Your most disappointing purchase or audition?

Using headphone sound as a reference, Tidal I have heard reminded me of Audeze. Magico more like Sennheiser. Very different.

I've heard the Magico S5's with Boulder, Soulution, Audia Flight Strumento, Dartzeel and Vitus Reference and Signature Series. The best sound I heard was with Vitus Signature Series amps & previous model Vitus SCD-010 front end. The sound was very smooth, pure, liquid/tube-like, analogue sounding and involving. In a word, musical. Hence why i'm going for Vitus Sig series gear. Having heard a wide range of amps with the S5's, I can easily see why many people would walk away unimpressed, whist others really like them. It's a bit like the philosopher's stone.

Lyra Kleos (very limited reproduction range)

Most disappointing audio purchase,

TW AC Raven turntable , However shame on me for not taking that long drive to listen for myself , instead I relied on personal phone conversations with owners including reading through lengthy online owner testimonials.

For $17,000.00 the two motor TW could not even hold a steady speed durning play back and I understand from a former owner of the TW Back Night , a $40,000.00 flagship table, can not hold a constant speed during playback either,..
After 10 months with replacement of a "new and improved " motor controller including returning the motors for a full check up the table never
did improve to my liking and I might add my expectations for this new front end were not over the top and unreasonable .
Direct comparisons to other tables by switching arm and cartridge from the TW Raven proved there was nothing wrong with the Graham Phantom arm and Dynavector XV1 cartridge.
Maybe These new designers should understand past successful tables and motors first and not try to reinvent them.

Howdy Audiolabyrinth, thank you kindly for your comments. Per your comparison. Amps & preamps are quite diff from cars. Cars rarely are tested after they've been produced: big production numbers with limited testing results in some lemons. Amps and preamps typically are thoroughly tested after they've been produced: small production numbers with testing should weed out the few lemons. Furthermore, to protect consumers, most states have automobile lemon laws. For audio components, consumers rely on the whims of manufacturers.

My Atmasphere amps and preamp were purchased new direct from the factory. The preamp with its reversed diodes, overheating resistors, and other issues was a lemon. Calling my Atmasphere monoblocks lemons is being kind. The matched amps were so different internally they appeared made by diff people in different years. In a scary fashion, each amp emitted profuse amounts of smoke. The smoking cure (not the cause as someone implied) was to replace, under the factory's direction, resistors in the amps with those of a different value. On-going problems were numerous. It's possible one amp was a prototype which would explain the vast differences in the matched amps.

As mentioned previously, during my ownership of these products, including the warranty period, the factory did little to rectify problems. Even the unmatched matched amps were deemed suitable, as I recall as appearance had no bearing on functionality.