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Your top 3 worst purchases ever


Hopefully none from me!

While many are asking what are the best preamps, best amps, best this or best that, wouldn't it be nice for others to know our worst nightmares with certain products?

:-)

My top 3s are:

1) Kora Eclipse preamp
From an Canadian member, the preamp arrived DOA. SInce it was shipped from Canada, return shipping cost and logistics are typically expensive and brutal. So the preamp was sent to a self-proclaimed Kora fan and expert in VA. Turned out, the repair cost was way more than I bargain for. The seller refused to fund it adequately. Ended up a super overpriced purchase with 2 months down time. Lesson learnt: Just return anything that is DOA even the seller talks sweet and offers to repair it to save you money.

2) Kora Galaxy Reference power amp
From the same Canadian member, this unit arrived with all output tubes mixed up. The amps kept blowing fuses and overheat. Bias pots do not work. Again, I was too nice to have it 'repaired' at seller's expense. Not a single penny was collectible from this seller, however. The unit was sent to the same Kora 'guru' who wasted near a grand of my money to fix it - turned out nothing was fixed, the unit suffered additional shipping damages, and I was labelled as a tube idiot by this repairman who just conned me $1k. Out of total frustration, I hammered the amp into pieces and sold it as scrap for $4 in Audiogon. That's a near $3k loss! Lesson learnt: Take anger management class.

3) Krell PAM-3 dual-mono preamp
Arrived working for first few days with noisy volume pot, then the unit caught on fire - the caps melted with lots of tar inside. Seller refused to take it back obviously since it was not DOA. Sent to Krell for repair, only to be told the repair estimate was near $3k (including $350 return shipping cost from Connecticut to New Jersey - $250 of which is for a Krell shipping box). Made perfect sense to me when I had purchased it for $550.

What are your lemons?
bsimpson
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
The problem is many worst purchases may be a result of a system mismatch of some sort, and is no reflection of the quality of the product itself

In my opinion is a mismatch a problem with technical datas, for example the output of a Preamp does not match with the input of the connected amp.
A total different story is the quality of Tone for example or speed problems with a turntable. Here you can find indeed a lot of units which accelerate depression.
But at the end of day, there is a Fangroup for everything and a thread like this one is interesting.
dover
2,292 posts
 
One of my lemons was the Klyne System 7 phono.
Based on all the reviews and praise this should have been very good.
It was blown away in terms of the level of detail, soundstage transparency, speed and timing quite comprehensively by both my modified 1960 Marantz 7 and also my 1980's Theta B tube preamp ( standard apart from some cap upgrades ).

The other was a Helius Cyalene tonearm purchased second hand that arrived covered in silicon and the antiskate broken, necessitating a rebuild from the factory. Either the seller covered the vertical pillar in silicon for ease of adjustment or the silicon inside the elastomer anti skate mechanism leaked.
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
Hey Zd542,

Yeah it is still hooked up, but it is turned off, (rarely ever turned on actually), and since I have 3 dedicated circuits, (one for my preamps, and analog source; another for my amps, and lastly, one for my digital sources), I have never felt that the Sony unit ever affected the sound.

Thanks for the tip though.
shakeydeal
979 posts
 
VAC PA 100/100
Meadowlark Shearwater HR
Sonic Frontiers Power 2

In no particular order, but they are definitely the top 3.

Shakey
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Yeah it is still hooked up, but it is turned off, (rarely ever turned on actually), and since I have 3 dedicated circuits, (one for my preamps, and analog source; another for my amps, and lastly, one for my digital sources), I have never felt that the Sony unit ever affected the sound."

It makes sense that you don't have any problems given the separate lines. I had mine on the same line as everything else. For me, a JPS Digital AC power cord fixed the problem. It has some type of a filter in it.

"10-14-13: Shakeydeal
VAC PA 100/100
Meadowlark Shearwater HR
Sonic Frontiers Power 2"

Did you try and play music through any of that stuff? The tubes they put in those amps aren't the same kind of tubes you weld with.
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