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Kit you regretted buying

stevec67 said:
Oh, one more thing, I once lashed out on a fancy interconnect, some AudioQuest Quartz or similar. Cost about £70 and sounds...exactly the same as a £5 Tandy special, or a £10 Maplin job, or...any other decent IC.
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I have to agree with you , i had the Quartz but worse still was Audioquest Crystal speaker cable , just can't believe i bought it ' bloody awful stuff.
 
Does anyone actually like the Sumiko Blue Point Special? I bought one eons ago on the 'recommendation' of the review rags and installed it on my LP12/Ittok.

It made a gawdawful racket. It sounded anemic, toppy and quite unpleasant. Even after allowing 50 hours of running-in (volume right down, running on same 3rd rate record I was going to throw out), it was completely blitzed by an Ortofon MC30 Super on its last legs.

James
 
I regret putting the gain on full on my power amp while bi amping a few years back thinking it should be on full and blew the drivers when going loud with the pre. You live and learn.
 
James said:
Does anyone actually like the Sumiko Blue Point Special?
James
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I did the same and bought one on reputation. I set it up twice as I thought I had made a poor job the first time but no, it really was that bad. I then snapped the cantilever off when dusting the TT and despite the write-off of a £200+ cart, I was actually pleased to see the back of it!
 
Original Linn Index. Replaced a pair of MS Carnivals and nowhere near as enjoyable.

Rega 3 - replaced a Royce Spectrum which was never properly set up by the dealer. A friend of mine bought it, got it set up and it promptly wiped the floor with my Rega:rolleyes:
 
Nothing that I actively regret. The 82 was extremely boring (think I preferred the 72..), as was the Ortofon MC20. other than that...no nothing. Clearly I must be massively self-deluded.
 
Nakamichi CR2E, jumped onto cassettes just as everyone else was jumping off. Still got it so you never know, I may still benefit from the much talked of renaisance.

The other thing I have often regretted is building systems on my own without the help of a particular dealer, I always feel that the resulting set up consequently lacks synergy. Pfm is of course helping me to avoid that problem third time round.
 
Some speakers made by a UK company called Tangent in the early 80s - XLR2s? The mags raved about them. Sold my rather lovely Kefs of the time and bought these - horrid.
 
Linn Klyde - the most boring cartridge I've ever heard, a Denon 160 is
more enjoyable and a 20X walks all over it.

I like Quad power amps but hate their pre amps, so wasted lots of money in buying and doing up 22s and 44s, the 44 is the worst, going from that to a Croft Vitale SC is still the best change I have ever made.

Suspiciously little mention of cables or other tweaks here.
 
After 15 years of vinyl-only I bought a Linn Mimik via eBay on a whim. Initially impressive but hard work on the ears by the end of a CD. Sold it on, got a Naim 3.5 then a CDS. Much more like it.

But if that's my one regret in 20 years, I haven't done too badly.
 
kit i regretted borrowing... naim serviced power amp from a dealer. They'd mixed up the wires, melted the boards, blew the speakers.
 
Linn Saras. Let me explain: they were/are great speakers, but I knew nothing about installing them (then). I had them in open space, on a pair of stools (no rigid stands), connected with bellwire (almost). In retrospect, what a waste! I'd have been better off keeping the Gale 401As, getting proper stands and cable, and keeping the change in my pocket.

But that was my fault 30 years ago, not the speakers'.
 
Much as I like Saras, I can't imagine swapping 401's for them!

Unless the room was too small for the Gales.
 
Dean Cameo speakers
Rega Planar 3 - emotionless
Linn Basik arm - lasted 4 weeks before being replaced with an Ittok. This Ittok has lasted me 24 years now. Says something.
Linn Kan MkII - couldn't recreate the magic of the MkI pair I shouldn't have sold.
Spending £700 on a brand new Hicap for a 72 110 combo - seemed to take the life out of it. It works okay now with an 82 250 though.
 
I regret buying my Pentax K10D to replace a perfectly fine and compact *istDS. Now it turns out that the viewfinder/CCD/something is slightly out of true and tilts the horizon around 1-degree, and it's going to cost me more than what I feel it's worth to get that fixed. It also did not work with a flash-unit that worked perfectly with the *istDS. I need a K7, or failing that, wait for a minty *istDS.

Oh wait, we're talking hifi kit ...

James
 
DNM Series 3 six pack, I replaced my 2A with this from DNM many years ago, I went to the home/factory to listen to my unit incase something was wrong. I was a bit underwhelmed with the set up.

Finally he recovered my 'old' preamp from the parts bin :D I took it home very happy the early DNM's boogied, the later became too analytical detailed and cold.......
 
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