• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Most Disappointing Audio Purchase

V

vintagestereo

Addicted Member
Banned
I don't want to get into a flame war, but I'm curious what product you purchased was the biggest disappointment. In other words had the greatest gap between what you expected and what it delivered.

Mine would have to be the Pioneer SX-9000 Receiver. It looked beautiful but had so much background noise that I could only listen to it for a few minutes. And, the built-in reverb was nothing more than a spring encased in a metal enclosure. I had my Tech go through it to try to eliminate the problems but there was nothing even he could no. It just wasn't that good.
 
Register to hide this ad
Actually, mine was a Capital recording of "Guys and Dolls" with Bing, Dean, Frank, Sammy, Debbie Reynolds, Dinah Shore, and Alan Sherman. Man, it just wasn't very good - slow, swingy in a bad sort of way, and poorly sung on some tracks.

I really like the 1992 Revival with Nathan Lane, Peter Gallagher, and Josie DeGuzman because of its up tempo pace and comedic, modern take. I know its not everyones favorite but it works for me.

Bart
 
Avid model 110 speakers. I had heard Avid 80's in various places in 1980-81 and I thought they sounded great. So when I saw model 110's on sale in 1981, I thought, "Wow! These sure have to sound even better than the 80's!" I bought them on the spot without listening to them... and this was when you didn't have return privileges for stuff like this.

What a mistake. Lousy bass, rolled-off treble, warping grilles after a year. Real POS. I kept these stupid things til 1997 because of budget constraints and no way to dump them. I jumped for joy when I heard buzzing one day: the foam surrounds had rotted! Yay! I could now justify tossing them! I bought a pair of KEF Coda 8's and they're magnificent.
Tom
 
An Adcom add-on surround processor/amp, in the fairly early days of Pro-Logic. Noisy, lost its settings at random, crapped out completely just out of warranty.
 
Freddy Fender greatest hits. Turned out to be all re-recorded stuff that sounded like crap compared to the originals.
 
Bose 901 Series IIs. They sounded great from another room but in the same room had no detail. Replaced them with a pair of Koss tower speakers which sounded great. This was in 1979/80.
 
My two major disappoints were due to damage in shipment. Both were big receivers: an Onkyo TX-8500 Mk II and an Onkyo TX-7000. Both play great, but have that cosmetic damage (broken glass fronts, can't get the facia on right on the TX-7000).
 
Donny said:
Dolby digital 5.1
Click to expand...

LOL unreal...

Always amazed at folks responses. :yes:

Anyway, for me it was a pair of Altec Model 14's. Nothing what they were hyped up to be.
 
Last edited:
Sony SACD player. Inferior Redbook resolution compared to my old McIntosh and dull, lifeless SACD reproduction. This was the 2nd generation top-end player from Sony, so was expecting to hear something great. The build quality appeared to be top-notch. But sonically, it did nothing for me.
 
My Kenwood KR-7600. When I first got it it seemed to be perfect, about 3 months into owning it the tuner started to drift and now will not lock into stereo, I can only listen to it in mono in FM. I have a bad connection on the back and cannot use the tape inputs cause they keep crapping out. I think it needs echowars.... :sigh:
 
my two

1. NAD 2200PE amp - what a POS, 4 repairs in one year... used to drive klipsch fortes, not exactly a demanding load. also my NAD CDP, three laser replacements.

2. sony scd 222 SACD player, a true piece of junk. clunky, noisy, poor build quality. lasted a week in my set up.

best buys:
VPI Scout, so much better than my Rega P25, unreal!
Juicy Music Blueberry - killer preamp!
 
fisher 200T Receiver NIB in '67 or so.

Started falling apart even as I removed it from the box.

1) One of the two trim pieces (new design direction for Fisher) was lifting off one side. Warranty station's response was to glue it down again. When that didbn't work, on second visit they removedthat and it's matching piece saying it looked better that way. (I was young, What did I know or care. I was going in the AF in a few weeks anyway)

2) Prepetual balance problem. Left side was always louder than the right. Warranty facitily said it measured fine and said it was my room. Years later it turned out it wasn't my room.

In service for a few years. Hardly got any use at all. Now, on leave...

3) FM mux screwed up. Made everything sound distorted and "fuzzy". Mono was fine, though but I didn't pay $280 for a mono receiver. When I got out of the service I got it fixed. IT was out warranty now so I had to pay to have it fixed. It screwed up a year later. I left it that way.

Gave up and bought a Marantz 2270, which I still own and love. The Fisher was put in the basement in storage until...

Loaned it to a friend who shorted the speaker terminals and put it out of it's misery. He offered me $100 for blowing it up. So, it all worked out in the end.

So, you wonder why I'm skeptical of solid state fishers? I did later pick up a used 250T which was better, but...
 
Markw said:
Started falling apart even as I removed it from the box.

1) One of the two trim pieces (new design direction for Fisher) was lifting off one side. Warranty station's response was to glue it down again. When that didbn't work, on second visit they removedthat and it's matching piece saying it looked better that way. (I was young, What did I know or care. I was going in the AF in a few weeks anyway)

2) Prepetual balance problem. Left side was always louder than the right. Warranty facitily said it measured fine and said it was my room. Years later it turned out it wasn't my room.

In service for a few years. Hardly got any use at all. Now, on leave...

3) FM mux screwed up. Made everything sound distorted and "fuzzy". Mono was fine, though but I didn't pay $280 for a mono receiver. When I got out of the service I got it fixed. IT was out warranty now so I had to pay to have it fixed. It screwed up a year later. I left it that way.

Gave up and bought a Marantz 2270, which I still own and love. The Fisher was put in the basement in storage until...

Loaned it to a friend who shorted the speaker terminals and put it out of it's misery. He offered me $100 for blowing it up. So, it all worked out in the end.

So, you wonder why I'm skeptical of solid state fishers? I did later pick up a used 250T which was better, but...
Click to expand...


Great post!!!!
 
For me it has to be Radio Shack Mach 1 speakers I bought new back in the 1970's.
They looked as impressive as hell to my 19-year-old-eyes at the time I bought em. Sounded good in the RS store but after living with them for a while.....I began going to real audio stores to listen to speakers I could never afford....but then going home to play with my Mach Ones trying to get them to sound like .....AR9's....altecs...JBL's....infinity's..etc, etc.

they just could'nt do it for me. I wanted to get rid of them after only 3 months!! My sister deb (of all people) bought them off me and I started saving $$ for Pioneer HPM 100 speakers. (Which I loved & used for many years.) I think seriously that the Mach Ones were built for looks....to appeal to younger male buyers ....like myself back then...who could not resist the sight of that big-ass 15" woofer.

Although I do not at this time own the Mach Ones & HPM100's....believe it or not they are still in the family....my brother has both pairs!!

I know the RS Mach 1's have a lot of fans here.....Mach One fans please take no offense....If they're good for you, great.....I just happen to think they are awlful.


Russ
 
I saved up and bought a Tandberg 9000X RTR. I couldn't afford to wait saving for a Revox so I bought the Tandberg. Mine may have been a Monday built machine for all I know. I paid a lot for it and it spent most of the time I had it in the shop. It made beautiful recordings but the transport system just couldn't hang together long enough to last a weekend. It was one of their first (I think) electronic start/stop/rewind machines and it showed.
 
Adcom GFA-555 power amp. To say the top end on that thing was grainier than a silo would be an understatement. With it's bridged power capability (600watts) and large damping factor, I thought it would make a stellar sub-woofer amp, but that's not the reason I bought it, and had no application for it. I sold it as fast as I could to a guy at work who loved Adcom's. He used it to drive a very un-demanding pair of vintage AR-5's (I sold him those too) for about a year or two, and it blew up. I felt real bad for him and sold him a spare Onk that I had laying around, M-506RS. It has performed flawlessly for years now. I should mention I purchased that amp (the Adcom) brand new.
 
Nakamichi cassette deck. I traded a perfectly good Marantz tuner for it. The Nak made decent recordings, when it worked, which wasn't often enough. About three weeks after I traded for it I had to have the record head replaced. About a year later the playback head went out. I sold it to an engineer at work, for much more than I paid for the Marantz tuner, and bought a black plastic Marantz dual-well deck which I still have. The Marantz deck makes better recordings than the Nakamichi ever did. Go figure.
 
Many, many years ago, I had a Pioneer cassette deck, a CTF-900, that I absolutely adored. In a fit of temporary insanity, I let a salesman talk me into trading "up" to some P.O.S. Kyocera deck. What garbage! I hated it. To this day, I kick myself about letting that Pioneer go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom