What Audio Brand That You Will Never Buy And Why?
- Thread starter Tharbamar
- Start date
John Daly
Active Member
Agreed 100%
Ronald1973
8-trackin', Hank, Sr. man
Certron tape 
I am not sure I could say I would not buy a certain brand. With me, it depends on the actual item; condition, price, overall value and if I am looking for something that item would do. There are certainly items I might avoid, but it take a pretty obtuse person to say never.
twiiii
Lunatic Member
Well I can name a quite a few. The reason is the same with all of them, they were in our shop to often. Yamaha, Kenwood, Aiwa, Akai, EPI, Cerwin Vega, Boston, B&O, Marantz, RTR, Crest, BGW, RANE, DBX to name a few. Ones I didn't like the Sound of. Number 1 on the list: Bose anything. Some JBL,Altec, EV were terrible and some Devine. Tannoy could be that way, too. Magneplanar Tympani 3 and IV I loved. Other models I really detest. I hope the new 30.7 is a winner. They need one in my opinion. I loved every piece of professional Ampex I owned, even if they needed constant maintenance till the SS units came along. I loved early tube Marantz, but what has come along since the 90's is not my cup of tea. Mcintosh latest speakers over the last 10 years HF just irritate me into instant head aches. Anything before the XRT 28 and 30 were usually either above average or superb. With a slight correction around 800 HZ the XRT 28 was a real winner. My favorite speaker through 2010 was the XR 290. Stacked pairs of ML-4's and 2's weren't bad either. I wanted to like Apogee, Acoustat, Martin Logan, and other paneled speakers, but they never towed the mark. KLH 9 was very intriguing it did so many things right, but was so colored. Though I must have owned 30 different Ortofons, and a bunch of Shures, Stantons, Empire, AT, Signet and a few B&O cartridges. They were all flops compared to the Dynavectors I have now. The one cartridge I really liked but never owned was the Grace F9E. I love my Lambda Stax headphones, my Signet electrostatics are great. My Sennheiser closed 598 is acceptable and wouldn't mine having pair of 650's. But everything else I heard before 2010 were just not acceptable. That includes Beyer, Akg other Sennheiser, Koss, Grado, etc. I have a very long don't like list. But Bose is the most dis-respected of all.
I have owned Mcintosh since 1962. The MR-67 and 71 with the pilot carrier leakage were not my favorites. The early tube amps were to warm, later ones 275's and 225's great and the 3500 the best of all time. I liked the sound of the C-28 but mechanical issues made me up grade to a C-29 quickly. The the first gen SS amps could sound nice, they did have a few issues. It wasn't till the 7200 came along that I was truly happy. The MR-77 was the first tuner I really liked. Mx-119 and 120 were/are great pieces, but a MX 151 is so much more. There isn't one piece of Mac electronics I have to say is bad. I'm a nit picker when comes to their electronics. So what I might consider a fault other folks would never recognize. At 72 I could be very happy with a MR 71 again as I have my own built in filters now above 16 kHz. I heard MC 60's again recently and they do great with todays speakers that tend to be to austere. The MK VI 275 has shown its self to be just the right amp for a few Magico and Magnepan speakers I have heard lately,where 2301 and 600's have not fared so well. I'd love to see a reincarnated pair of MC 3500's with 500 watt ratings and quad balanced topology using the same output tubes.
My other pet peeve, and #2 on my hate list is the inconsistency of the recording industry. I don't want to hear Miss Keys , Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, or Lady Gaga singing as if the mic was half way down their throats or as if they were within a tongues reach of my ear. I detest DG when one moment the Ist clarinet player sounds like he is 100 ft away and the next moment he's in your lap. Why can't the producers and artists just leave things alone? !!!
I have owned Mcintosh since 1962. The MR-67 and 71 with the pilot carrier leakage were not my favorites. The early tube amps were to warm, later ones 275's and 225's great and the 3500 the best of all time. I liked the sound of the C-28 but mechanical issues made me up grade to a C-29 quickly. The the first gen SS amps could sound nice, they did have a few issues. It wasn't till the 7200 came along that I was truly happy. The MR-77 was the first tuner I really liked. Mx-119 and 120 were/are great pieces, but a MX 151 is so much more. There isn't one piece of Mac electronics I have to say is bad. I'm a nit picker when comes to their electronics. So what I might consider a fault other folks would never recognize. At 72 I could be very happy with a MR 71 again as I have my own built in filters now above 16 kHz. I heard MC 60's again recently and they do great with todays speakers that tend to be to austere. The MK VI 275 has shown its self to be just the right amp for a few Magico and Magnepan speakers I have heard lately,where 2301 and 600's have not fared so well. I'd love to see a reincarnated pair of MC 3500's with 500 watt ratings and quad balanced topology using the same output tubes.
My other pet peeve, and #2 on my hate list is the inconsistency of the recording industry. I don't want to hear Miss Keys , Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, or Lady Gaga singing as if the mic was half way down their throats or as if they were within a tongues reach of my ear. I detest DG when one moment the Ist clarinet player sounds like he is 100 ft away and the next moment he's in your lap. Why can't the producers and artists just leave things alone? !!!
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Carraway
Well-Known Member
Heard a friend's NAD-heavy system in the early 90s and later bought a NAD CD player. It began having display issues right after the return period ended and then other problems cropped up. Found out my friend's NADs (ha!) were having problems as well. Haven't considered one since.
Never thought I'd own a Bryston because of the cost but found a used 2B-LP amp for a fairly low price. So now I have a Bryston and am considering getting a 1B or similar preamp.
Never thought I'd own a Bryston because of the cost but found a used 2B-LP amp for a fairly low price. So now I have a Bryston and am considering getting a 1B or similar preamp.
Bluesky -- my feelings toward Sansui are similar to your feelings toward Akai.. I only ever owned one Sansui component, a D-970 cassette deck. When it worked, which wasn't often, it sounded great. I think it spent more time on my bench than it did in my system. I finally got sick of fixing it and gave it to a repairman friend to use as a parts chassis.
The Akai GX-F31 cassette deck that I bought in 1983 also sounded great ... and it still does, which is more than I can say about the dead Sansui deck. I also own two Akai reel decks that are still running well more than 40 years after they were built.
Sony ....
I've had a few of their products, much of it I liked with regard to interface, however ... their poor quality in parts and they KNOW FOR A FACT and have been called out on it, even had class action suits because of it. Last Sony Item I purchased was an $800.00 CD player that I only used maybe 4,5 times in a year, one month after warranty the laser crapped out. Sony used a cheap laser and then denied it. As I said, they were called out on it and to be honest I never followed up on the Class Action filed against them. It was enough ... to have enough of them and their propitiatory BS.
Boys wanted a play station. So I put enough money in a card to buy an Xbox, with instructions for them to buy what ever they wanted, but if they chose the Playstation, they would have to foot the difference in cost. Which .. they did. Toit .. 4 months after buying the PS .. they had to stand it on end so that it would read the disc's. Shrugs .........
I've had a few of their products, much of it I liked with regard to interface, however ... their poor quality in parts and they KNOW FOR A FACT and have been called out on it, even had class action suits because of it. Last Sony Item I purchased was an $800.00 CD player that I only used maybe 4,5 times in a year, one month after warranty the laser crapped out. Sony used a cheap laser and then denied it. As I said, they were called out on it and to be honest I never followed up on the Class Action filed against them. It was enough ... to have enough of them and their propitiatory BS.
Boys wanted a play station. So I put enough money in a card to buy an Xbox, with instructions for them to buy what ever they wanted, but if they chose the Playstation, they would have to foot the difference in cost. Which .. they did. Toit .. 4 months after buying the PS .. they had to stand it on end so that it would read the disc's. Shrugs .........
I have had Sony products for 30 years including Playstaytions 1-3 and now 4 and have never, not once, had a problem with any of them. I have friends and family that have Sony stuff and it seems like it either is dead out of the box or lasts forever. I have usually bought mid line Sony stuff so that may make a difference who knows? I know they have made and continue to make some really cheap stuff but they also make some very nice equipment.
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Too late it seems.
Kosinki
Active Member
I'll never buy anymore records from Plain Recordings / 4 Men With Beards. All of their poorly sounding, scratched, dirty records are pressed using red book cd sources. It's also frustrating that they seem to hold the rights to doing reissues for a lot of these rare and classic albums that sometimes can be hard to get original copies of.
Marantz ive reached my limit, but i am open to trades
reddog48
Active Member
PS Audio. Bought one of their HCA-2 Class "Dumbass" amps. Sounded splashy and trashy - and the damn thing cost $2,000. Not a good deal. But the best came when I was blasting away with the thing, driving some Von Schwiekert speakers (another totally bad sound - I now call them Van Shitzers) and the wife came running in yelling that the amp was in flames - yes, flames, smoke, sparks - the thing went up like a Sherman tank being hit by a German 88.
PS Audio and "Der Goofball" - Paul's actual name - manufactures a LOT OF CRAP - but if you notice you never see it for sale used or anybody speaking of rebuilding any of it - mainly because that crap goes up in a flames, sparks and funky smelling smoke on a regular basis. And PS Audio is "proud" of their extremely low quality "audiophile" gear - very pricey fire bombs. Junk - stay away from it. Particularly if it is used.
And avoid Von Shitzer speakers - he throws in whatever drivers he has on hand - so there are large variations between speakers of a given model - and his "list" price depends solely on whether or not he needs some money at that instant (he has no dealers - for good reason). Guy - Von Schwiekert is a total fraud - claims he studied at Cal Tech - he never went to Cal Tech for any purpose other than to clean the labs at night. Guy made it by being a friend of Robert Harley - now Editor of The Absolute Sound - apparently they were both floor salesmen at Federated in the way back. So when Schwiekert built a test mule he got a favorable review from Harley and made it from that point. Fraud alert on that company and that guy.
Both companies build dreck - PS Audio kit is far more dangerous - as it does blow up readily. At least if you get stuck with a Von Schweikert "monkey coffin" it will PROBABLY not explode in flames - though your head will hurt from the dreadful sound of those piles.
PS Audio and "Der Goofball" - Paul's actual name - manufactures a LOT OF CRAP - but if you notice you never see it for sale used or anybody speaking of rebuilding any of it - mainly because that crap goes up in a flames, sparks and funky smelling smoke on a regular basis. And PS Audio is "proud" of their extremely low quality "audiophile" gear - very pricey fire bombs. Junk - stay away from it. Particularly if it is used.
And avoid Von Shitzer speakers - he throws in whatever drivers he has on hand - so there are large variations between speakers of a given model - and his "list" price depends solely on whether or not he needs some money at that instant (he has no dealers - for good reason). Guy - Von Schwiekert is a total fraud - claims he studied at Cal Tech - he never went to Cal Tech for any purpose other than to clean the labs at night. Guy made it by being a friend of Robert Harley - now Editor of The Absolute Sound - apparently they were both floor salesmen at Federated in the way back. So when Schwiekert built a test mule he got a favorable review from Harley and made it from that point. Fraud alert on that company and that guy.
Both companies build dreck - PS Audio kit is far more dangerous - as it does blow up readily. At least if you get stuck with a Von Schweikert "monkey coffin" it will PROBABLY not explode in flames - though your head will hurt from the dreadful sound of those piles.
Roadrash
Super Member
After much deliberation, I would have to say Bose 901, Pioneer HPM-100, Realistic Mach One, and JBL L-100 speakers are the ones that jump right out at me. I never liked the way any of them sounded, no matter what was driving them, and wouldn't go out of my way to own any of them. That's just my opinion though. One mans junk is another mans holy grail.
Champco
Super Member
Can I ask a question? Well i am asking but can you answer it. My XR5's have always had the problem of the isoplainer mids blowing out. The Fuse in the circuit is 1 1/4 amp. Never blew. Speaker would always go out first. Went thru a few of em and solved the problem by replacing the fuses with a 1 AMP. Lots cheaper to change. Would like to know what is blowing in the speaker. Open winding? can it be fixed? They look to be epoxied together. I gave up on worrying why they blew. Just watch the warning lights and keep fuses on hand. Not as rambunctious as i used to be....
