2. amps-preamps
  3. 1406779326

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
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,932 posts
 
Tubegroover,
Now Tubes 108 is getting cagey. He responds to the question by saying he told us before but it disappeared. Fine. Could you spare a few words to tell us again?
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
09-06-14: Tubes108
Per a request I'm waiting for someone to reply to my challenge to come up with "my ulterior motives" that make more sense than the facts I’ve described.

I'm still waiting for you to address the ulterior motive you brought up, that you are tied to a competitor of Atmasphere. You brought it up, it certainly would seem to qualify as a solid ulterior motive. How do we know that you have no financial interests?

Yes, your story could be true, it could have happened, no one is perfect. However, we do not know who you are or what your motives may be, maybe the story is fabricated. Maybe you are simply a hobbyist, maybe you aren't. And so the wheel turns...
jafox
1,453 posts
 
Ok one more time….I actually forgot…the MOST disappointing product I owned of all time: and the envelope please……..da daaaaaaaaaa………. the Audio Research Classic 150 amplifiers.

Having owned the ARC VT130 amp driving Magnepan 3.3's, this combination was absolute heaven. Major wrong decision to trade the VT130 + cash for the CL150s as these stupid amps always shut down with the Maggies and that magical decay and harmonic richness was dramatically reduced. And these crappy things got major hyped up by the reviewers. Dumping these and going with a lowly Counterpoint NPS 400 at half the cost and far more significant performance was great. I still use this amp as a backup and it works very well with the SoundLabs A1 speakers.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
I wanted to add, I talked to Ralph of Atmasphere on the phone over the last couple of days, not about this issue of tubes108, However, we talked about some other issues, and considering his thoughts on the matters we talked about, I believe Ralph is innocent here!, he also through this thread did his best as far as I can read to remedy the matter to satiesfy the customer beyound what most others would care to do!cheers.
godunovs
3 posts
 
Low expectations, amazing results: McIntosh MC275. Sounded so-so in the store. Sounded amazing at home.

Highest expectations, failed hopes: McIntosh C2500 sounded great in store, very so-so when brought home even after 100 hours.

Amazing audition, blew my socks off: Audio Research Reference tube pre, Anthem solid state monoblocks, Rockport Avior speakers. Couldn't bring home because of a $100K+ price
More to discover