Hi Fi you REGRETTED buying!!!!!!!!!

[JMacMan]

My then Naim system - 72/Hi-Cap/180/SBL's.

Not because it was 'bad' or anything, but I bought it all new and at huge expense, only to find it undone by Sony ES 9000 Series kit down the track, which made the Naim look very poor value for money on a $$ for performance basis, and when judged overall as a consumer purchase.

It was also the first step on a slippery slope into audiophoolery, foo and pseudo science, for which the first step of recovery was buying the Sony and selling the Naim.

That's not to bash Naim, but like most so called high end kit where you're ostensibly paying a premium for 'extra' or 'better' sound quality, doing AB's against it and 'lessor' kit using matched levels, and preferably blind to remove expectation bias, reveals a whole lot of very humbling things that one doesn't hear at dealer dems when doing them at disparate volume levels, and sighted.

It was a very humbling lesson indeed.

If buying expensive 'high end' kit these days, I expect a lot more than just allegedly superior sound, via manufacturers claims and audiophile hype, and expensive bling casework.

JB

 

[Supreme]

I've never regretted buying anything but I do regret selling my Mission 751 speakers.

 

[hoopsontoast]

KEF XQ1, bought ex-demo from a dealer on an impulse buy. Looked lovely, especially with the nice stands but just sounded dull, lacking in anything exciting compared to the Rega R3s I had at the same time.

 

[BigH]

Arcam Rdac (most dacs will beat it)

Yamaha A-S500 (almost unlistenable)

Dynaudio Excite X 12 speakers (very, very overrated in my opinion)

Yamaha A-S500 YES Totaly agreed with you!!! After the demo runed away from it!

But...

Can desagreed more with the Dynaudios Excite X12!

For me the best speakers I've demo in this budget!

5 stars What Hi-Fi Review

Product of the Year for Stereophile Magazine 2010

Sorry but I'm not the only one judging highly this set of speakers!

I did not like the Dynaudios Excite X12 either I guess they don't excite everyone, thats why auditioning is key rather than reviews.

 

[kmlav]

Like others I dont want this to be a putting the boot into the Arcam rPac but its has to be the worst bit of HI Fi I have ever bought. Someone else posted that it keeps on dropping out which can be fixed if you find the one USB port on your computer that it will work with but why was that little fact not in the manual.

 

[letsavit2]

agree on cables.

don't regret buying naim, love my sound I have. but would say upwards from say good £250 marantz amp the gain is minimal. speakers and there position play the biggest part after that.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Other than a well reviewed Kenwood amp back in the late 80's which turned out to be rather edgy when pushed, nothing springs to mind. Since then, I've been more careful about purchases, and even though I've had a lot of equipment over the last 30 years, I wouldn't say that anything else has been regretted.

 

[Sospri]

My worst purchase was Grado SR60i headphones, after much hype on reviews here and elsehere, I found to be very trebly and sibilent so sold them off on the bay.

Very happy now with my Beyers, very happy with the rest of my kit..............

 

[Fred24]

Very Delighted with the amount of replies!!!..Keep them coming Guys...

Its somehow an educational experience as it may deter some of us from falling in the same traps..

But however the big question remain.!! .How can so many of these products mentioned on this thread had been granted 5* awards.?? .Example Yamaha AS500..It could have been perhaps more demystifying if the partnering equipment involved in the test, could be revealed more often in the award reviews....as many of us find it hard to express the same sentiment after owning these equipment..

Regards

 

[BigH]

About 40% of products reviewed gain 5 stars so its no big deal. Also many reviews are done on expensive systems not your typical budget systems, also in expensive treated rooms, again not your typical living room.

Careful auditioning is part of the answer, home trials are even better rather than just going on reveiws.

 

[hoopsontoast]

About 40% of products reviewed gain 5 stars so its no big deal. Also many reviews are done on expensive systems not your typical budget systems, also in expensive treated rooms, again not your typical living room.

Careful auditioning is part of the answer, home trials are even better rather than just going on reveiws.

Yup, dont buy on hype or reviews. Go hear it yourself first.

Or, like me you dont mind going through a lot of kit to try, and take a little loss on it when you move it on, dive in at the deep end and just buy what you fancy!

Only other item I bought that was not great at all were the Antique Sound Lab Wave 8 Monoblocks, that was based on 'hype' reviews, mind they were cheap but still, there is a reason you dont get good small valve monoblocks at £100/pair.

 

[AlbaBrown]

Loads in the past (mainly from following reviews and buying without a proper audition) for example:

Kenwood 3020SE - Spitty, brash, reasonable detail retrieval but NO control.

KEF Coda 7 - the boxiest pile of plastic junk I have ever owned

Tannoy 603 - Pleasant enough but stupidly short end stops on the bass drivers. So you had to turn the volume back and they then became dull

AR Red Box 2 - Just because they were so disappointing compared to the Red Box 1

Pioneer A400 - Great detail, and energy, but no musicality and could not drive anything bigger than a standmount properly

KEF Q3 - Midrange weak, and what there was of it was very cuppy sounding

Cable Talk Talk 3 & Linn K20 - Both turned out to be nothing more than 79 strand mediocrity

Linn K5 - replaced an Audio Technica...only to find out it was made by Audio Technica for Linn based around the one

Mordaunt Short MS10i/20i - Great drivers, but uninspiring crossovers and cabinets. spent a lot of time tweaking them to work how they should

But to balance things out there have been buys that have been a pleasant surprise!

Royd Minstrels - Wonderfully Musical

Mission 760i - Lively little things given the price

Rotel RA1062 - So Much better than the Rega Mira that you'd think would go with the...

Original Rega Planet CD - Lively engaging, different from the usual tray loaders at the time

Marantz CD42 - One of the few cheap Bitstream machines not to be as soft as treacle

Mordaunt Short T2000 Centre Speaker - Looked mean, sounded dynamic and clear. Shame the "matching" satellites were just ordinary

And when I was very young (5!), an Amstrad RP10 Disco. Had disco lights in the lid and a BSR rim drive deck. Onboard amp was quite respectable, but I plagued my parents to change the speakers (horrible things even to a 5 year old) to a pair of Toshiba SS-20s. Later fed a Crown top loading CD into the DIN input and I can remember many an hour of listening before bedtime with the disco lights illuminating the bedroom!!

Thankfully I still had enough of my childhood outside, so not to end up being too much of a nerd!

 

[MakkaPakka]

Monitor Audio Bronze B2 speakers which I bought in 2004 for my first proper separates stereo system - 5 star rated and apparently, alongside the NAD amp and CD player I bought, the absolute best budget system at the time.

They sounded great and way way more detailed than my old Mission 700 front of my 5.1 system but became fatiguing very, very quickly. I strugged to listen to a whole album..

 

[soulsonic34]

Mine was a Cambridge Audio DVD/CD player ... can't remember the exact model other than its colour being silver.

The remote was truly awful, loading times were slow and very picky which discs it could be play.

Bought the model owing to my 'breaking' my beloved Pioneer DVD player and needed a player ASAP as I was addicted to the TV show 'Lost'.

To this day, on seeing any Cambridge Audio product's bring me out in a cold sweat.

Like may reader of these forums, by and large many of my audio/video purchases have proved to be satisfactory

 

[BigH]

I went to buy a Cambridge Audio blu-ray player but neither of the ones in the shop would work, maybe a lucky escape?

 

[h4rdy]

Arcam Solo Movie 5.1.

From day 1 it was going to be an issue as the HDMI board packed up.

Got a 2nd one and the same thing happened.

Got a 3rd then the DVD drive stopped closing properly.

After contacting them 'it will need a new drive at x amount' I took it apart and bought an X Box drive belt off eBay and fixed it myself for 3 quid!

Oh and the remote corrupted itself, goodbye 80 odd quid.

Utter load of overpriced rubbish!

Never ever again will I buy Arcam.

 

[Ambrose]

Changing Hi Fi setup for Surround Setup to fit in with new home / kids.

Not that it was bad stuff (Arcam AVR280 B&W MT-20)

But ultimately the musical experience just wasn't there.

Now happy again with Hi Fi system, albeit a minor pain to setup speakers for listening to.

 

[Big Chris]

Didn't buy them as such as they were free with my A65+ & CD72T, but my original VDH The Bay I/Cs were very dull sounding. Wasn't long before I'd ousted them in favour of some used Kimber Silver Streaks, which may have pushed the sound a bit too far the other way, but were still a massive improvement.

 

[ngibbs]

Beyedynamic t5p headphones.

 

[ISAC69]

I think the main lesson here is not to buy bassed on Magazine reviews but to go and audition carefully every component before buying .

 

[craigsanderson]

KEF LS50. Bought with high expectations, and to be fair at mid and high volumes they performed as expected.

However, at low or levels where i could still hold a conversation with the family, the LS50's sounded dull and unexciting.

Such a shame really. Bought the e305 system thinking they would be better with the powered sub, again when cranked up they are fine.

Maybe it's a feature of the uni-q driver that they need to be pushed hard.

 

[DIB]

Probably my Naim Uniti when they first came out. There was a 10% off everything deal at Audio T and I went to demo a Naim 5i amp. I ended up demoing the Uniti as well, and the WOW factor kicked in and I rather foolishly signed up for it there and then on a buy now, pay 12 months later deal. Wrong move, 12 months came around and I had to offload the Uniti as I had more pressing demands for my money. Luckily I only lost £200 on the deal. Cracking piece of kit though.

Purely on disappointment terms probably an Onkyo TX-8050. Didn't get on with it at all and swapped it the following week for something else.

PS: Going against the grain in this thread but my rDAC works perfectly well, and the wireless function works a treat with my laptop.

.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

A Toshiba hd-dvd player just before bluray won the battle. Ebay to Germany got me outa jail with a surprisingly good price. Also a dvd recorder before bluray - given to my brother. A Seagate Theatre + where software never lived up to the hardware. Many sets of speakers which never live up to the reputation of a pair of homemade 12in woofered waedrobes made back in the 70's when my ears worked properly.

 

[BigH]

KEF LS50. Bought with high expectations, and to be fair at mid and high volumes they performed as expected.

However, at low or levels where i could still hold a conversation with the family, the LS50's sounded dull and unexciting.

Such a shame really. Bought the e305 system thinking they would be better with the powered sub, again when cranked up they are fine.

Maybe it's a feature of the uni-q driver that they need to be pushed hard.

Yes I found that with the LS50s as well, need some welly to get them going. To be fair I found that with quite a few modern speakers, in the end I got some active speakers which did not have that problem.

 

[the record spot]

Van den Hul The Name on the back of the review in this parish. Woke me up to the cable hype/nonsense but at least only £60 the poorer for it. Never again.

Nicest surprise to echo an earlier post was the brilliant Onkyo TX-8050 amp. Clearly one of HiFi's best kept secrets of the past ten years.

Superb amp, lovely neutral sound and excellent functionality including network capability too. If you like bling and zing HiFi, forget it. If you just want to hear the recording, then it's a winner. A bargain, even at full price.