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

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namefail

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Bluetac, not saying it's not good, but I've had it for years and still got more than 1/2 of it left. Think I'll flip it on the bay, unless anyone here wants it. :) OT nothing really.
 

DIB

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Last year I decided to look into the mains cables make a difference debate, and bought myself a mains block, 2 leads, and one of those SBooster thingies. About £300 all in.

Ran them for about 3 weeks or so and then swapped back to the stock cables I had previously used. Nope, no difference so sent them back for a full refund.

On reflection I'm glad I did explore this, because I'm happy in my own mind now where I stand on this matter.

.
 

CnoEvil

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DIB said:
Last year I decided to look into the mains cables make a difference debate, and bought myself a mains block, 2 leads, and one of those SBooster thingies. About £300 all in. Ran them for about 3 weeks or so and then swapped back to the stock cables I had previously used. Nope, no difference so sent them back for a full refund. On reflection I'm glad I did explore this, because I'm happy in my own mind now where I stand on this matter. .

Hi DIB

As a matter of interest, which ones did you go for?
 

alienmango

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For me arcam alpha 9.....fantastic amp, LOVED the sound but it was not powerful enough....so I ended up turning it up too far and blowing it up. It now has a sad existence on my bedroom floor unused and unloved, unfortunately it costs an estimated £140 to repair so it probably won't happen soon :boohoo:
 

audioaddict

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the system I regret buying was my previous audiolab 8000 series system 8000 cd pre amp 2x mono blocs ,sound harsh and aggressive and did not sit well with at all ...............has certainly put me off expensive hifi
 

DIB

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CnoEvil said:
DIB said:
Last year I decided to look into the mains cables make a difference debate, and bought myself a mains block, 2 leads, and one of those SBooster thingies. About £300 all in. Ran them for about 3 weeks or so and then swapped back to the stock cables I had previously used. Nope, no difference so sent them back for a full refund. On reflection I'm glad I did explore this, because I'm happy in my own mind now where I stand on this matter. .

Hi DIB

As a matter of interest, which ones did you go for?

The leads and block were from MCRU, and if my memory serves me right £70 per lead and £100 for the block. They were of an excellent quality, very robust build etc. but in all honestly did not offer me any improvement s on the supplied leads and my Wilkinson's extension block.

The SBooster was from Mark Grant and again I could notice no discernable difference on my SBT.

I'm glad I tried them though, just to satisfy my curiosity.

.
 

CnoEvil

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DIB said:
The leads and block were from MCRU, and if my memory serves me right £70 per lead and £100 for the block. They were of an excellent quality, very robust build etc. but in all honestly did not offer me any improvement s on the supplied leads and my Wilkinson's extension block.

The SBooster was from Mark Grant and again I could notice no discernable difference on my SBT.

I'm glad I tried them though, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Thx.

I have always said that improvements are not a given, and personal trial is the only way......you certainly used decent kit.

Did MCRU offer any possible explanation?
 
DIB said:
my Wilkinson's extension block.

Hi DIB

Wilkinson's mains extension blocks enable components to breathe
smiley-smile.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 

eagle123

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I bought a rotel amp a 830 from cryers hifi, it went pop, took it back and had a refund, borrowed another amp, that went pop, it turned out my cyrus speakers were the culprit the drivers were burnt out, wonderful sound when it worked.

mate of mine had a saisho cd player, promised to buy it of him, however I changed my mind and got a Philips cd604 instead he was saying that all cd players sound the same, I disagreed, and pointed out that the saisho was flat and uninvolving
 

CnoEvil

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audioaddict said:
the system I regret buying was my previous audiolab 8000 series system 8000 cd pre amp 2x mono blocs ,sound harsh and aggressive and did not sit well with at all ...............has certainly put me off expensive hifi

Do not let one bad experience put you off more expensive hifi. The right choice can give serious satisfaction.......and it doesn't always have to cost a King's ransom.
 

MajorFubar

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Celestion DL6's, when they were current. Liked the sound in the shop, with all the usual caveats of it being an unfamiliar environment, tried to like the sound in my house, but ended up concluding that getting the kind of sound I wanted from infinite-baffle loudspeakers would cost more money than I could spend. Within 18 months I part-ex'd them for some Tannoy 607's which now and again I wish I still owned. Or maybe changed them for the 609's or 611's.
 

CnoEvil

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MajorFubar said:
Celestion DL6's, when they were current. Liked the sound in the shop, with all the usual caveats of it being an unfamiliar environment, tried to like the sound in my house, but ended up concluding that getting the kind of sound I wanted from infinite-baffle loudspeakers would cost more money than I could spend. Within 18 months I part-ex'd them for some Tannoy 607's which now and again I wish I still owned. Or maybe changed them for the 609's or 611's.

The D is beside the S, so I'll let you off. ;)

They were too smooth and soporific for some, and needed a lot of power to kick them into action.......they were better with Classical and Acoustic stuff, than Hard Rock etc.
 

captainx

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I had been a Naim fan for a number of years and was very pleased with my Naim 112 / 150 Pre/Power combo.

I added a Flatcap PSU and found it made only a slight difference, if any at all.

My dissatisfaction was compounded by seeing a photograph of the units internal components which totalled about four and took up10% of the internal case. What a rip-off I thought. The article that I read that showed the picture suggested the same sentiments.

I was so annoyed I sold the Naim and returned to big Japanese amplifiers. My current Onkyo 9070 is vastly superior to the Naim units that I once owned .

I have always found that the big Japanese amplifiers offer excellent value and are often loss leaders to keep the manufacturers reputation as a serious hi-fi maker.

I know that what I have said may be considered heresy by some.

:)
 

adamrobertshaw

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Audiolab 8200A integrated amp.
Stopped working on second day.
Dealer gave me a new one. That stopped working after two months. Fixed by Audiolab. Still running over two years later. Has a horrible squeaky power switch. No on/off button on the remote |(

Wadia 170i transport. Made totally redundant by USB DACs and streamers. It wasn't cheap and doesn't sound that good any more.

Cyrus Stream X. Actually the cost of updating it to a Stream X2. And now the expensive remote handset is totally defunct as i just use a control app!!
 

Johnno2

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I remember being sucked into this 'special edition' 'uk tuned' and all that hype that was so abundant in the 90's, so I went ahead and bought a kenwood 3020se amp,, what a lightweight sounding lump ! its like they modified up the bass to give a tighter more controlled sound, but to me it was thin and brittle in my sytem with a tinselly treble, sold in on and got a marantz instead, ahhh weight and warmth returned

I also made the mistake of modding my rotel 965bx cd player by putting in the discrete stage , so it was now the 965BX 'LE' big mistake, lost that smooth analogue charateristc of the paticular player and made it sound thinner and brighter , I am always very wary of things that say special edition or UK tuned, it usually means they have killed the bass
 

jmjones

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Mine has to be the purchase of a Pinnacle Folio media player.

First impressions were good, home demo, RAID storage, simple interface and sounded very good indeed within my system.

Within a year the technology had moved on so that I could buy a more capable device for half the price, and the company had gone bust. Despite a few attempted contacts the cowboys that built it had disappeared from the face of the earth. I'm still managing to keep it going, but if anything more than a drive fails it will be useless.

http://www.whathifi.com/News/Pinnacle-Audio-showcases-The-Folio-one-box-music-server/

I believe the phrase is caveat emptor. Next time I will wait until one of the more established companies bring out their version! :twisted: :twisted:
 

MajorFubar

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I’ll throw another one in, but perhaps the word ‘regret’ is a bit strong. It’s more a tale of caution really: my HRT II+ DAC. Stunning reviews. You will be amazed, they said. Blows-away all built-in computer sound-cards, they said (“they” being countless online reviews and printed reviews in HiFi magazines globally).

At the time of these stunning reviews I was about to receive a £250 long service award from my employer, so I bought it figuring I had nothing to lose. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good DAC but it’s really not £300 better than the DAC in the 2011 Mac Mini it’s attached to. In fact I’m not sure I could consistently pass an ABX test.

That said, it’s in a different league to the lousy excuse for a sound-card in my old Toshiba P350 laptop, which redefines ‘horrid’. Nasty, dull, closed-in sound which gets confused by anything except simple acoustic recordings. If I’d bought the HRT solely for my Toshiba, I’d have been over the moon. But as it stands, I could probably have spent the same-or-less money more wisely (like on a really good cartridge for my TD160, which has sat cartridge-less for too long). Had it been my own money, I’d have felt a little aggrieved, considering how the reviews and magazines assured me of its unquestionable vast superiority to any stock computer sound card they’d ever heard (including those in Apple machines)
 

BigH

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MajorFubar said:
I’ll throw another one in, but perhaps the word ‘regret’ is a bit strong. It’s more a tale of caution really: my HRT II+ DAC. Stunning reviews. You will be amazed, they said. Blows-away all built-in computer sound-cards, they said (“they” being countless online reviews and printed reviews in HiFi magazines globally).

At the time of these stunning reviews I was about to receive a £250 long service award from my employer, so I bought it figuring I had nothing to lose. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good DAC but it’s really not £300 better than the DAC in the 2011 Mac Mini it’s attached to. In fact I’m not sure I could consistently pass an ABX test.

"Even though the standard sound-card in the Mac Mini is one of the best I've heard in a computer, this thing is several leagues ahead."

So what happened?
 

Audiofilo

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From the OP:

"Mine will be the Arcam rpac. Bought it in 2012, return it because it was faulty. got a new one and the same thing occur: which is the ad hoc cut off whilst listening music. "

Mine sounded awful and we went through 4 in the shop testing them before settling on one that appeared to sound better. In the end I sold it because the sound, in my view, did not match the price tag.

I now have an Aune X1 DAC and it is absolutely superb sounding, detailed but weighty.

My other regrets were the 'flat response' ATC SCM11 speakers, I had to add a sub to get any bass; a pari of Sennheiser HD600s, way too quiet and hard to drive - and finally a Cyrus CD8 - mechanism failures, numerous returns, ignored discs etc. and a less than brilliant sound that was too dry for me.

We live and learn.
 

MajorFubar

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BigH said:
MajorFubar said:
"Even though the standard sound-card in the Mac Mini is one of the best I've heard in a computer, this thing is several leagues ahead."

So what happened?

If I'm being honest, it's a perfect example of hearing huge differences because I wanted to hear them. Sometimes I think the first few weeks or months of living with a new HiFi component are absolutely the worst time to truly evaluate it. Quite often for me, the novelty of hearing something different clouds my judgement, and that novelty needs to wear off before I can truly evaluate whether what i've bought is better, or more often than not, just plain different.
 

tonky

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A mission cyrus 2 to replace an a and r a60 amp. The mission was more revealing but sounded too hard , brittle and system dependent.

I replaced a rega planar 2 with a thorens suspended suspension type record player. I lost the naturally revealing sound of the rega planar - what a great deck that was! And what a mistake!

cheers tonky
 

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