Whats the worst piece of gear you have owned that cost more than $400

heiney9

pearsall001 wrote: »

MIT S2 speaker cables & IC's...at least I made a few bucks on resale so it wasn't a total bust.

Wow Phil, I know you didn't care for them............but the WORST you've ever owned? That's very odd. I can understand not liking them or even a gear compatibility issue, but the worst you've ever owned. I find that a bit of hyperbole.

But to each their own, you are certainly the very slim minority. Glad you found something else that worked.

H9

mantis

Pioneer Elite BD53FD. Read my thread on this player and it will explain exactly why it's the worse thing I ever stuck in my system. Retail price is $499.99

steveinaz

Another disappointing piece was the Nakamichi OMS-1 CD player. While it was a nice sounding player, between it and a Carver I owned; it was the fussiest with anything but perfect CD's. Your CD's had to be pristine, or it wouldn't track right. My Carver "digital time lens" cdp didn't last long either---for the same reason.

tonyb

mantis wrote: »

Pioneer Elite BD53FD. Read my thread on this player and it will explain exactly why it's the worse thing I ever stuck in my system. Retail price is $499.99

LOL....I had a feeling on that one.

I don't know if I can honestly say "worse I ever owned" about anything as I'm pretty good about research on stuff I buy, at least in my later years. Some of the worst crap I've seen/owned/heard had to be those mid 80's rack systems, and Emerson HI-FI vhs players....remember those ?

janmike

Probably an early Yamaha receiver. I only found out the shortcomings after I listened to better gear.

heiney9

heiney9 wrote: »

Wow Phil, I know you didn't care for them............but the WORST you've ever owned? That's very odd. I can understand not liking them or even a gear compatibility issue, but the worst you've ever owned. I find that a bit of hyperbole.

But to each their own, you are certainly the very slim minority. Glad you found something else that worked.

H9

Phil, You know I'm just busting your balls a little bit

H9

mhardy6647

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

Chumlie, there's an outfit in Israel that works on them. Can't remember their name and I don't see anything in my "Favorites" that rings a bell, but .... I'll work on that.

B&O stuff put a premium on "looks" which translated long term into proprietary, PITA gear to fix.
Still ..... a properly working 4002 radial arm gliding over vinyl is ...... ****. :loneranger:

There was (is) some logic to b&o's approach to turntables and arms. If the goal is low mass moving parts and a high compliance cartridge/suspension system - using proprietary mounts makes sense. Indeed, the slightly later T4P "P mount" standard isn't all that different than b&o's proprietary cartridge mounting system (albeit less dainty than b&o's). The low mass, suspended subchassis design employed by b&o on many of its tts was emblematic of the European approach to tt isolation design in those days (e.g., Thorens, Philips). The later b&o tts were somewhat flimsy (and 'spensive, to boot) - but they performed well and the earlier ones were very very nice IMO (I was, and to some extent, still am, a fan of the low mass, low VTF, high compliance approach to playing records).

b&o's moving irom ("Moving Micro-Cross") cartridges were good; their best ones were very good - and as most here know, Soundsmith is selling modern production versions for a pretty penny.

I've been completely happy with my TX-2... of course, the fact that it cost $7 has a lot to do with that :-)

George Grand

A couple Carver cd players from the early 90's. Black jobs, not the silver-faced junkers that were the first offerings. I didn't pay full price for either one, and took them both back for full refunds about 24 hours after getting them home. Plastic toys that sounded like tin.

mhardy6647

heh. I've got one of those Carver "Digital Time Lens" CDPs - from my favorite local emporium, but of course.

markmarc

I had a Harman Kardon 5 Disc CDP that was a disaster mechanically. It skipped discs all the time and was noisier than a roller coaster.

pearsall001

heiney9 wrote: »

Phil, You know I'm just busting your balls a little bit

H9

Brock, no offense taken what so ever. Thick skin is a must for survival around here.:cool: But I must say that "Hyperbole" is the only reason I decided to give the MIT's a shot. Man oh man was I ever left scratching my head after that encounter. To each his own but for sure MIT cables certainly didn't live up to their "Hyperbole" with me. I hope you're not offended because I know you're a huge fanboy.

B Run

Harman Kardon AVR3600, sounded terrible by itself and even worse paired with my Adcom. My first and last experience with HK.

lanchile

Long time ago, I got a brand new Sony ES series receiver, thinking since "ES" was the top of the line so it should be a good one (yeah right). first it got so hot that I could cook an egg on top and this receiver was not class A amplifier. The sound was not so good for the price of the receiver. I end-up selling it to my friend. He called me four days later and told me..."hey, you sold me a heater that can play music". He sold it a month later!!!

BlueFox

After thinking about this I guess the worst thing I have bought and used is both Radio Shack speaker wire, and hardware store 12 gauge, stranded, twisted, copper wire. While they both worked, it wasn't until I started trying better wire that I realized how bad the cheap speaker wire is. The same applies to generic and Radio Shack IC cables.

Also, maybe lanchile in post 46 above bought the same series of Sony ES AVR I purchased around 2002/2003 or so. They were the x000ES series. That was Sony's entrance in digital amps, and many had a number of problems. First, some wouldn't make rated power, maybe 10% of the power. Some has excess hiss, and others had video dropouts. Others could have all three issues.

Once you found one that worked they were great, but it was a warranty nightmare issue for Sony. I returned three DA3000ES AVRs to Crutchfield, and sent a DA5000ES in for repair twice. However, I can't say they were the worst, because when fixed they were great.

Sony got everything right with the DA7100ES, which I still use as a pre/pro, but the damage was done, and Sony returned back to analog amps. Which was a mistake in my mind, and is another example of how Sony has screwed up their audio division in the last 10 years.

marvda1

Philips SACD 1000 cdp. in the shop 8 months of the first year. only reason i held on was because of the good sound and it was a $2000 player that tweeters was blowing out $400. expensive boat anchor, ended up giving it away for parts.

evhudsons

The ex-wife is clearly my choice in the absolutely worst piece of gear I've had in my inventory. Cheaply built for good looks but lacking in any real subtlety, sucked the juice out of the house and always caused a short in any chance of delving further into good audio gear. I upgraded and couldn't be any happier.

lanchile

evhudsons wrote: »

The ex-wife is clearly my choice in the absolutely worst piece of gear I've had in my inventory. Cheaply built for good looks but lacking in any real subtlety, sucked the juice out of the house and always caused a short in any chance of delving further into good audio gear. I upgraded and couldn't be any happier.

hahahahaha Good one! I guess we always have the choice to "upgrade" right.

heiney9

pearsall001 wrote: »

I hope you're not offended because I know you're a huge fanboy.

Not offended and not a fanboy, they just work incredibly well for me.

H9

headrott

heiney9 wrote: »

Not offended and not a fanboy, they just work incredibly well for me.

H9

OK Fanboy. We know where you really stand. It's OK, I stand there too.:razz:

Greg