every once in a while went back and hooked up the bad speakers hoping in their sleep something might have self corrected.
finally decided to try fixing them, sent woofers out to test and repair if needed. No change. Looked at crossover and played with connections, no change. Finally lucked into changing the phase of the woofers from the rest of the drivers. Whammo! Everything clicked in and magic came out of those speakers.
a simple listening session at the factory by the QA person before shipping should have revealed something was wrong. Based on internet posts, there were a handful of other sets shipped with the wiring wrong.
lemons? Indeed!
jacksky,
Yes, you could call that a lemon, but there is nothing wrong with the previous posters who disagreed with the OP regarding his definition. I was one of them, and his issue was completely different.
I found your post very interesting, as I too have had several "lemons" from a wide variety of manufacturers over the past 25 years.  
I don't mind naming brand names, but in more than half of the cases the manufacturer made right on the problem is relatively painless fashion, so if I do mention them by name it will only be a compliment to their brands.  
Consumer Reports used to be a very popular magazine for this very reason.  People want to know what brands are good and what companies are not worth spending money on.  
I respect your decision not to mention these companies by name.  
Roxy54,
You’re correct. its an open forum,  different posters have different takes on the same sentence. Didn’t mean to come out righteous or high n mighty.