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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
zavato's avatar
zavato OP
1,397 posts
 
Wow, this little question I asked got way off track.

So I'll list some more things that have been a disappointment, now that I have had more time to think about is.

My first pair of B&W speakers, a total disaster. Years later I bought a pair of CDM-1's which were quite good. I eventually sold them, nearly for what I paid new.

A pair of large Advents, around 1990. Kept them less that a week.

A pair of Celestion speakers. Auditioned them. Yuk.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,932 posts
 
I thought of 2 more that I really disliked. I borrowed for an audition in my system a Plinius integrated when they first came out. (9200?) Terrible. Solid state at its worst, and I am not opposed to solid state at all.
Also, a stand mounted speaker by Hales. I can't remember the name or model number, but it had a distinctive grill with a protruding diagonal piece of heavy gauge coat hanger type wire behind the cloth grill. They were very unbalanced, unnatural sounding and fatiguing. I wasn't surprised when the company went under after that experience.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
The cary cd-500 cd-player 1st, 2nd, The Ayon cd-2s cd-player.
rpeluso
1,035 posts
 
Tubes108-I am shocked by this, especially since Ralph appears here often. Is this out of the ordinary from them/him?
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,249 posts
 
Rpeluso,
I believe that this was an exception to the rule regarding Atma-Sphere products. A friend has owned the MA-1 amp and the MP-1preamp for years with no problems what so ever. This brand has a well established reputation for reliability as far as I know.
Charles,
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