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

Fongolio

Biggest surprise:
Just how amazing vinyl sounded after two decades of tape and cd.
Close 2nd was how great my RTiA7's sound when fed clean high power (Carver TFM-25)

Biggest disappointments:
Cerwin Vega V-12F. Pure crap compared to my RTi70's at the time. I remembered some great CV's from the 70's. Not any more.
Denon 1930 dvd player. Great reviews but way way overhyped. My Elite 79-avi kicks it's a$$!!
The decline of DVD-Audio and SACD formats. I'm holding out hope for blu-ray audio though.

jmwest1970

I've been surprised by the quality of SACD sound. I really thought it would be a slight upgrade. Another pleasant surprise is the Cambridge Audio equipment in my sig that I picked up unheard.

It's been awhile since I've had a big disappointment. I guess realizing how bad the Norman Laboratories speakers I loved for so long are would be it. I had 2 different series for over 10 years and thought they hung the moon, but then I heard the RTi70s with a sub that are in my HT now. I felt like I had been listening to an Audiovox car stereo.

One small disappointment that I've had recently is my Squeezebox 3. The convenience factor is there, and it sounds good, but it doesn't have the sparkle of a CD or SACD. I've tried ripping to FLAC and WAV, but it just doesn't get there.

TNRabbit

TNRabbit wrote: »

Pleasant Surprise: AKG-701 headphones

Biggest Disappointment: Grado R-1 headphones

I have to add the Radio Shack Minimus 7 & 77 speakers under pleasant surprise; they've shocked more than a couple of people when used as center/surround speakers.

shadowofnight

TNRabbit wrote: »

I have to add the Radio Shack Minimus 7 & 77 speakers under pleasant surprise; they've shocked more than a couple of people when used as center/surround speakers.

I'ts been so long since I have used those, but for sure the 7's would have made my pleasant surprise list had I remembered. I bought those for myself,parents, and numerous friends before surround systems even existed...I remember using 2 or 4 of them right about where we place the surround and back surround speakers in modern systems and I would limit the lower frequencies to them using a simple passive crossover.

I know for a fact the pairs I bought for my parents are still working perfectly, they used rubber surrounds on the woofers like our beloved polks...so they didnt disintegrate like almost every other woofer from that time period.

I've used the black,white and even the veneered versions...thanks for reminding me of those killer little speakers. All the ones I bought were under the Realistic name brand...I dont know if they changed anything after renaming the line to optimus..but the older ones were great.

TNRabbit

The only ones I've seen were Realistic.

adam2434

jmwest1970 wrote: »

One small disappointment that I've had recently is my Squeezebox 3. The convenience factor is there, and it sounds good, but it doesn't have the sparkle of a CD or SACD. I've tried ripping to FLAC and WAV, but it just doesn't get there.

Are you using the analog or digital out? Seems like most folks think the stock analog out is OK, but not great.

I'm heavily considering one, but it will be feeding my external DAC.

steveinaz

Haven't had any big disappointments, but my placette linestage was a pleasant surprise. Being a linestage I wasn't expecting much "character" out of it, but I am amazed at how linear it's presentation is. I still haven't figured out if the linestage is doing it, or just allowing my Benchmark DAC to really strut it's stuff--either way I have been loving the synergy.

Oh wait...one disappointment...XM radio. I was expecting much better performance/sound. What a let-down that was...

mikey1966

shadowofnight wrote: »

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.

shadowofnight,would you email me ,i need to talk to ya about proton aa-1150 amplifiers.email is vs420michael66@aol.com,thanks,mike

cnh

TNRabbit wrote: »

I have to add the Radio Shack Minimus 7 & 77 speakers under pleasant surprise; they've shocked more than a couple of people when used as center/surround speakers.

I still have a pair of those. Remember when they first came out...a lot of us couldn't believe how much sound those tiny 4" woofers and 1" fabric domes could put out at such a low price.

Does anyone remember the stories about those being a copy of some more exxpensive German speaker design or am I imagining things. Could be...I'm getting a bit old? I use one as a center a in smaller systems these days!

cnh

Knucklehead

Surprise: My $140.00 (on black friday) Magnavox Blu-Ray, does what a Blu Ray is supposed to do!

Disappointment: Never being satisfied with my current system!;)

DollarDave

cnh wrote: »

I still have a pair of those. Remember when they first came out...a lot of us couldn't believe how much sound those tiny 4" woofers and 1" fabric domes could put out at such a low price.

Does anyone remember the stories about those being a copy of some more exxpensive German speaker design or am I imagining things. Could be...I'm getting a bit old? I use one as a center a in smaller systems these days!

cnh

I've had a pair of Minimus 7's for about 15 years and never hooked them up until last weekend. They aren't half bad at all! My brother in law gave them to me and since they were Realistics, I just figured...

Yes, I think they are a replica of the A/D/S L210 model and likely have a Braun labeled counterpart.

Barefoot

Pleasant Surprises: Revel M20, Polk LSi9, Sony ES (pre-1994), SACD, NAD integrateds, Signal Cable upgrade.
Disappointments: Infinity Kappa 80, Bose 901, Sony ES (post-1994), DVD-A, Adcom bipolar amps, Biwiring/biamping.

michaeljhsda2

Biggest surprise: Polk Monitor 10A's for 50 bucks (VG condition) and Kenwood KR 9600 receiver for 232 bucks (mint condition and from a local seller).

Danny Tse

TNRabbit wrote: »

I have to add the Radio Shack Minimus 7 & 77 speakers under pleasant surprise; they've shocked more than a couple of people when used as center/surround speakers.

I think we need to have a Minimus 7 thread going....

I still have a pair of Realistic Minimus 7 (in black) that I am saving for my up-coming 5.1 system. Got them for under $40.00/pair when the Shack had them on sale. Was there a shielded version for center-channel use? The later LX-5 version (with the ribbon tweeter) had a dedicated center-channel version and I read that these were killers.

Another surprise: Inexpensive Sony SACD-capable players

I have several of these, amongst them the 5-disc SCD-CE595 changer and the single-disc DVP-NS500V player, and all of them are shockingly good with both SACD and CD. Of course, I'm not saying they will best players 4X or 5X their prices, but they certainly can hold their own.

Disappointments: B&W 602 speakers (lifeless when powered by Marantz integrated amp)

polkie4life

My most pleasant suprise would have to be improvement a Verastarr 6.4se made to my set-up. I removed the plate amps from the subs as i wanted to improve solely the bass. Well, it improves everything, and the bass, its just jaw-dropping :eek:

slothco

Hi everybody,
i'm new to Club Polk. i know this is an old thread, but i just found it searching google for Norman Laboratories. jmwest1970, which models did you have? i have a pair of Model 10 that i've had since about 1978, and i still love them. i recently got a pair of LSi25, and even though they are really awesome, i was pleasantly surprised that i still prefer the Labs.

treitz3

Ah, I have something else to add to this list of pleasant surprises. That would be a DODD MLP pre-amplifier. Single handedly, this bad boy brought out more for my rig than any IC, SC, PC or component my rig has had in it for quite some time. Wow. what a pleasant surprise.

A BIG thanks to Mr. George Daniels for making this happen.

You too Uncle Tedwick........you know why.