Audio Equipment - What were your pleasant surprises and big disappointments?

adam2434

What products really pleasantly surprised you with the sound you got for so little money (not the be-all-end-all sound, but just killer values)?

And the flip side of that - what products were a big disappointment and were outclassed by less expensive products?

Since used gear is always a good value, I'll stick to new items.


Pleasant surprises:

Koss KCS75 headphones ($6 on clearance from Radio Shack from sucks2beme's recent thread) - these things provide way more sound sound quality than $6 should deliver. They are quite enjoyable.

JVC Marshmallow in-ear headphones ($10 from Big Lots) - fairly balanced sound, decent isolation.

Sennheiser PX100 headphones ($35 various places online) - nice, non-fatiguing sound, very comfortable.

Insignia coaxial bookshelf speakers ($40 original price from Best Buy) - there was a lot of hype on these when they came out. Do they live up to all the hype? No, but they sound way beyond their $40 original price.

Polk speakers in general - have to mention Polk here.


Biggest Disappointments (kind of a vent):

Sennheiser CX500 in-ear headphones ($80 various places online) - all of the cheaper headphones above sound better than than the CX500 in my opinion. They are the most disappointing audio purchase I've ever made - peaky upper mids, sibilance, lack of high end resolution. I bought them at the beginning of this year, primarily for air travel, and it's to the point that I don't even bring them with me on trips. I'd rather listen to the $10 JVC's.

I've owned several Sennheiser products over the years, and enjoyed every one except these. I'm half-tempted to try to send them to Sennheiser to make sure they are not defective, which is doubtful given that both the left and right have the same crappy sound.

It's the disappointing sound of the CX500 that led me to really appreciate what the other products could deliver for much less money.

ben62670

Vintage Polk's were my biggest pleasant surprise, and modded LSI's
Also good cables opened up my world. I used to believe that a lot of these guys were nuts when it came to good cables.

Disappointments. Well the Sunfire cinema Grand 5 channel amp. I really wanted to like it, but it only lasted 20 minutes in my setup before I pulled it out.

treitz3

A little ol' 8 watt Radii tube amp. Purchased from a fellow forum member for about two and a half bills and oh, what a pleasant surprise.

No real disappointments yet besides Monster IC's being sonically beat by lower priced cables.........even though they don't make any difference:p. J/K. I have been blessed with the disappointments so far.

treitz3

....or lack thereof.

Early B.

Biggest disappointment was an Acurus amp. The most pleasant surprise was Sonicaps which replaced Solens in my CDP. Night and day difference.

sucks2beme

Monica DAC. Damn good buy for the money.
Monster speaker cables. Big letdown. I though maybe
cables didn't make that much difference. Then I switched
and discovered otherwise.
There's a whole lot of other stuf that was ok, but needed to
to go to make room for the next big thing.
The one item to sneak up on me, GNP Valkries.
I didn't think them all that good. I finally got a decent cable
between the Bass module and the top half(two piece speaker).
They took a big step up. Be sure to always rotate existing gear once
in a while. Sometimes you find a real gem that was hiding.

mantis

Biggest disappointment was the Rotel rsx1069. What a waste of material. I was so mad when that got released and was only 1.1 HDMI. Sucked.

Pleasant surprise is the new Samsung tv's. years ago they sucked **** bad and now they shine with all other models except Pioneer , but no one else does. I'm happy about these new models. Very very nice.

zingo

I would have to say switching to tube in general was a big eye opener. The first time I switch the amp on and took a seat, it was the biggest S-Eating grin experience I've had. The switch from silicone was awesome.

swegyptian

I was thrilled by the sound of the KEF Q60s, that I got at a garage sale for $40. I know, used, but come on!

I was a bit dissappointed in my B&K 7250, but probably because it doesn't go well with my speakers (B&W 604). The whole setup is too bright. I think I will be happier with silk tweeters in my next pair of speakers.

ben62670

swegyptian wrote: »

I was thrilled by the sound of the KEF Q60s, that I got at a garage sale for $40. I know, used, but come on!

I was a bit dissappointed in my B&K 7250, but probably because it doesn't go well with my speakers (B&W 604). The whole setup is too bright. I think I will be happier with silk tweeters in my next pair of speakers.

He is back! How have you been?
Ben

avelanchefan

adam2434 wrote: »

What products really pleasantly surprised you with the sound you got for so little money (not the be-all-end-all sound, but just killer values)?

Pleasant surprises:



JVC Marshmallow in-ear headphones ($10 from Big Lots) - fairly balanced sound, decent isolation.

I have the JVC earphones. I payed a little more than 10 dollars for them, I am thinking more in the 18-20 dollar range. And I have to say these earphones are by far the best I have ever had. Excellent bass, cancels out about 90% of outside noise. Not sure about yours but mine came with two sets of ear buds. One smaller and one larger set depending on your ear size.

I have had them for well over a year now, and the foam is still in great shape. Bought my wife a pair and she loves them also. If I payed 20 dollars you got them for a steal at 10 bucks.

VR3

Pleasant Surprises -

1) RT5 - What a great speaker, period. Best tweeter Polk made for the RT line, I am sure of it

2) RT35i - My first speaker, kept it for YEARS, miss it sometimes. Excellent across the board speaker.

3) Cables

Big Disapointments -

1) RTi70, hands down the worst speaker I have owned to date.

2) M&K Subwoofer -- horrible, horrible

3) Klipsch Promedia preamp that was the rave for a while

swegyptian

ben62670 wrote: »

He is back! How have you been?
Ben

Been here the whole time! Just very quiet...

And I also really don't like the Pioneer Elite DV48. I was hoping for an updated DV45, but it's not the same kind of product. Overall it is much cheaper, and the on/off and tray opening are painfully slow. Load time is fine, but I hate waiting a whopping 6 seconds for the drawer to open when I command it to do so. Then again it was $99 from vanns.

TNRabbit

Pleasant Surprise: AKG-701 headphones

Biggest Disappointment: Grado R-1 headphones

Fireman32

treitz3 wrote: »

A little ol' 8 watt Radii tube amp. Purchased from a fellow forum member for about two and a half bills and oh, what a pleasant surprise.

No real disappointments yet besides Monster IC's being sonically beat by lower priced cables.........even though they don't make any difference:p. J/K. I have been blessed with the disappointments so far.

Man I miss that Radii.:(

george daniel

My biggest surprise was the purchase of a Singlepower PPX 3 headphone amplifier.

My biggest disappointment was a Parasound preamplifier(don't remember the model #)

Edit; just thinking about this has caused me some embarrasment (personally) as to the amount of gear that has passed thru my doors in the last few years,since I joined this forum.For now,and hopefully in the future,I'm pretty much done,,a few tweaks aside.

Early B.

george daniel wrote: »

Edit; just thinking about this has caused me some embarrasment (personally) as to the amount of gear that has passed thru my doors in the last few years,since I joined this forum.For now,and hopefully in the future,I'm pretty much done,,a few tweaks aside.

Yeah, right. I know someone who has said the same thing, and they were lying to themselves. At the rate you've been going, George, I don't think you can stop.

george daniel

I am,,,,,,,, speechless :)

ND13

Kettle..Black....:rolleyes:;):D


Surprise- Dodd ELP

Dis- Dodd MLP, while a great pre by most standards, not worth 4Xs as much as the ELP, IMHO.

shadowofnight

Pleasant surprises :

1. First pair of Polks...CRS+....picked em up on a whim just because they would fit well where I had a need for speakers, and I was blown away at the sound coming from such a small set of speakers.

2. Hafler DH-500....my first powerful amplifier... bought in kit form...assembled it ...fired it up , and was hooked on high power amps for good.

3. Audio Concepts Inc... http://www.audioc.com/index.html ... speaker kits... well they were kits back then like the Hafler amps were ...now I believe they only come fully assembled. I think I bought every kit they ever made ( And still own a few pairs ) ...their cabinets were beautiful and were overbuilt/braced and they used Vifa and Dynaudio drivers and high end crossover components for you to assemble.

4. Rockford Fosgate RF200 preamp and RF2000 amp. Actually made by Hafler right at the end of their existence. The preamp has 3 outputs...a full range...and a low and a high output as well , The crossover point ( 12db per octave ) can be changed to whatever you wish. The amp was the first one I owned to let me go ahead and sell my DH-500...its 32 mosfets sourcing 50 amps of current with a 1,000va toroidal transformer and 84,000uF of supply cap. ( I later upgraded to 120,000uF ) fed my power needs. I still have 1 pre and 4 of the amps.

5. Proton AA-1150 and D1200 amps. I bought a pair of the AA-1150's a LONG time ago new....have kept them to this day. I always wanted matching D1200's , but could never find any...in the past 2 years I have picked up 5 of the D1200's off of ebay and craigslist.

6. Vintage Carver gear. Basically new to these...stumbled onto some deals last year on a C16 pre and 2 pairs of the Silver Seven mono amps...and then later grabbed a TFM-35X . To say pleasantly surprised would be an understatement .





Biggest Disappointments.


1. My first 1.2TL's....you all might say WHAT :eek: .....I bought them new, but could never really love them enough to justify keeping them.....basically could never stand the SL3000 tweeter ( Back then I didnt know it was just the tweeter I had an issue with or I would have kept them and changed them out ) . Another reason is that I have always had kick **** DIY subs ( Even before they were called subwoofers ) and was never lacking in the lowend dept....so my CRS+'s and subs were all the SDA love I needed.


2. BOSE acoustimass system ( Their highest end most expensive system...cant remember the actual model number ) . I had actually had a pair of 901's and liked them, so when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted this set for what he owed me for I said sure I'll take it. You guys and gals bash BOSE around here a lot....and owning this system gave me the right to do it as well. How they ever thought that was good sound I'll never know.
Ended up putting it on craigslist , and meeting some poor sap in the Frys parking lot and relieving him of his hard earned money....it was on craigslist for less then 30 minutes...I cant believe the demand for these


3. Polk SRT system...another one I am sure a lot of you will cringe over....first SRT system I ever heard was a fellow workers system , it sounded good but not great. I blamed it on his placement of the system as well as his entire hardwood floored room...so I still had to own them for myself one day.

Second set I heard was broken ( One sub had a failed driver that was obvious ) and was set up in the smallest room I had ever seen speakers crammed in....so I couldnt pass judgement there either. I passed on buying them , and a fellow polkie here on the forum told me he bought them and repaired the sub ...so that was great they were rescued by someone in the family.

Finally, the third set I heard I actually now own ( Stiil at a friends house at the moment ) ....it is in perfect shape ...and sounds very good....just not great to me for what it is and what it represents...supposedly the pinnacle of polk

I have set the system up in 3 different rooms, in a house that dwarfs mine ....sure they sound good and are really awesome looking with the grills off...they just dont impress me like I think they should.

My one pair of SRS's with only 1 of my TC Sounds subs kicks the living **** out of the SRT system....so maybe thats why I am being so hard on them.

If judged just on a set of speakers....if you didnt know the brand or model you were listening to..the SRT is a fantastic system that sounds ...well...fantastic

I guess all I am saying is I expected more from what is spoken of as the top of the heap is all....so that makes it a disapointment for me.

treitz3

I'd like to add another pleasant surprise I purchased. That was the Polk RT-800 speaker I got many moons back. Acquired it from CC IIRC for what was for me back then a lot of money, but in all fairness it was really reasonably priced. These speakers augmented with a little Polk sub [which you couldn't really classify as a sub....maybe a mid-bass module] and this set of speakers kept some real good sound in the household for somewhere's close to a decade. Still regret selling the RT-800's, as they would be nice to have for sentimental value and a good hand me down or for a BR rig or something.

Polk did me justice there folks. Provided great sound for not a lot of coin.

sucks2beme

zingo wrote: »

I would have to say switching to tube in general was a big eye opener. The first time I switch the amp on and took a seat, it was the biggest S-Eating grin experience I've had. The switch from silicone was awesome.

+1 Go with the glow.

bikezappa

Pleasant surprises

Getting a Revox tuner and amplifier and remote. They all work together and so well designed. Just plain high quality but expensive equipment

Disappointments

B&K preamp. It sounded good but to do just about anything or change anything you had to read the manual or call them directly. I just think you should be able to change the bass setting without consulting the manual.

Danny Tse

adam2434 wrote: »

Pleasant surprises:

Koss KCS75 headphones ($6 on clearance from Radio Shack from sucks2beme's recent thread) - these things provide way more sound sound quality than $6 should deliver. They are quite enjoyable.

JVC Marshmallow in-ear headphones ($10 from Big Lots) - fairly balanced sound, decent isolation.

Sennheiser PX100 headphones ($35 various places online) - nice, non-fatiguing sound, very comfortable.

I will second all the above. I did get my JVC Marshmallows for $10.00/pair as well....from Circuit City. To the above list, I will add the Sennheiser PX200, which is a closed version of the PX100. Great for commuting or at the office.

One of my disappointments, and there are many, was "upgrading" my Onkyo TX-8511 100 watts/channel stereo receiver to a Cambridge Audio A500 integrated amp. There's nothing wrong with the CA amp, except I expected major improvement over the Onkyo....and there was hardly any. In fact, I preferred the Onkyo's warm, full-body sound quality. Not to mention the warm glow of the soft green display at night.

concealer404

swegyptian wrote: »

I was thrilled by the sound of the KEF Q60s, that I got at a garage sale for $40. I know, used, but come on!

I was a bit dissappointed in my B&K 7250, but probably because it doesn't go well with my speakers (B&W 604). The whole setup is too bright. I think I will be happier with silk tweeters in my next pair of speakers.

Off topic for a minute.... aren't you the guy with the two tone 3sgte Camry? Or is someone else using this screen name on TN?

Anyways.... my biggest pleasant surprises:

1) Opening my Mirage Omni S8s, seeing a tiny little sub, and thinking "yeahhhhh.... riiiiight, these are going to suck balls." 10 minutes later "HOLY CRAP!"

2) Trying to figure out why my system still sounded a bit harsh to my eyes... Ran across the Onkyo M5150 in my sig, swapped the old Adcom GFA5200 for it, and BAM! Problem solved. So much more powerful, effortless, and warm-sounding all at once!

Disappointments?

Haven't really had any so far, knock on wood.

Kex

concealer404 wrote: »

...
2) Trying to figure out why my system still sounded a bit harsh to my eyes... Ran across the Onkyo M5150 in my sig, swapped the old Adcom GFA5200 for it, and BAM! Problem solved. ...

Maybe if you listened with your ears instead, you might have solved the problem a lot sooner ... remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, and what the wolf said about various things Little Red Riding Hood noticed? J/k, sorry !

concealer404

Kex wrote: »

Maybe if you listened with your ears instead, you might have solved the problem a lot sooner ... remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, and what the wolf said about various things Little Red Riding Hood noticed? J/k, sorry !

Haha.... The Adcom sounded good with the VS-25s, sounded like poopy on the R50s.

Now the Onkyo.... great stuff, and a much stronger amp apparently.

My ears tipped me off that it sounded like crap to begin with.

markmarc

Surprises:
Adcom GFA-535: A sledgehammer of power hidden in a dr's hammer body.
Totem Mites: A great mini-monitor, one of the best kept secrets in audio.
Onix SP3: Incredible bang for the buck, going to the grave with me.

Disappointments:
Infinity Kappa 200's: What the hell was Infinity thinking giving them the Kappa name?
Harman Kardon PA 2000 amp: 100wpc of wimpiness, very little bottom end.

BottomFeeder

Pleasant surprise: joining this forum, still being a member years later and all of the discoveries I've made about audio from so many of you.

Big disappointment: joining this forum, still being a member years later and all of the discoveries I've made about audio from so many of you...& all the cash it's cost me!!!

Can I get a witness???

DollarDave

bikezappa wrote: »

Disappointments

B&K preamp. It sounded good but to do just about anything or change anything you had to read the manual or call them directly. I just think you should be able to change the bass setting without consulting the manual.

I have a PT-5 - how do you change the crossover point? Otherwise, I like it A lot.

adam2434

avelanchefan wrote: »

I have the JVC earphones. I payed a little more than 10 dollars for them, I am thinking more in the 18-20 dollar range. And I have to say these earphones are by far the best I have ever had. Excellent bass, cancels out about 90% of outside noise. Not sure about yours but mine came with two sets of ear buds. One smaller and one larger set depending on your ear size.

Yeah, I think they normally go for around $20 retail. The Big Lots deal was probably a closeout on a previous model/package. Mine came with an extra set of foamies, but they are the same size. I got a pink set for my daughter to match her pink Zune, and got a blue set for myself.

My overall ranking of the headphones in the 1st post is
Senn PX100 > Koss KSC75 > JVC Marsh > Senn CX500.

The most expensive pair (by a far margin) is ranked last.

Overall, the sound you can get from some inexpensive headphone models is probably the best audio value I can think of. I'm still kind of shaking my head at the $6 Koss. I mean $6 typically gets you un-listenable headphones that are more worthy of the trash can than one's ears - definitely not the case with the Koss.

Off topic, but I also owned Ety ER-4P in-ears, which cost around $180 from Amazon. They were absolutely the most resolving transducers I have ever owned, including speakers - incredible! Their bass was just too thin though, and I had to return them. If they had ample bass, I would have ranked them at the top of the value heap for overall sound delivery per dollar.