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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
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Wc65mustang, "Only the shallow know themselves"- Oscar Wilde
judyazblues
157 posts
 
ttweight Black Onyx- poor speed control and very noisy, way overpriced
Synergistic Research MIG- did nothing
VPI Scout- lousy tonearm
wc65mustang
524 posts
 
Good one.
You would know best.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"10-17-13: Isochronism
Zd542, I had researched each component in my system at great length before purchase.
I am happy with my culmination."

What kind of research did you do? Please share it with us. As far as I can remember, I think you are the first person that I've come across that hasn’t made any mistakes when buying audio equipment. We all make mistakes with our systems. For the most part, that's our research. I know I joke around a lot, but please don't take offence. I really am curious as to how you do it.

Where I go wrong, and probably many others, is how to bridge the gap between all the research you do leading up to the purchase, and then face the reality of how the component performs over time. There are always qualities that don't reveal themselves until after you live with the piece for a while.
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Zd542, I spent a few years of many nights reading of others more vast experiences on the internet and then researching many components. No auditioning of anything. I bought %95 of my system here in six months checking the ads everyday. Never sold or traded anything, what I bought I have and use. Maybe I was just plain lucky or perhaps delushioned into thinking that it actually does sound good :)
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