Hi-Fi that has not met the initial expectation placed upon it.

[CnoEvil]

This can be about equipment that you have owned based on the hype surrounding it, that has left you flat; or a demo of a piece of kit that you were sure was a game-changer, but left you totally underwhelmed.

In my case it was the Linn Klimax pre/power which I really wanted to like, but left me cold.

This thread is not about highlighting poor pieces of kit per se, but getting insight into how others have got on when putting their system together. There is no right and wrong in this game, just suitable and unsuitable.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

This can be about equipment that you have owned based on the hype surrounding it, that has left you flat; or a demo of a piece of kit that you were sure was a game-changer, but left you totally underwhelmed.

Hi CnE

Cyrus pre amplifiers.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[plastic penguin]

Arcam A70. After a really positive 4 star review - and a big Arc fan - I was expecting it to be impressive. Once I got it home, almost wept. I was tapping my fingers hoping to hear something that would take it beyond the amps it replaced. It never happened - probably the lamest amp I've heard from Arcam.

 

[the record spot]

Cambridge DACMagic II.

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

Was all set to get the audiolab cd 8200 after hearing initial demo compared with my Sony.

After hearing it on longer demo with a couple of other players on some tracks it just sounded wrong, fantastic detail but not for me.

Not saying it's a bad bit of kit, far from it ,but under scrunity didn't give me what I wanted.

 

[John Duncan]

I'm not sure I've owned any kit that's disappointed me. Heard plenty of stuff that I was expecting to be spectacular and turned out to be rubbish though 🙂

 

[Balderdash]

£20k Meridian speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Harbeth speakers, so dull sounding and really wanted to like them!

 

[CnoEvil]

Heard plenty of stuff that I was expecting to be spectacular and turned out to be rubbish though 🙂

......pray tell!

 

[John Duncan]

Heard plenty of stuff that I was expecting to be spectacular and turned out to be rubbish though 🙂

......pray tell!

How long've you got?

 

[CnoEvil]

Heard plenty of stuff that I was expecting to be spectacular and turned out to be rubbish though 🙂

......pray tell!

How long've you got?

From here to eternity.......every journey starts with a single step......so spill!

 

[jjbomber]

I'm sure iphone5 owners are queueing up to nominate that!!!

Kef Subwoofer was the worst for me and now have a REL. Sony portable minidisc, now have an Edirol R09HR. Otherwise everything had been very good.

 

[John Duncan]

Heard plenty of stuff that I was expecting to be spectacular and turned out to be rubbish though 🙂

......pray tell!

How long've you got?

From here to eternity.......every journey starts with a single step......so spill!

Cyrus amps, early Linn amps, ADM9.1s, Dali Mentors, Arcam amps, some stupidly expensive Focal speaker, Onkyo AV receivers, early Roksan Kandy, NAD, Mordaunt Short, the 12k digital amp reviewed recently whose name I forget, ATC, um...

Course, when I say 'rubbish', 'meh' would in most cases be more accurate, since there's hardly anything rubbish nowadays.

 

[CnoEvil]

Cyrus amps, early Linn amps, ADM9.1s, Dali Mentors, Arcam amps, some stupidly expensive Focal speaker, Onkyo AV receivers, early Roksan Kandy, NAD, Mordaunt Short, the 12k digital amp reviewed recently whose name I forget, ATC, um... Course, when I say 'rubbish', 'meh' would in most cases be more accurate, since there's hardly anything rubbish nowadays.

Cheers JD.

Very enlightening.

 

[John Duncan]

I'll let you know if I think of any more 🙂

 

[Sizzers]

Rega Apollo.

 

[Crocodile]

Discovering first hand that the £250 Onkyo TX-8050 stereo receiver sounded like a £250 stereo receiver rather than the giant-slaying beast it was being hyped up to be.

 

[John Duncan]

I'll let you know if I think of any more 🙂

B&W Zeppelin, AKG K450.

 

[relocated]

B&O Beogram 6000. IT chose when it would work and when it wouldn't so got Technics SL10 and it never missed a beat to this day. And, if you were so inclined, it would play on it's side; so you could put it in a row of lps and you could easily miss it.

 

[juxter1]

Any of the iPod range, just not good enough.

Hell, I bought a cheap mp3 player from Dixons back in 2006, a Matsui with only 512Kb memory that sounded better than the iPod that they were trying to foist on me and 5 times the price.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

cyrus budget gear (can't comment on higher priced stuff but if they share DNA, then...)

meridian digital systems (I can't understand what's all the fuss is about).

kharma speakers. for the price nothing exceptional.

also most of SS amps in general fail for me to "get out of the way of music". it feels like the soundstage, regardless of its depth, will always have a background, as if in case of a relief, rather than free standing sculpture.

 

[Ben K.]

Monitor Audio Br2 speakers. Good little speakers but I was hoping for a lot more from them. My own fault for not listening to them first.

 

[SteveR750]

Every Cyrus amp combination in every room, until you get to monobloc country and about £7k by which time value for money vanishes. Don't even like the chidlrens toy looks either, yet I so wanted to love it all, especially as the 6 cdp I had was fantastic.

Just a quick observation that quite a few are anti-Cyrus posts - maybe the hyping just got too great? I was so underwhelmed by the 8xpd integrated amp that it took all of 30 minutes to swap my kandy K2 back, it really was that bad.

 

[SteveR750]

Discovering first hand that the £250 Onkyo TX-8050 stereo receiver sounded like a £250 stereo receiver rather than the giant-slaying beast it was being hyped up to be.

had you bought it? or just demo'd it?

 

[Dave2860]

klipsch image x10i let down, took them right back..