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Sony's first digital preamp. Traded in a nice Hafler Dh110 I mde from kit. big mistake. That Sony sounded like crap.Counterpoint S2000 preamp. Bought it used locally, it was a wonderful sounding preamp, broke, then broke again. Traded it for other junk.
Sony Laserdisc player, garbage. returned twice for repair, when got it back sold it and bought a Pioneer!Sony Beta videotape player, worked great for pretty long. finally broke, repaired and broke again.
Sony 38" TV had two years and it died. Let it sit for three years no TV because I was annoyed. This was the worst chunk of Sony crap I bought. Really made me mad. Finally just stuck it out on landing, and bought a 42" Sony plasma (why was i a sucker for Sony??? Though this Plasma has been great 7 years now)
Two Garrard Zero 100 bought dirt cheap. All i learned was Garrard made insanely complicated TT in the end, using five parts where one would do,
I tossed them into the trash. Total waste of time. Worst pile of crap i ever made the mistake if wasting money on.
Edits: 03/24/13Follow Ups:
Dead out of the box. Pretty disappointed.
Marantz DV8400, Marantz DV9500, Marantz SA8260, Marantz Pearl all sucked out loud in the musical reproduction (i.e. sound) department. The DVD/Universal disc players were unreliable and would not play DVDA's or dual disc's on a regular basis. The 8260 I owned blew up. The first Pearl I got sounded great but did not have balanced analog outs. Sent it back. Later decided I could live w/o the balanced outs and the next one I got sounded totally different in a bad way. Back it went. On the other hand the Marantz SA11S1 and SA11S2 found permanent homes in my systems.
Counterpoint SA220: Lifeless. Very disappointing.
Merlin VSM-SE: Shrill, incoherent. Forced me down a path of changing out virtually my entire system in an attempt to tame these speakers and coax performance that simply wasn't to be.
Biggest letdown was a pair of Focal 1027be. Read all the rave reviews and the in store audition sounded good, they were the best looking speakers I've owned. I was so sure they would sound great in my system that I boxed up my PMCs and had them listed on A-gon. Thank god they never sold because after a week I brought them up from the basement and quickly listed the Focals instead.
They were harsh and lifeless. Beryllium is best left in the ground.
Beautiful Acoustic-Research ETL One had a duff motor, but the good folks at Merrill replaced it.
The Phase Linear epitomized everything that can be wrong with solid state: bright, harsh, grainy, veiled.
The B8W DM7 had a super reticent midrange and was utterly lacking in dynamics (PRaT).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A tribute to ...
nt
It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead
I bought one of the originals when they first came out, I think they're called a "Classic" now.I didn't have a problem with the minimalist design, but for what they charged you didn't get much.
The first problem was the tonearm support wouldn't fit over the mounting post, it wasn't even close. I had to take the post to the shop and turn it down a few thousands of an inch to get a slip fit, before that it was greater than an interference fit.
For those of you familiar with the turntable, you know that the tonearm is suspended with a two-part fall of fishing line. A stub post and a plastic disc drop from the bottom of the tonearm into a cup filled with a heavy silicone oil.
You need a special protractor (that comes with the turntable) to set it up. From what I recall nothing else would work.
The turntable sounded OK, I guess, but I was never particularly impressed with it. It's biggest downfall is that being built around that goofy suspension system there's no cueing lever.
And I was never that impressed with the headshell mount for the cartridge with a single bolt. It never inspired confidence that the cartridge would stay where you wanted it to. There wa small lifting arm on the right side of the headshell. You lift it on, and you lift it off. Don't have a couple of drinks and then wander over to play some records, not unless you want to replace them after they're all scratched to hell.
The tonearm, when playing, seemed to do whatever it wanted, the azimuth never seemed to stabilize properly.
My wife wouldn't go anywhere near it, not even close.
I finally traded it in on an LP12. I was never so pleased to get rid of a piece of gear.
Edits: 03/26/13
For someone expecting the functionality of a traditional turntable and arm your experience with the Well Tempered is understandable.
Personally, I was wonder struck by the simplicity by which so many traditional turntable issues were approached. I find the viscous nature of the tonearm is quit forgiving in times of inebriation Once set up I haven't made any major adjustment to mine since its initial install.
Compared to the new Well Tempered arm I'm able to adjust VTA, azimuth, and anti-skate on the fly but it simply doesn't need it. It's the only arm that I know of (there must be others) that can track through the tonearm resonance test.
....the new Amadeus, while not audio jewelry, is certainly well made. And the sound of it is very hard to fault.
Oz
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
I'll second that. The Amadeus has left every table I've ever had in the dust sonically.
Not to mention the fact that my Well Tempered Super (Reference arm, platter, and motor with Super plinth) has been functioning flawlessly for the last 15 years. Oh, yea, It sounds great too.
and recap it with new and better caps and selective resistors.You can take an amp built in the late 50s or early 60s and with a recap and a couple upgrades,it will always be the amps you want to listen to.
Much of the new stuff on circuit boards has a tendency to arc overtime when it gets humid,and then even burns circuit boards and tube sockets up.It's easy to see why the Asians love vintage American and British tube gear..
nt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A tribute to ...
use point to point wiring. Jadis, Quicksilver and many smaller manufacturers use point to point wiring.
Stu
I know
I rebuilt a pair of MS-190s for a guy..Supratek is another one and my AES SET amps are also point to point..There are quite a few but you say,they are small companies..I still like iron better in vintage gear for the most part but Heyboer and Elektraprint AND Magnequest all make superb iron.
My Jadis DA-60 was DOA out of the box. Sent it back and got a new one. After a couple of months, the rectifier bridge blew. Sent it in for repair, they fixed it and it blew on the test bench. Its a common problem with the model. They finally (with Jadis's approval) put in 2 in parallel. Six months later a cap in the power supply blew. Great sounding amp when it works, but its collecting dust now.
jackPS. Yes, it is hard wired.
Edits: 03/26/13
and recap it with beefier capacitors and new coupling capacitors.
This stereo amp was my first foray into OTLs and was a terrible one right from the start. It never worked for more than a week or two before blowing up. Their shop there in the St. Louis area was full of amps in for repair.
I replaced it with a pair of Atma-Sphere MA-1s and never looked back. Completely the opposite experience: sounded great, too, and ultra reliable.
Brian Walsh
They didn't breakdown, they just sucked.
My first tubed preamp was a Counterpoint 5.1. I thought it sounded quite nice in the late 80's, but it did explode on me twice during its warranty period (Counterpoint service said it was a capacitor discharging suddenly, and the solution each time was to place some "fish paper" between the troubled components). Sold that for peace of mind.
Audiolab 8000T tuner: damned things have their display LED bulbs burn out regularly, but they do sound pretty good, and they can grab signal quite well. I still own two of them, and I have become adept at the art of dismantling their cases, swiveling the offending PCB out from its ridiculously tight compartment, then de-soldering the bad LED's and soldering in good LED's (bought a fist full off of eBay). I'm going to keep these.
Music Hall Trio: perfect piece for my kitchen system! Radio and CD in a compact unit with Music Hall's sonics, right? Perfect piece of shit, IME. After playing for ~5 minutes one or both channels begin to distort something fierce and fade in and out. Totally unlistenable! Rap the chassis sharply and the distortion stops, the music flows - - for ~3 minutes more, then reprise the distortion. I sent this unit off to Vinyl Renaissance last spring, because they are the service center for Music Hall in the US, and their technician knew just what to replace (relays, I believe). ~$230.00 later it worked for just over the 30 days that the repair shop would warrant it, and then it was back to its old distorting and fading ways. It has been recycled.
This is cathartic, Elizabeth - - thank you for the topic!
"Audiolab 8000T tuner: damned things have their display LED bulbs burn out regularly....."
The bulbs were actually incandescent "peanut bulbs"...... They looked like LEDs, but the inside was a standard (incandescent) filament...... (I've never seen LEDs burn out so readily, on anything.)
Total POS I can't believe they still ever get sold, softest, least dynamic transport I'd ever heard by a wide margine.....
It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either...... Although it did get knocked off by a JVC XL-Z1050 CD player used as a transport.......
Mine finally died a few years ago. I only wish I'd bought five of them.
I replaced it with a Philips CDC-925 for a whopping $20 off ebay, based on your recommendation. I should send it off to Mr. Allen, but it's actually OK, just as it sits.
Thanks Todd
"I replaced it with a Philips CDC-925 for a whopping $20 off ebay, based on your recommendation. I should send it off to Mr. Allen, but it's actually OK, just as it sits."
Before you send it off, get a CDC-9 3 5..... This is the unit with the killer DAC section..... The Don Allen mod 935 is currently my reference for CD playback.
Just kidding
Thanks for the head's up. I'll keep my eyes open for a nine THREE five!
But sound totally different..... Completely different digital engine inside.
Everything sounds great when I take it home. The disease sets in afterwards.
Observe, before you think. Think before you open your yap.
Blah had three pairs of the suckers--all total disasters-I should never have trusted JWC
Des
PS Lizzie--I luvv ya Post!
I don't know what kinds of issues you may have had, but the pair I have here work fine. They are the 'pro' version with higher bias voltage than the standard ones, I believe 15 kV vs. 9 kV.
On the other hand, the fellow who bought them is coming to pick them up later this week, along with the matching XW-10 subwoofers. He is more knowledgeable than I on these speakers.
Brian Walsh
Brian--I'd kiss the ground when he leaves with them.
Good Luck
Des
And it was hearing the good Dr. Cooledge's MKIs that converted me into an electrostatic fan. They weren't perfect, but they did things I heard from no other speaker.
As for reliability, I recall an occasion when he had to replace one of the eight panels. I assisted with the surgery and enjoyed fun with the SF6 afterwards. :)
I worked part time for a dealer who picked up both Acoustat and Dayton-Wright. He sold lots of MKIIIs (never had any experience with the II) and I don't recall many issues with them. I spent lots of time listening to his personal pair driven by a Stasis 2.
Used to be $150 or thereabouts bought made in Japan quality headphones. Now that price range buys designed in Japan, made in China stuff with good facade but poor reliability. Not wanting to spend $300 for Bose QC15 for what seemed like similar construction quality to the half the price Audio Technic's I bought Audio Technica ATH ANC7 noise cancelling headphones not for serious music listening (of course) but for podcasts listening and measure of relief from noisy neighbors/barking dogs/etc. The Audio Technica's did not hold up to regular use not once but twice. Ear pads fell apart, static in on/off switch, and finally electronics stop working altogether all in less than eight months. Received new replacement set of same Audio Technica's under warranty and had the same issues. One and a half years with Bose QC15's and they're still working and no parts have come loose, etc and believe me - I'm no fan of Bose or the price paid for the QC15's but they have the best noise cancelling and I've tried a bunch of NC cans. My music listening headphones are modest, a pair of Sennheiser HD600's with Little Dot headphone amplifier which are good enough for music enjoyment.
Guess muggins Moi--fell for the review-it was all downhill from then on--in spite of
advice from Mr Dykstra --unbelievably inefficient-and I had Bridged A75's to boot--
The popping/farting soon took over --we resorted to punching satay sticks with non toxic
Silicon blobs through the Mylar to seal the arcs-and avoid as little loss of the Sulfur Hex
as poss'-sure smelt heavenly though-ha!
After three versions all went the way of all flesh--although when working did have some magic
We found the purist sound was to drive the primary of the Supply Transformer direct--the A75's did'nt
baulk at .25 of an Ohm!
Ah the joys of Audio awakening--not
Des
JWC drove his with either the Yamaha B-2 or the GAS Ampzilla. There were few amplifiers of that era that were happy driving the "Reactive Load From Hell" the D-Ws presented. Hope you weren't using Mogami cables which were known to cause the Electro Research to oscillate.
At the time Julian picked up the line, the Dayton-Wright rep was Dan D'Agostino (yes, that Dan) who recommended Dunlap-Clarke amplifiers. They were used for a while until Julian discovered the brand new Threshold 800A which sounded better and were specifically designed to drive Daytons. Through the early 80s, Nelson Pass demoed his amps at shows driving stacked Daytons! I've used a Threshold Stasis 3 to drive Acoustats for over thirty years. All I've ever done with the amp is proactively replace the big Mallory power supply caps.
Indeed, like my Sound Labs of today, they really need a good 300-400 watts.
Not any more, they don't :-)
Brian Walsh
.
Just had an email exchange last week with Dr. West about updating my backplates. I look forward to a more tube friendly and efficient backplate design. :)
I should clarify that the reason I'm grateful I didn't buy the Dayton-Wrights had a lot more to do with amplifier requirements than any problems with reliability.I was on a weekend getaway in Toronto in 1974 and Bay Bloor Radio had a demo pair for sale. I put a deposit down, then called my local dealer (who was a Dayton-Wright dealer) to ask him what he thought. He laughed when I said I'd be driving them with a Harman-Kardon receiver. "It's 75 watts per channel, and Dayton-Wright says 50 watts minimum". He laughed again, and told me to get my deposit back.
Needless to say, I had a lot to learn.
Edits: 03/26/13
What a speaker for all times-- built virtually bullet proof the venerable Acoustats just keep
on keeping on--terrific speaker-I know owners as well with 3+3's 2's same/etc- still
going strong after 30 odd years or more.
Wonder how many DW's still functioning today?
Ha!-interesting on the Dan and other snippets--no did'nt use Mogam--I did some assembly for John when I
worked for him in the Orange County factory so I knew the Amps well.
Sorry to report my venture into Soundlabs was shortlived too--my Pristines arced from
birth and the A1's needed replacement panels not long after purchase --a wonderful
speaker though and delivered so much to savor.
Must say though the factory was superb with backup/new panels/etc--just the freight
was the killer.
Where's the drama and excitement today-ha!
Good listening,
Des
I will always have a fondness for the original Acoustats (and still have a pair), but...
The Sound Lab design remains superior in at least five aspects:
1. Faceted panel design minimizes beaming like no other stat I've heard
2. More neutral frequency response / elimination of "credit card" coloration
3. More transparency (3 micron vs. 17 micron diaphragm)
4. Extended bass response
5. Scalability
I "almost" bought a pair once, but I ended up getting my deposit back. I'm forever grateful that I did.
Thanks again for the laugh.
Denon DL-103 --good sound but that conical stylus? It's not still 1962, is it? Why, Denon, why?
NSM Model 5 Mini-Monitors--not bad but not as good as I thought they would be based on Internet reviews. Once bitten, twice shy.
Sennheiser HD420 headphones--got 'em from Ebay to use for back up purposes and gave them away after one listen. Not one of Sennheisers' finest moments.
Nakamichi LX-3 cassette deck--probably the absolute best Ebay purchase in history. This wonderful tape deck was in like new condition and I managed to break it beyond repair before I even had a chance to make one stinking tape!
And the top of the heap, all-time audio bust out, the Moth Alamo S . Supposedly a heavily upgraded clone of the Rega P2...the motor was hung with double-sided foam tape, the belt was defective, the tone arm was either warped or had eccentric pivot bearings because the headshell area leaned like a Senate candidate on a big-time donor. The Incognito wiring hummed, the Origin Live counterweight was nearly impossible to adjust, and the unit had only a passing acquaintance with 33 and 1/3 rpm. Customer service from dealer was non-existent, "Yeah, they're all like that...." A $700 piece of utter junk.
___
The little old ladies wait in wild anticipation for the meetings of the Double-A-C-ASSN...
" Denon DL-103- -good sound but that conical stylus? It's not still 1962, is it? Why, Denon, why?"
I'd recommend this cartridge for any decent turntable/arm that does NOT have VTA adjustment. (Such as the original Technics SL-1200.) Conical styli are very forgiving when it comes to VTA/SRA.
I know there's a lot of love for the 103 here and I don't deny for one second that the cartridge has outstanding sonic qualities, but to my ears all goodness is struggling to get past a stylus configuration that's been outdated for nearly 50 years.
The best sounding cart I ever heard was a 103, but it had been retipped with a VdH stylus.
___
The little old ladies wait in wild anticipation for the meetings of the Double-A-C-ASSN...
.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
...it's the only component I've had that I look forward to breaking!
"Hello, Soundsmith,..."
nt
___
The little old ladies wait in wild anticipation for the meetings of the Double-A-C-ASSN...
Can't remember the model # ,but it was their top of the line in '79.Servo control crapped out in about two years and it wouldn't play.I traded it for a Triumph 500 cc motor cycle.
enjoy,
mark
I'm one of the unlucky folks who purchased this player which sounded quite nice but was equipped with a buggy transport manufactured by Philips. When Philips stopped manufacturing said transport the writing was on the wall for the Tri-Vista SACD player. Mine now sits in a box in my closet.
I wonder what happened
ET
The Orelle player sounded great for 6months--crapped out- SOS to Orelle
Sorry buddy we don't have any drives any more--stiff!
MF and Orelle -avoid!
Des
Had three different Micromegs. The software did not function properly.
Micromega actually left the N.A. market for awhile mainly because of
the almost universal problems with these machines.
I still have my Stage 3. It's buggy, but manageable. I currently use it in my headphone system.
Pity tho cuz I liked the sound of it.
Mine died after 3 months and the dealer took it back.
Energy veritas 2.4i speakers.
I bought a pair of veritas 2.4 speakers in an end of line sale and absolutely loved them, unfortunately the veneer decided to part from the cabinets. The speakers couldn't be replaced as they were not being made anymore so my money was refunded.
After hunting for quite some time I bought a pair of the later model 2.4i speakers. The i apparently meant 'improved', the improvement was using aluminium dome tweater and midrange drivers.
The sound of the 'improved' model IMO was just horrible, bright and very fatiguing. I never could get them tamed to an acceptable level so sold them on.
The original Roksan Radius was the worst piece of crap i've ever owned.
It kept breaking down. (power supply) after several repairs under warranty, the power supply was finally replaced by a cumbersome outboard
power supply, which also failed. I just dumped it after a few months.
Sumiko Bluepoint Special.
'Nuff said.
Jim
Simplify.
I managed to break off the cantilever on two of those before I even heard the damn thing for the first time. Then I wondered why I had bothered
I overheard a distributor at a CES stating that the rate of Blue point specials being returned for retips without the owners ever listening to them was very high. He was laughing, saying that these guys constituted a good part of the profit.
I resolved at that time never to sell the Sumiko line with an attitude like that.
Contrast that attitude to Garth Leerer, the North American Benz distributor. He contacted me since he knew I was experimenting with mu metal application for caetridges, and asked if the mu metal could be adapted to the glider. The reason: he was mounting a prototype using magnetic screws and accidentally allowed one to slip and when sucked up into the cartridge, it promptly broke the lead out wires.
VEry different attitude from Sumiko
I broke off a customer's cantilever.
I replaced the cartridge with a Dynavector. Customer couldn't have been happier.
A Nakamichi preamp (maybe with built-in tuner) that had the 45 degree angled face. Model 630 or sumpin'. Cool looking but sounded tike two wood rasps being ground together. A tech said it was fine but I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
A late-model (mid 80's?) Phase Linear amp, maybe 3" high, the bass control of which was like kicking a bucket of Jello. Mushy would be a gross understatement.
Jan Allaerts MC1B MkII phono cartridge: I had two samples of this cartridge..... The second supposedly a factory repair/replacement..... It did show signs of brilliance, but was marred by channel balance issues, shrunken soundstage, inner groove distortions, channel imbalance, and lack of linearity. For how great this cartridge was touted to be, it never met its billing. Purchased through an American distributor, I sold the cart w less than 100 hours on it..... But the recipient claimed it had over 3000 hours on it. Since the cart supposedly was a factory repair/replacement, I figured I wouldn’t be trying another Allaerts product again.
Audio Matiere Equilibre amplifier.... I loved this amplifier when auditioned used at an audio dealer. Only to find out when warmed up, the sound transformed from relaxed and holographic to syrupy and dull. The amp also had so many tubes, and on a couple occasions, one of the driver tubes would fail when powered down, sending a loud “pop” out one of the speakers. (The tubes that failed were not commonly used in amplifiers.) It was maybe the “hottest” running amplifier I’ve ever owned.
Benchmark DAC1 DAC..... Supposedly near state of the art, this DAC was a disappointment..... I also learned the hard way what asynchronous sample-rate conversion (aka “upsampling”) sounded like- A gimmick technology which set back digital audio playback at least ten years. (The best DACs I’ve heard were 1990s technology. I will be comparing the new PS Audio NuWave DAC against the internal DAC of the Philips 935 CD changer.)
Madrigal Carnegie One phono cartridge..... Not a bad cartridge, but not the mindblower that Harry Pearson once touted it as.
Audiolab 8000T tuner ..... I bought this lemon brand new and factory sealed from an authorized dealer..... The dial kept burning out its background lighting..... When it lost reception, I had the unit sent to a factory service center. They claimed the user tampered with the inner electronics, hence the warranty was void. They had to send the unit to the factory in England..... I was so soured over the ordeal, I sold the unit immediately after receipt from repair. (The recipient never reported any problems.)
McIntosh MR78 tuner..... A nice tuner, but not exactly the sonic marvel as claimed in some audio publications.
Robertson Forty Ten amplifier.... A Peter Moncrief rave.......... And one of the worst amps I’ve ever owned from a purely sonic standpoint.
Dynaco Mk III amplifiers..... A flavor of the month..... Back when modified Dynaco was touted as the end all......... Those constant incidences of KT88s “glowing cherry red” are ingrained in my memory. The amps missed the top octave, and were as stable as Amy Winehouse in the middle of a paparazzi convention.
Shure V-15 Type IV cartridge..... Touted a “perfect” cartridge in some mainstream audio publications, but sounded just plain dull.
Joule Electra LA-100 MkII/III line stage..... This tubed line stage was a high end mag rave..... When I played Saint Saens “Organ” Symphony through it, the climaxes became a puree of distortion. (That same passage through Don Allen’s line stage sounds incredible.) I had the line stage checked several times, was told it was in perfectly good working order. Sold the line stage, new owner was extremely happy with it.....
BEL 1001 MkII amplifier.... Maybe I had a bad sample....... I actually preferred the amp section of the Onkyo TX-8500 receiver..... But then again, the amp sounded nice at the few audio shows I heard it.
Quicksilver preamplifier..... Tube line stage that sounded flat out awful.
NBS cables...... With the exception of the 0 series AES/EBU cable, pricy cables that IMO were nothing special.
Sumiko Tweek The worst "tweak" product, ever........ The contact “enhancer” was was in actuality a contact “corroder”...... I knew someone who put some on the “card module” edge connectors, ended up destroying the amp and voiding the warranty.
Ringmat turntable mat.... A popular turntable mat that to me made the sound worse whenever I tried it.
NuForce 8 monoblock amplifiers...... The worst RFI generator I’ve ever encountered, by several orders of magnitude..... Renders FM reception useless. (It was also the best sounding Class D amp I’ve heard.)
First Watt F1 amplifier....... I thought it was a nice solid state piece, until I dare compared it to my beloved Symfonia Opus 10 amp.... I then sold the F1......
.
Hmm, very interesting comment about the NuForce 8 amps. I had the Nuforce Ref 9v2 monoblocks that were the best sounding Class D amps that -I- ever heard. I didn't experience RFI issues but I didn't have a tuner nearby. Others have commented about this RFI generator but to my ears it was much better sounding in the audio band than any ICEpower or Hypex amp I had heard.
I'm skeptical of the First Watt amps but that's probably because of my less than efficient Thiel speakers. However, I did own the Aleph 3 and the very similar Aleph 30 amps and neither were stellar sounding on my easy to drive Tannoys. To my ears they were a bit dynamically challenged and even slightly veiled. Not horrible amps but not something worth keeping around.
A buddy of mine who's hearing I respect a lot thought the popular Benchmark DAC1 was pretty bad. I'd be curious to get your take on the PS Audio NuWave DAC.
Mine failed, went to an 'authorized service center'. They couldn't fix it, so off to NY, to another place.
On return, the display started going dim on one side. Then another failure.
The one and only piece I've actually put in the trash.
Interesting about the Allaerts. I had one and agree with you. I found it unmusical and didn't like to listen to it much.
Also thought the MR-78 was just OK. I liked the tube MR-71 much better.
Never sold the stiff, but was frequently asked to repair them. Would be cool if they stayed fixed, but one issue or another dogged the units: bias circuit,arcing over traces, blowing of cathode resistors, etc.
One of my customers sent back his amps three times, all well in the warranty period, paid high freight charges and was always charged for a new set of tubes, minimum. Third time, the company offered him a new pair of Ref 300's, claiming that they were much more reliable for a small (relatively 0charge.
Knew another guy who would turn on his amps with a yard stick after two (minor) explosions which nevertheless scared the sh_t out of him.
Wow! But they look sooooo cool!
1
...and much to his credit, the salesman at Tech Hi-Fi told me it was a piece of crap and I should save up for something better.
I had sold my system to raise money for something else and then later lucked into an integrated amp and speakers for free. I had a cartridge and just needed a ridiculously cheap turntable.
The BIC 940 was the biggest piece of crap I ever owned. Built like crap and sounded like crap. I returned it and had to listen to "I told you so".
Dean.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
I don't know if the sellers misrepresented the condition of these units that I bought used, the rigors of shipping did them in, and/or they were junk to begin with but I got rid of these and have been using a Sony Play Station 1 to play CDs and have not looked back. I still marvel at how well the Sony plays CDs. I play LPs 95% of the time.
My journey is an epic trek.
Broke:
I bought a Mac vintage amp to turn quickly and I was cleaning it up and at some point hear a light snap. I shattered the front glass. That turned out to be the most valuable part. Sold it at a loss.
I snagged a Denon DL65 or something like that TT at a yard sale and it was perfect and gorgeous. At that time I was not doing vinyl at all. I sold it on ebay for a heathly sum and then when repacking it I twisted one small foam piece the wrong way and bent the arm when I closed the box. I had to refund the guy and do another sale for less. ugh!
For me anything Philips is pre-broken and I don't buy them.
I had a nice low cost system for along time and one day stupidly decided I needed to upgrade. I figured Emotiva was getting rave reviews and I would give them a shot on a 2 channel system. I sold the old gear and bought amp and preamp. I just never liked listening to them. There was something not right in the upper mids. I sold the preamp and got a SimAudio and it helped a little. I sold the amp and got an Ayre and it helped a lot. I know a lot of people like Emotiva but I guess it was not up to the level I had in the beginning. Now I think I am going all Ayre and selling the SimAudio.
Yamaha HT gear. I have one now and never really liked the sound. I am waiting for an opportunity to change.
P
As I slowly slip into the dark cesspool of audiophalia neurosis. . . .
My speaker building site
I keep thinking I'll "make it better" - hated the way you hear the motor run, click in and out. It is in one of many REFURB boxes I have. Replaced it with and still love Grace 704 arm - though if the right (priced) DV507mkII came around I'd replace it.
Three most important things in Audio reproduction: Keep the noise levels low, the power high and the room diffuse.
purchased from Upscale Audio
*Every* time I see it, I think "Toe Job". Maybe that's just me...
-RW-
Legal in Nevada and Amsterdam
Owned one since 2007 ... still in use ... never gave me any problems. Also purchased from Upscale Audio.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
--Zen Proverb
"Owned one since 2007 ... still in use ... never gave me any problems."
With or without the "Upsampler upgrade?"
About the only thing I did to the unit was swap some tubes.
I probably play it two or three albums per week on that unit. I have a couple other CD players & vinyl rigs.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
--Zen Proverb
Good for you
It worked OK while I had it.
And time and pleasure.....The buy is supposed to be about music not scoring, I thought...Audition and pay what can pay.... Otherwise play the stock market....I agree with Liz
First experience with NAD- the knobs on the preamp were offset so the 12 o'clock position was more like 1 o'clock. I thought it would be an easy fix so I removed the knobs and there was aluminum foil holding the knob to the shaft. I was so p*ssed with the poor build quality, I exchanged the preamp and amp for Carver equipment which served me well.
Muse Model 100 amp- hum no matter what I tried to do to eliminate it.
Panasonic TV (CRT)- before flat screen TV's, the screen went black and I would have to smack the left side to get the picture back so I hauled it in to the repair center. They said nothing was wrong, I smacked the side and the picture disappeared, they repaired it but it was never quite right.
Audible Illusions Modulus- ate tubes like crazy and the PS hum was way too loud. Purchased a Simaudio linestage that was dead quiet and reliable.
Music Reference RM9 MKII- it seemed like every time I turned the amp on, I would hear pops and get lint shorts. I would go through a ritual of tapping all the tubes with a wooden stick before turning it on. I replaced more tubes and fuses than with any other piece of gear. When I sold it, the buyer called me up and said the amp started smoking.....
Grado SR 325- the most uncomfortable foam ear cushions, even after I replaced them with the "more comfortable" foam. Sold them and purchased Senn HD-600, still have them to this day.
Of the 4 Proceed pieces I owned - CDD, DAP, PRE, HPA-2 - it was clearly the weakest link, easily beaten in EVERYTHING by Goldpoint passive box, which proved to be pretty far from ultimate transtarency, either.
MY worst product affair was with a 1000 dollar pair of David Clark earphones. They had walnut ear cups, gold metal headband, came in a gorgeous wood presentation box and the very worst sound I ever heard. I had David Clark earphones that I used in my plane, and were very reliable...when Clark went into the audiophile business, I bit. I compared these to my 49.00 aircraft headphones, and actually liked the aircraft ones better. YUK. 1000 dollars was very dear to me then...sold the phones for 1/2 to a dealer who called me a few weeks later and told me he didn't like the sound......
ML-11: One evening, I had the system fired up, and smoke started streaming from my ML-11 power amp! Shut it down immediately. Looked inside, noticed that one film capacitor had obviously failed, MLAS kindly sent a replacement (I didn't want to ship the amp) and I had no further problems.
Crown D75: Output devices must've blown, taking out a cheap speaker I had connected. Didn't know how to fix at the time, so I ended up trading it for something.
Disappointments:
ADS L400 mini-speakers done up in walnut: Gorgeous design with matching pedestal stands. Never quite warmed up to the sonics, but might like to revisit this someday.
Pretty much every inexpensive no-name Chinese mini amp I have tried to date, (save for my Dayton/Sonic Impact, which is pretty good): At best, a good basis for a "project". At worst, a paperweight. Unstable, noisy, lots of EMI, you name it, I've encountered it. Hated to let the last of the mini tube amps go as it looked like a little bit of work could correct it's problems, but it required a silly amount of disassembly to perform even the most basic of circuit changes, with a PC board which had been soldered up in situ.
Ultimately, pretty much every belt-driven turntable I owned also disappointed. Some pricey, highly-regarded models had lousy pitch stability. I'd have done better with a mid- to high-end quartz-locked Technics, which is unfussy and has great pitch stability.
I powered them with a Denon DRA-600 receiver and that made for a *great* bedroom system. I dearly wish that ADS was still in business, their L-710s and L-810s were great speakers.
-RW-
No doubt the Sota Sapphire TT was the worst used purchase I have ever made - worked flawlessly unfortunately it probably would have sounded better if it were broke. A Sumo Poloris amp was probably my second biggest mistake - the NAD 40 watt it replaced was a better amp. The Sumo sounded really good on some music at reasonable to low volumes but at high volumes and with many albums it just sounded horrid.
Another major mistake I made was that I saved long and hard for a pair of Vandersteen 2C loudspeakers but bought a pair of PSB Stratus Golds because of the awesome reviews and the great price the dealer gave me on them and because I thought the Stratus mini's were fabulous loudspeakers. Nice transparent midrange and beautiful dry high frequencies (for the money, in fact for lots more money) but never could I get rid of the etched/robotic bass and a degree of port noise. A heaven and hell speaker in the fashion of the Spica TC-60s which should also be on this list. Not that the Vandy's are better than the PSBs in anyway other than they are a great speaker on which to listen to music (until I owned the Spendors).
This list doesn't include my early equipment or the Sony or other common crap including 70s vintage I should have known to be crap before I bought it.
it's a damn shame that so many had so much trouble(s) w/ Counterpoint gear?
My list in no particular order based on personal experience over the years.
- Bryston 7BSST2:
I was surprised that this newer gen Bryston monoblock wasn't grainy and harsh like it's Bryston family predecessors. Decades ago, I chose Classe over Bryston which was a no brainer for me. This Bryston was actually smooth and refined. However, somewhat of a letdown due to it's lean, clean, sterile, and uninvolving sound. Much work in the form of a 'tubey' linestage and tube rolling was necessary in order to give it any hint of warmth or musicality to make it bearable. After much experimentation and coming 'close', I sold the Bryston pair and settled on a tube integrated at 1/5 it's price - even better than 1/5 if you consider subtracting the cost of a preamp.
- Bel Canto M300 Class D monoblocks:
Class D is supposed to have stellar bass right? They're used extensively in subwoofer amps, after all. Well, I have yet to hear a Class D amp get the bass right with good detail. The Bel Canto M300 bass was present but bordered on muddy and boomy lacking definition in the lowest notes. I found similar shortcomings in other Class D amps, even compared to tube amps which are not known for their bass performance. Disappointing.
- Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena:
This rechargeable battery operated phono stage looked interesting and versatile to me with it's multitude of DIP switch selectable gain and loading. The bonus would be ultra quiet battery operation. Unfortunately, it suffered from less than stellar dynamics and it was bit veiled when used with MC cartridges like my Dynavector 17D3, Benz Glider SL, and Denon DL-103R. The only way I was able to tolerate the Nova Phonomena was to place it in MM mode coupled to a CineMag SUT for my low output MC cartridges. Many of my other phono preamps didn't suffer from this flaw including the humble PS Audio GCPH. The GCPH does a fine job with both MM and MC cartridges.
- Fanfare FT-1 FM Tuner:
I went through my tuner phase for a couple years trying out various current production (at the time) FM tuners. Stereophile raved about the Fanfare FT-1 and I liked the idea that it had a full function remote control with memory presets, something the Magnum Dynalab tuners lacked unless you were willing to bolt-on an optional external box at added expense and clutter. I found the Fanfare to sound warm in the mids but unfortunately that's all I found because it was veiled and lacking extension in the bass and treble region. That's one way to achieve midrange praise! Get rid of the rest. How Stereophile drooled over this piece is beyond me. I later tried the Magnum FT-101A, Adcom GFT-555III, Parasound Halo T3, Marantz ST6000 and a few others. All were much better than the highly praised Fanfare. BTW, I really liked what I heard in the Parasound tuner but had to let it go because of it's quirky operation. Since I'm not a true tuner freak and have no need to own some coveted rust bucket vintage piece, my present tuner is the affordable and wonderful sounding Marantz ST6000.
- Adcom GFP-750 linestage:
This one ought to be good. It graced the cover of Stereophile after all and it was all the bargain rage in it's day. It was designed by Nelson Pass after all so it had to be good. Not! Maybe it was designed by Nelson but who chose the cheapie parts inside for the Adcom implementation? Some people love this linestage so I'm sure to be hurting some feelings when I summarize by saying it kills dynamics in passive mode and is harsh and aggressive in active mode. I've had other passive linestages that didn't kill the dynamics like the Adcom. But hey, Stereophile loved it. Are you beginning to see a trend here and why I gave up on Stereophile reviews, and most all press reviews years ago? Maybe that's why I try so much gear for myself.
- Krell 2250:
I once owned the baby Krell KSA-50s which was a wonderfully sweet yet powerful 'little' 50wpc amp. It was hugely dynamic, smooth, and powerful for being the baby of the product line. I sold it. Wanting to relive that glorious Krell sound, I decided to try the more recent and even more powerful Krell 2250. What a letdown! This thing was harsh, grainy, lacked any hint of midrange warmth or sweetness. It was lean, sterile, harsh, bright and unbearable. Oh, I already said harsh. What a wicked heavy piece of utter crap!
- Mark Levinson 383 pretty boy integrated:
What a lovely looking integrated! Very versatile too in the preamp section. Unfortunately, it reminded me the music I hear in elevators no matter what music I played through it. Yes it was smooth and refined but boring and uninvolving. Was it under powered? Was it just too polite? I don't know but others have described the Levinson 383 similarly. I hated to sell it because it looked so pretty in my listening room but I don't listen with my eyes. This one is truly eye candy don't bother listening to it. Turn it ON for the pretty lights and leave it on MUTE.
....I could go on but I have a day job to get back to.
I'm not sure to be sad that you just steam rolled over 1/2 my system or happy I don't have such impeccable hearing..
may the bridges I burn light the way...
What? I absolutely LOVE the old Krell KSA "S" amps. Just didn't care for the Adcom linestage. Sorry.
Though "rick_m" may step in here to defend his fix/mod of his Adcom preamp, the Adcom GTP 500II I had for a short while was one of the worst components I've ever experienced. When I first discovered AA as I was desperately looking to improve the sound of my system, after listing the entire system at the time, the first suggestion I received--from several people--was to change the preamp. I replaced it with a Superphon SP-100, and with just that one change, the old system became listenable. Even enjoyable! I've since moved on, but my sister now enjoys that Superphon in her system.
My impression of the Adcom GTP 500II (even after a professional "tune-up", and with tone controls bypassed): Harsh, grainy, and belligerently aggressive. I believe in "truth in advertising", so when I listed it on the local Craigslist (at a steep loss from what I spent for its "tune-up" and tuner section fix), I panned it without mercy. Still, someone purchased it! He must have liked all the buttons and knobs. :)
Took it out of our music room (crackerbox 4th br converted to music) and put it in the living room hooked up to Epicure Model 11s. So far so good right? Then I got the great idea to run another set of speaker wires off speaker "b" to some remote speakers on the patio. Theoretically nothing terribly wrong there.Used drill bit to cut about a 1/4' hole in living room window frame. Pulled about 60' feet of 24 gauge wire out to the dinky Radio Shack 2 ways hanging under the patio roof. Uh oh. Edges of the hole were razor sharp. Resistance noted pulling wire thru said hole. Uh oh again.
Fired up the Dual 1249 to listen to tunes on the patio. Crackly, distorted sound. Went inside, stinky smell coming from Mac. Powered it down. Ran traps, noted speaker wire insulation stripped for much of the 60' run. Brought it in to dealer. Sh!tlaod of stuff "fixed". Never ran good again, ever, even after another trip for service. Bought something else. Sold for parts ($175) on the bay 20 years later. I was 28 at the time of the "incident". Dumb as a rock. The unit didn't let me down, I let it down. As far as equipment letdowns? An RCA 26" hi end set, it was in a beautiful wood cabinet on a swivel. The "milkiest" picture I've ever seen and in the shop constantly. $600 worth of crap.
--------------------------
"I'd like to own a squadron of tanks"
Edits: 03/25/13 03/25/13
Sounds like a poor design. You should be able to short or disconnect the output wires any way and not damage the amp if if is properly designed. Now if you had connected the outputs to the AC wiring, that would have been your fault...
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
(purchased new) worked perfectly as long as I had it. The only component that was a complete fail was upgraded/refurbished tubed receiver: blew a cap, returned, came back, blew another cap, returned again...a seventeen month ordeal. I finally took a refund and bought new tube stuff, works perfectly, learned my lesson about old stuff. Oh, I forgot---a semi-automatic TT from Crutchfield, worked fine until the warranty ran out LOL, but Crutchfield replaced it, no problem. Happened again. Repeat. And repeat. Cfield finally told me this was the last replacement---happened again. Again learned my lesson, manual TT only.
Edits: 03/25/13
The Maplenoll Apollo
I've had fairly good luck with most things I've purchased, and I'm not an "equipment flipper" so I don't have an endless stream passing through my system.
But some years ago a friend and I decided to jump on a deal offered our audio club by Bob Dilger, the manufacturer of Maplenoll air bearing turntables. My "Signature" always worked well (albeit somewhat tweaky), but my friend bought the pricier Apollo.
Dilger brought it to this guy’s house and set it up. We played a song, and it sounded great, so Dilger departed. Soon afterward, the Apollo ran out of steam, meaning it wouldn't play a whole LP side without the arm hanging up. For months afterward, my friend tried every conceivable fix, even using a 240V air compressor, which blew the air lines feeding the platter and arm. He was never able to get it to work.
He returned it for a partial refund, but was still owed two or three thousand dollars when Maplenoll went out of business shortly after. The insanity of the whole experience was so great that my friend essentially gave up Hi-Fi as a hobby. This guy had lived with a soldering iron in his hand, and dreamt tube circuits in his sleep. But he was soured, and took up fishing and playing pool as hobbies. He still has a lot of gear and LP's, but it doesn't get much use, and he has little interest in talking Hi-Fi anymore.
.
To date, their products have worked consistently as promised and have
not broken down. When I've a choice, I'll always buy Panasonic.
I had a Panny blu-ray fail under warranty and the three replacement refurbs didn't work, either. I settled for a WORKING unit of a lesser feature laden module.Now, I have two Sony BDPs, and a boom box (since the early 80's) and all are still i use and working just fine.
I guess the Panny stuff is great as long as it works but heaven help you should it ever need service. Three bad refurbs? Gimme a break!
Edits: 03/25/13
replace with Samsung
/
Should be noted that Sony had an enviable reliability record under Morita, although like any large corporation they did produce a few duds.IIRC their failure rate was 1% against an industry average of 5%. AS Morita got older and slowly released the reins on his company, reliability fell by the wayside. After his death and the bean counters took over, Sony reliability is no better than average.
In addition Sony started outsourcing a lot of their gear. They were simply falling behind the wayside for flatscreen technology, since having 75% of the world market for CRT sets, they basically ignored the flatscreens. Thus their inital foray into flatscreens were expensive and not too succesful, leading them to farm out production eventually to Sam Sung and now LG.
Also being a giant like Microsoft, Sony does not like to pay royalties to others. Hence some of their logic, on AV receivers, for example, was rather weird.....and definitely not universally compatible.
Unstable crap sounding total waste of space.I'd add to the above the shite sounding combo of the Amcron150/D150 possibly the worst
earbleedin' duo to assault the senses-I dumped the first day after my JBLL00s were fried
on turnon--ala the Counterpoint syndrome.
Yukk to both brands
Des
Edits: 03/25/13
nt
Des
.
And their after-sale support is, IMHO, dismal. I will never buy another Sony product...
-RW-
-RW-
.
nt
Magneplanar 3.6s. Based on my experience: terrible product. Bought them second hand and got royally shafted. Dealer here could not repair the ribbons any better than me. Ribbon tweeters would not be shipped to Canada by manufacturer. Dealer in Québec City repaired one panel so kudos to him.
I felt like I swallowed the whole bottle of snake oil.
The law of diminishing (diminished) returns.
$5000 of crap.
Thanks Sony!
Sony replaced the optical block at their expense a couple of years ago. The new one supposedly uses glass filters instead of the original plastic ones that caused the yellow-green tinge. I just replaced the lamp last December and it still looks great (fingers crossed).
Tubes and vinyl are preferred.
Cheers, Jeff
Sony had a set 20+ years ago that a bunch of high fi shops sold that the TV stores didn't. They failed B4 warranty was up and Sony would not honor warranty. Put one local shop out of business. Philips pulled the same crap on their flat screens. I am very wary of both companies now. I won't buy their products. Wife's Philips $150 tooth brush started turning on and off on it's own. Was very surprised Philips would replace it. Must be a fire hazard or something for them to do this otherwise I think they would let you twist in the wind.
Sony sold em 55" thin profile LCDs for about $700 (list was to the north of $3,000, this was 2-3 years ago) as an attempt to keep em happy. They are. Funny thing is, while the SXRDs were working the picture was good.
--------------------------
"I'd like to own a squadron of tanks"
Defective power supply actually resulted in a class action lawsuit forcing Samsung to replace for free in certain models. (Not mine.) Replacement from Samsung was permanently out of stock (thanks!). Fortunately, I found a replacement power supply online, no doubt harvested from a returned unit. There was an excellent youtube video showing how to install it without electrocuting yourself, but my computer guy did it for me for a modest fee.
Philips rear projection sets had a 100% failure rate. So bad that North American Philips simply closed up shop leaving amny customers high and dry. A few years back when they re entered the American market, they had an issue with the power supplies:100% recall.....
Mits RPTV sets in the larger sizes would heat up excessively and the cooling fluid in the lenses would eventually leak, spilling onto the boards and the ensuing corrosion would kill the boards. This was eventually covered by warranty and Mits had a drip guard fabricated and installed to prevent further issues. Another class action lawsuit...
I remember the original LCOS Philips set. My neighbors had ordered one but it was withdrawn from market before they got delivery. Good!
See my post, from yesterday, about the SONY LCOS product. They STILL make some of the most highly reagarded projectors using that technology. nobody can tell me if they fixed the filter problem or if you are simply buying color stability problems.
Don't forget, Sony KNEW about the issue. The previous generation of RPTV......Rear Projection LCD sets had the same problem with color filters.
If PICTURE were the only criteria, I'd have one of those projectors in a heartbeat. Reliability still leaves me not pulling the trigger.
Too much is never enough
has dropped so much I even avoid their lightbulbs. I bought a bunch of fourescents when I moved since the original GEs were flickering ( at least some of them). The new Phi.ips burned out before the good GE even started to give issues ( some bulbs had to be changed twice!)
After several class action law suites, Sony replaced the light engine in mine at their expense. Its working OK. That said, due to the way they handled that whole fiasco, I'll never buy a Sony anything again.
Jack
Broke down 3 times under warranty (inherent design fault) and sounded like poop with an overblown, flabby bass.
General build-quality was pish poor too.
My experience w/Sony was with the RPTV end of the market. The 60" SXRD set I bought....I think it was 2006 was intended to be my last set.....ever. The picture was amazing. I won't go into detail like a review, but it was a very film-like picture. It calibrated well, too.
Fast forward to maybe 2000 hours into the 2nd lamp. Colors started shifting. So I started looking into the set and lo and behold.....Plastic Filters in the light engine couldn't take it! Why didn't they use heat proof glass like we used in the semiconductor industry? Further investigation showed Sony to be a Major patent holder on light engine design and execution.
Sony ended up on the wrong end of at least 2 Class Action lawsuits going as far back as the projection LCD sets. I don't know if they EVER updated to glass filters for the rebuilds. You can get an independent rebuilder to fix your light engine but as far as I know, they continue to use Plastic filters which guarantees a recurrance of the problem in 8000 hours or so.
Sony? They offered a set at a cost which I'm sure they STILL made a profit from. The SXRD? I couldn't even GIVE it away. Had a couple clowns on Craigslist offer to steal it from me, though. I ended up selling the light engine to a rebuilder and junking out the rest. I eventually sold the remote (tough to find), the good lamp in housing and a spare housing.
The set from Sony? I sold it 'new-in-box' the very day after receiving it. Than went bought a Panasonic Plasma.
Too much is never enough
disc that were supposedly the best around, or artist that were known to be extremely anal about the sound quality of their recordings which often left me well, unimpressed.The best recordings (for me at least) I've enjoyed were obscure, virtually unknown artist I've plucked from the local library. One such disc was a recording of the San Diego community college jazz band; a big band ensemble whose brass section was nothing less than spectacular and always seem to leave my room smokin' ... Unfortunately I lost it during my divorce/move, but will have to search for it again one day!
may the bridges I burn light the way...
Edits: 03/25/13
.
The 1080 HD one? Yes, had the same... three years, then one day, buh bye, no picture. Still amazed a Sony product could be this short lived.
I still have their first DVD player (S7000, using as a transport in main) and their first DVD changer (also as transport in the bedroom, forget the model#). That's three decades+ of combined service.
KP
My sony XBR only lasted 3 years.
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