Your most disappointing upgrade

[MajorFubar]

Triggered by a reply I put on the 'do I need a DAC' thread (thanks for the idea matthewjh)

What has been your most disappointing upgrade? Perhaps you were initially impressed but once the newness wore off you realised you probably hadn't spent your money wisely

Couple from me:

1) £300 HRT II+ USB DAC I bought in 2012 for my Mac Mini. Funded by a long-service award from my employer, it seemed like a safe bet to improve on the DAC in my Mac Mini, and instantly became the most expensive HiFi product I have ever bought unheard. All the online reviews ran out of superlatives for this little innocuous-looking grey metal box. It was a giant killer; it equalled or bettered the performace of more costly DACs; you will be amazed. But I wasn't, tbh. In fact I was a bit disappointed. Yes it sounded better than the Mac Mini's own sound card, but it wasn't night and day, and unless I directly A-B'd them I couldn't tell you which was playing, especially when level-matched. It wasn't a backward step but it was probably the least effective upgrade I've ever made, and was sold last year with no tears or remorse to partly-fund my current set-up.

2) Mission 794 loudspeakers. Bought them massively discounted from their original £1,000 list price and sold Mission M74s to buy them. Was initially impressed by what I perceived to be a very open and expressive midrange, but after days at home I realised that I'd been fooled by a presentation which over-emphasised the 2kHz-5kHz midband. Sold them to get me out of unexpected financial difficulty, then months later ended up with the EB2s now owned by Al Ears.

 

[Al ears]

Mine:-

The EB Acoustics EB2's previously owned by MajorFubar...... nay, only joking..... ;-)

 

[Gaz37]

I recently bought some Cambridge Audio Studio Reference interconnects from Ebay, only cost me £19 but they were circa £100 new, they replaced a pair of £10 cables and made no difference whatsoever.
I half expected this to be the case but was really hoping to hear an improvement, whoever bought them new must have been annoyed

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Naim flatcap2x....kept it a year and sold it on at £40 profit . could not pick up any difference whatsoever in Sq after connecting it up to the xs .OK maybe a tad more open and a touch of cleaner bass but not worth the £300 spend on a used unit...I pity all the peeps that forked out for them new.I don't really believe the hype about psu's any more.....and yes I have one on my trichord dino mk3 atm but again no great shakes in overall improvement...that's why it's all on a well known auction site.lol.cutting it all back to good old cd and up to date streaming and going to get myself a pair of kef ls50w....yes people I think I'm going active.lol.

 

[matthewjh]

Mine:-

The EB Acoustics EB2's previously owned by MajorFubar...... nay, only joking..... ;-)

Ha ha ha ha ha

 

[CnoEvil]

I bought some Mission Speakers (737, I think), in the late 70s or early 80s. They had a lively sound, that on some music was infectious....but they were tonally inaccurate, which showed up playing classical music. They made pianos sound too plinkety-plink, like they do in Westerns.

 

[ellisdj]

I recently bought some Cambridge Audio Studio Reference interconnects from Ebay, only cost me £19 but they were circa £100 new, they replaced a pair of £10 cables and made no difference whatsoever. I half expected this to be the case but was really hoping to hear an improvement, whoever bought them new must have been annoyed

Are they the black ones?

 

[insider9]

I recently bought some Cambridge Audio Studio Reference interconnects from Ebay, only cost me £19 but they were circa £100 new, they replaced a pair of £10 cables and made no difference whatsoever. I half expected this to be the case but was really hoping to hear an improvement, whoever bought them new must have been annoyed

Are they the black ones?

Mine are and are excellent

 

[ellisdj]

Back in the day I had the red ones, the yellow ones then the black ones borrowed.

The red ones were terrible, the yellow ones pacific I think they were called were in my dj rig one one of my decks for years

I really loved the black ones when I borrowed them

 

[tonky]

Along time back I replaced a rega planar 2 with a Thorens TD320 - I think it was - black with a sprung chassis.

Big mistake - not as dynamic or open and expressive like the RP2 - big mistake - I should have bought the Planar 3 with RB300 arm. - Keep them Planar 2s and 3s!!

tonky

 

[Gaz37]

I recently bought some Cambridge Audio Studio Reference interconnects from Ebay, only cost me £19 but they were circa £100 new, they replaced a pair of £10 cables and made no difference whatsoever. I half expected this to be the case but was really hoping to hear an improvement, whoever bought them new must have been annoyed

Are they the black ones?

They are black, does that effect the sound? Lol

They sound exactly the same as the £9.95 CA AUD100 that I was using.

Maybe if I paid £100 I'd do a better job of convincing myself lol

 

[ellisdj]

I paid nothing for them and still really liked them

 

[Nelis87]

Very basic speaker cable to van Damme Blue speaker cable. Not dissapointed, just made no difference.

 

[chebby]

Naim Nait 5i and CD5i back in 2009.

 

[jmjones]

Try these:

Pinnacle Audio Folio. Over 2 grand for a gloried NAS drive. With the advent of better technology, it was out of date before I had run it in. Firm went bust too.

Upgradable Micromega CD player. The company stopped making those models. My upgrade strategy was scuppered.

Tried any number of digital interconnects that made no difference. I persevered with it for some time, because I obviously needed to buy more expensive ones to be able to hear a difference (what a knob!).

Tag McLaren amplification. Firm went bust-ish. Brilliant. Still pleased with them 20 years later. Service and repairs still possible. More than made up for all the other errors.

Life's all about the journey though isn't it?

 

[tonky]

Naim Nait 5i and CD5i back in 2009.

I'd be interested why toy thought the Naim nait 5i was a waste - (i've never heard the CD5i - so no idea on that)

cheers tonky

PS - I also once had a Mission Cyrus 2 which i found a little too glacial to enjoy as much as I should have done. - I let my daughter use it and she shorted the speaker cables - blew output transistors I think.

tonky

 

[MajorFubar]

Forgot to mention the JVC AX-440 amp. Not really an upgrade, but bought more in desparation. I'd just been given a Ortofon MC-10 by a college friend, and with pretty much zero cash as a student I suddenly found I needed an amp with an MC input. Consequently I raided the pages of my mum's Brian Mills home shopping catalogue and bought this JVC on 24 months' never never (felt like an age). I hated it, being comfortably bettered by the mk1 Cyrus One the same friend had lent me to audition the MC-10. I ended up sticking with it though until I finally got a full time job and replaced it with a Kenwood KA-3020.

 

[CnoEvil]

I ended up sticking with it though until I finally got a full time job and replaced it with a Kenwood KA-3020.

I can remember sorting my cousin in London (late 70s - Police's Walking on the Moon was used as a demo)), with a system that consisted of Trio KD1033B + Trio KA1500 + Videoton Minimax. Great sounding little system....so I suspect the Kenwood (which Trio morphed into), was a good sounding amp.

 

[matthewjh]

I ended up sticking with it though until I finally got a full time job and replaced it with a Kenwood KA-3020.

I can remember sorting my cousin in London (late 70s - Police's Walking on the Moon was used as a demo)), with a system that consisted of Trio KD1033B + Trio KA1500 + Videoton Minimax. Great sounding little system....so I suspect the Kenwood (which Trio morphed into), was a good sounding amp.

r

I bought one a few days ago for £45 to go in my home office. Sounds lovely with CA S30's. After a pioneer 600/700 really, but the over inflated prices are putting me off.

 

[Gray]

A Rotel graphic equaliser. Thought it looked nice!

Vaguely remembered the model number as RE-700.

The power of the internet - looked it up and there they were, loads of images. Bought back memories of being young and stupid - I'm so much older and more stupid now.

Hardly used it before selling for 50 quid (probably paid about 70)

Perhaps you think it looks nice. Perhaps you want one. Perhaps you bought mine - if it's any consolation, you were 20 quid less stupid than me.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rotel+re700&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic0o7So-DUAhVFIlAKHUAGCMQQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bi

 

[MajorFubar]

I ended up sticking with it though until I finally got a full time job and replaced it with a Kenwood KA-3020.

I can remember sorting my cousin in London (late 70s - Police's Walking on the Moon was used as a demo)), with a system that consisted of Trio KD1033B + Trio KA1500 + Videoton Minimax. Great sounding little system....so I suspect the Kenwood (which Trio morphed into), was a good sounding amp.

Was certainly an improvement on the awful JVC. I remember they also did a stripped down version (3020SE) which they issued to jump on the bandwagon of 'tuned for the UK' pared-down Japanese amps, kickstarted by the Pioneer A400. WHF rated the 3020SE quite highly IIRC, but less so the regular one. But the SE wasn't for me because it lacked an MC phono stage. My local hifi shop had the 3020SE and the 3020, and tbh I couldn't tell their sound apart.

 

[Gaz37]

I had a Trio (before they became Kenwood) KA60, I thought it sounded pretty good but didn't have much to compare it to apart from my mates' Amstrad & JVC stack systems.
The thing I remember most is cutting myself on a razor sharp burred edge of the brushed aluminium case, so much for Japanese build quality lol

 

[plastic penguin]

Deffo Electrocompaniet PC-1 CDP. There was nothing actually wrong with it. But it was just..... underwhelming sonically. Technically it was fine but it sounded as dull as ditch water.

 

[insider9]

Gaz has made a good point, albeit indirectly. To be disappointed you need to have high expectations. These are usually associated with either brand recognition but more often price paid.

The very cables Gaz paid £20 for and that originally cost £100, both Ellisdj and I got for free. We're both impressed whereas Gaz is disappointed.

To opposite can be said, also. I once bought a pair of Eltax Linear Response 6.5 speakers. They were part of a bundle along with aforementioned cables so the cost was close to nil for the speakers. Ok, they were not lookers and because the make isn't the most popular only sold for £40 but crikey they were lovely speakers. To replicate the performance from a pair of new floorstanders, I kid not, you'd need to spend around £1,000.

In my case I do my best not to buy disappointing products. The only truly disappointing ones are when I buy new and sell at a loss. That only happened a couple of times. When buying second hand it's hard to be disappointed as you usually get most your money back.

 

[luckylion100]

an upgrade to a Roksan K2 amp from a Marantz PM7000. I then wasted another £300 on a power amp...