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Top 5 Worst Sounding Integrated Amps

Tony L said:
Seems to be getting a fair bit of hate on this thread. I’ve never heard one (I was a fair way up the Naim tree at the time), though I certainly remember the rave reviews. What is it folk don’t like? On paper it just looks like a fairly nice mid-level Japanese amp, I can’t see anything obvious to hate in the specs. Seems fairly powerful too so I’d have thought it could deal with the ports and heay plastic drivers of the era.
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It sounded not very good indeed Tony that said there are folk who like it and as always audio/hifi is a subjective/personal thing.
 
Interesting thread, along with the the other BEST sounding thread.

All ears are different. Different surroundings and mated ancillaries.

Based on this thread, I'm doomed :p

Because of hoarding and not selling, my garage has an original Cyrus 1, Audiolab 8000A (not working), Pioneer 300R, 300R precision, A400, A400X and A445.

During lockdown, I fired them up into my Monitor Audio S8 (currently run by a Yamaha A-S500).

The Cyrus makes the bright speakers brighter. Quite lean too. When on the end of Ruarks Talisman 2s, it sounded much better.

The Pioneers all drove the MAs well, with the A400X the brightest. But the surprise were both 300R and precision version. Just beautiful.

Due to my hearing deficiency, the A445 won through due to the tunability of having tone controls.

Horses for courses I guess.
 
I had a Pioneer A400, it wasn't bad, just not very good. An Audiolab 4000 was OK but just boring. Conversely, a Linn Intek at the same tiome sounded REALLY poor.
 
AnilS said:
Interesting thread, along with the the other BEST sounding thread.

All ears are different. Different surroundings and mated ancillaries.

Based on this thread, I'm doomed :p

Because of hoarding and not selling, my garage has an original Cyrus 1, Audiolab 8000A (not working), Pioneer 300R, 300R precision, A400, A400X and A445.

During lockdown, I fired them up into my Monitor Audio S8 (currently run by a Yamaha A-S500).

The Cyrus makes the bright speakers brighter. Quite lean too. When on the end of Ruarks Talisman 2s, it sounded much better.

The Pioneers all drove the MAs well, with the A400X the brightest. But the surprise were both 300R and precision version. Just beautiful.

Due to my hearing deficiency, the A445 won through due to the tunability of having tone controls.

Horses for courses I guess.
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"All ears are different" and some need to remove the eat wax ;)
 
AnilS said:
I'm sure neither of us are alone :D

I felt ashamed to mention I have 6 more amps, 6 CD players, 10 cassette decks, 4 turntables and a lot of other stuff.
I'll go and hide now. :oops:
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well you never know when you might need them or they become lumps of gold. AND a useful reference. eg I have a pair of EPos M5i and the M12i. The M12i had the resisitor fitted to tame the treble that some complained about and are not half as bright or punchy as the M5i
 
AnilS said:
I'm sure neither of us are alone :D

I felt ashamed to mention I have 6 more amps, 6 CD players, 10 cassette decks, 4 turntables and a lot of other stuff.
I'll go and hide now. :oops:
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Think you need help mate, I’ve a couple of amps that you can have;)
 
hamjam said:
Can't comment on the first 4 but the Sony, really? I think the 5650 you listened to must have been broke! I'm biased admittedly as I have one but frankly I'd put this in amongst the best integrated amps I've ever heard. Almost valve like in its presentation.
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The amp in question had just been repaired and renovated, and fully set up correctly as per the service manual, which was why I was invited for a listen.

Even the chap who repaired it was hugely underwhelmed!
 
In a similar experience to Konteebos earlier in this thread, in the early 90s I dem’d an Audiolab 8000A as an upgrade to my Nytech CTA252 tuner amp. Like many others on this thread I’d been persuaded by the glowing reviews in the mags. It was awful – incredibly bland and boring – and in no way an improvement on the sound of the Nytech.

Mention of Amstrad kit brings back some memories. In the 70s I had an Amstrad 5000 tuner amp for several years when I had minimal available funds. The sound was perfectly adequate for the price and I wouldn’t call it bad, except for the raucous hum on the headphone output.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
I had a basically NOS Ravensbourne and really rated it. So much so I was recently thinking of buying it back from a mate I sold it to back in the late 90's.... Sadly it was my mate who recently passed away suddenly so that ain't happening...
The mush cheaper Ravensbrook was pretty poor yes.
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Quite. I had a Ravensbrook. It was a budget amp (hence my purchase) and since it was my first amp, It sounded GREAT. :)
Things improved later but?

My only other contribution to this thread is a grumble that any amp can sound nasty if what's going in is mismatched, and what's on the end is an awkward load for its specs.
 
Could not get on with the Audiolab 6000A. Cheap 80s midi amps had more life. It also had a metallic, very digital sound to it that I hated. Then almost immediately the door to one of the optical ports snapped off, and within weeks the headphone socket had started emmitting white noise on the slightest rotation of the jack. It might have sounded better with more sensitive speakers but I didn't like it with headphones either.

Had similar problems with another new amp, the Cambridge Audio AXR100D (? or something). Better build quality but similar sound. And very ugly.

Both bought (and returned) from Richer Sounds where everyone was reviewing them at 5 stars. But then everything is reviewed well on that site.
 
Pkay said:
My worst experience was a home demo of a Pass Labs INT-150. I couldn’t wait to return it.
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This is a bit of a surprise entry. Never heard one myself, but based on glowing reviews, I would have liked to - had anyone stocked them in my area.

Pkay, Can you elaborate a little on what rubbed you the wrong way about the Pass INT?
 
It was a while ago but it had a very harsh edge to the sound. Initially I thought it was cold so I left it overnight to warm up but it made no difference to the sound. It had a lot of control on the bottom end, but just an amp that I found grating.

There are a few other people I know from StereoNET Australia that found the same


If the reviews were from magazines I would suggest listen to it before you buy that amp.
 
I can't claim any amp I've heard have been truly horrible but certainly some were "bad" to my personal tastes ...
1. Arcam A85 - lean, analytical, "digital" or "hi fi" sounding
2. Exogal Ion - got a great deal on a new one to compliment the Comet DAC I had at the time. I tried for a year to like it but it was BRIGHT (and often gave me a weird pressure phenomenon in my inner ears. Sold both for a major loss, glad to be done with them
3. Naim Nait5SI - gave me mild tinnitus and just subconsciously sounded "sour" and gray tonally to me, like, I don't want to listen to this
4. Classe 70 - sounded OK, kind of dead and nondescript, but I discovered in the course of replacing the filter caps that it had MAJOR circuit design flaws, to the extent that it's rather unstable (it has amazing protection circuitry, though). I suspect Classe wanted an amp to compete at the entry level pricepoint and gave the project to some entry level lackey, or simply whipped something out posthaste. There are A LOT of marginally stable amps out there, by the way, this one just immediately comes to mind
5. So, so many amps with super fancy enclosures, exorbitant prices and favorable "reviews" that have REALLY bad measurements. I like studying Stereophile measurements. True, measurements often mean squat to sound quality but they can show the obvious charlatans, like, for example, two different tube amps recently reviewed whose measured power even at generous distortion ratings were still half what the manufacturer claimed for power output
 
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