Hifi Gear/Components that you Regretted buying.

[Sushant Sharma]

You don't need to be a lifelong enthusiast to arrive at this juncture of regret at buying a piece of equipment that quickly changes from being the object of your desire to the thorn in your side. You fickle people..Some folks like to pursue things to the end and don't give up and then some move on swiftly.
What's a piece of gear that you regret buying for you couldn't get to synergistically sit well in your set up or it had very low resale value or things along that line? OR that this product turned out to be just plain shitty.

 

[reignofchaos]

Multiple items but recently the Cary Audio SLP 03 - this was a step backwards for me. Got rid of it quickly for a small loss.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

You don't need to be a lifelong enthusiast to arrive at this juncture of regret at buying a piece of equipment that quickly changes from being the object of your desire to the thorn in your side. You fickle people..Some folks like to pursue things to the end and don't give up and then some move on swiftly.
What's a piece of gear that you regret buying for you couldn't get to synergistically sit well in your set up or it had very low resale value or things along that line? OR that this product turned out to be just plain shitty.

This is easy.... I have two components vying to be the shittiest purchase I ever made .

First on the throne, sitting far above everything else are my crappy PMC Twenty 26 speakers. And I've been too ashamed to even put them up for sale. Will probably saw them up for firewood at the end .

At a not very distant second is the Devialet D-premier. And though it needs a new power board, never bothered to fix it, didnt want that bloody thing singing again

 

[reignofchaos]

The PMC 20 series was the ugly duckling. I believe PMC dealers were up in arms when the TB2i was replaced by that garbage.

Not that the TB2i lasted too long at my place but there were nice things it had.

 

[Nitin K]

It was the Definitive Technology - Procinema 1000 HT setup. For me, it was expensive for what it's performance was and sold it off for a loss after a year. Not that it was very bad, but was just average in our room with flowery online reviews and absolutely no after sales support from Definitive if there were any enquiries.

 

[bornfi]

Auralic Vega. This thing sounds clean but imagine, all of a sudden everything in the world starts looking glossy, I mean everything, the tree, mountains, your face, my face...lol

 

[fLUX]

In

Sonus Faber Sonetto II , while they were not very bad per se but did nothing much other than burn a big hole in my pocket for nothing & to.think I had picked one spanking new ( probably the only blind speaker purchase I did regrettably so).

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

This vintage bug bit me thanks to this forum and purchased a Marantz Vintage amp .

I think it was this one -

- dont remember the model now .

Could not find anybody to repair it . Finally gave it for repair and Covid happened . So the shop was shut , After a year or so when I went back , that guy simply refused to recognize me and I lost that amp . That amp had a great sound but there was cracking noise in the speaker . After this experience , I decided to stay away from anything which is vintage , second hand etc

 

[greenhorn]

So many headphones and earphones following the YouTube/chifi hype train, most prominently a taction kanon from Kickstarter and a sony mdr ex800st from Japan . After about a year or so I realised it was a scam and that my Sony extra bass series 950 was the best for my taste.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

This vintage bug bit me thanks to this forum and purchased a Marantz Vintage amp .

I think it was this one -

- dont remember the model now .

Could not find anybody to repair it . Finally gave it for repair and Covid happened . So the shop was shut , After a year or so when I went back , that guy simply refused to recognize me and I lost that amp . That amp had a great sound but there was cracking noise in the speaker . After this experience , I decided to stay away from anything which is vintage , second hand etc

I have a vintage Akai I keep in the closet. Never tried playing it so far. But do plug it in from time to time for the vintage vibe with glowing VU meters

 

[Sushant Sharma]

I was just thinking if I wanted to bin things/purchases I didn't like, I should have chosen Origamy. Dont like this one, make the next paper crane. If I wanted to saw things in half maybe woodworking.
But no sir this hifi is serious business and like every one will tell you its an expensive one too.
Another thought... why is that when I buy a TV or a big fridge, I am not thinking about selling it in the future for part purchase of my next TV or fridge. But with buying audio that is something I'd like.

Ok enter the Lyrita Grande horn speakers. I liked them as they were so different from the harbeth I had used for years and magnepans I had used very briefly. However the love affair turned sour very quickly. Suddenly, they looked like behemoth hot lips logo from the Rolling Stones poster staring back at me in my living room.

They weren't bad but at the price they sell for its not very desirable that you will have no takers even when you offer to sell them for 50 percent of the price. I mean somebody wrote to me saying here's a bill and I bought the drivers in your speakers for 11k a pair. Will you sell me just the drivers and yes yours are used and I had bought a new one at that price.

I have seen other lyrita owners repeatedly updating their amplifier adverts for sale and the fact is the damn things don't have a resale value. It's nobody dream to one day own a lyrita system but yes they serve as a good gateway to the tube experince till you can move on.

Another tube amp guy quotes a price of 3 lakhs for his homegrown brews and I chuckled to myself and said once bitten twice shy.

@ Manohar, same here..winter is coming and I need firewood here