Your worst HiFi/Audio purchases ever...?

[Gervais Cote]

Quad 44 preamp : very nice design IMO, built like a tank but a sterile sound that was totally lifeless. Replaced it with a Parasound 2100 pre and my Quad 405-II came to life.

Naim Flatcap : bought it to feed my CD player but couldn’t notice any major improvement.

 

[TheDecameron]

Naim Credos secondhand - sounded like farting wardrobes

That’s the wittiest criticism of speaker SQ I’ve come across. and I needed a laugh today.

 

[Seanf]

This still hurts. I was 17, just started working and decided to splash out on my very own 'music centre'. An Amstrad box that did everything. The disappointment I felt when I listened to it cannot be exaggerated. My new found workmate, an experienced music dude of at least 23 years old, laughed at me and offered to sell me his old Teleton Amp, Goldring Lenco deck, Wharfedale Cassette deck and some half decent speakers (forget the name now). Needless to say, that system wiped out the Amstrad and I sold it as soon as I could.

There is one on ebay for 299 quid (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19437163...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1). A lot more than I got for mine!

 

[Del monaco]

I had a Matsui when I first started work. God awful.Even worse because my landlord had a full LP12 based system up in the attic.

 

[SteveH]

Linn Saras. Awful, muddy, coloured things.
Even worse, I bought them brand new.

 

[calorgas]

This still hurts. I was 17, just started working and decided to splash out on my very own 'music centre'. An Amstrad box that did everything. The disappointment I felt when I listened to it cannot be exaggerated. My new found workmate, an experienced music dude of at least 23 years old, laughed at me and offered to sell me his old Teleton Amp, Goldring Lenco deck, Wharfedale Cassette deck and some half decent speakers (forget the name now). Needless to say, that system wiped out the Amstrad and I sold it as soon as I could.

There is one on ebay for 299 quid (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19437163...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1). A lot more than I got for mine!

Haha, I had exactly one of those when I was in my teens. Sounded pretty crap iirc but had little lights on the speakers that came on when you played it loud, which I liked. Didn't sound as good as the Dansette that preceded it but the Amstrad went louder so was the clear winner at the time.

 

[MJS]

Playing around with a Lenco GL75 last year, I loved the solidity of the turntable but thought the stock industrial tonearm would be bettered by even the cheapest Linn Basik. I was completely underwhelmed by that Linn, took a grinder to the Lenco and stuffed a Rega arm on instead. Now we're talking.

 

[Seanf]

Haha, I had exactly one of those when I was in my teens. Sounded pretty crap iirc but had little lights on the speakers that came on when you played it loud, which I liked. Didn't sound as good as the Dansette that preceded it but the Amstrad went louder so was the clear winner at the time.

Ah yes, I now remember the speaker lights. That was surely what attracted me to it

 

[Bob McC]

Ram 200 speakers. Horrible ABR speakers.
An early Sugden A48 amplifier.

 

[Rosewind]

Benz Micro Gullwing SLR that mostly sounded underwhelming with a long list of very capable phono stages. A Denon 103D + Ortofon T20 + Emerald phono stage sounded much better to my (cloth) ears.

 

[cj66]

Very sexy looking but crap sharp and brittle sounding Sumiko blue point special cartridge.

Equally unimpressed but because it sounded so dull slung on a Project 2.9. What deck n arm did you make suffer it?

 

[Wine Man]

Linn Ittok, bought in the early 80s - bearings failed after a few years. I replaced it with a SME IV which has been utterly flawless since purchased in the late 80's. I still have it, working well despite being off the deck many times for service, transport, cartridge changes etc.

In my younger day I had a Teleton amp from Comet - it seemed very good at picking up weird radio broadcasts despite not having a tuner built in.

 

[miktec]

In my younger day I had a Teleton amp from Comet - it seemed very good at picking up weird radio broadcasts despite not having a tuner built in.

I had one of those for a while - flawless reception of the local taxi rank

 

[stevec67]

Audioquest interconnect of some sort. Sounded exactly the same as the free ones that came with my CD player. Bloody fraudsters.

 

[tpetsch]

I was doing a small video system in a spare room once and purchased some Linn AV Speakers, -AV 106c, 5110, 104c- after the installation I thought something was broken it all sounded so awful, kinda clock radio'ish, but everything was working/hooked up properly, it was just those Chinese made speakers marketed by Linn were simply junk. I replaced all those speakers with others including original Sekrit In-Walls and everything was fine.. Was amazed that a company like Linn could put their name on such utter garbage musically speaking..

 

[Goat]

Kef R3, after an all too brief store demo. Believed in the hype - a sure fire upgrade from my old Kef R100.

Lumpy, disjointed bass, metallic taste to the high, lack of naturalness and warmth in the mids. Realised within minutes I'd made a big mistake. But it taught a valuable lesson about home demos being vital!

 

[Rockmeister]

focal berrylium tweeters from the 90's. NO.

 

[tpetsch]

focal berrylium tweeters from the 90's. NO.

Same with "Super Tweeters" for the most part that I have heard..

 

[narabdela]

Same with "Super Tweeters" for the most part that I have heard..

Apart from the Coles ime.

 

[amazement]

Original Audiolab 8000A amp,bland, any mm cartridge from Rega,dull, Monitor Audio PL100, bright.