When the equipment doesn’t meet expectations…

[Mullardman]

My contribution to this thread just has to be the LP12 Cirkus I bought as 'Mechanicals only' around 2003, fitted with one of the many s/h Valhallas freed up by the intoduction of the Lingo 1. It certainly looked beautiful, even with an Akito 1. It also sounded pretty good.
I added a s/h Lingo 1 and struggled to hear much, if any significant improvement. Next up, a beautiful s/h Ittok LVIII Mk2, the very last of the Ittoks. An absolute stunner to look at and a dream to set up, but again sonically I struggled to hear much improvement.

Overall, the player never lived up to the hype for me. It wasn't a 'bad' sounding player..it was just never as good as the mythology implied it ought to be. Detail retrieval, 'musicality' (whatever that is..) 'foot tapping', revealing 'the tune'. All so much bull IMHO. It sounded flat and boring, despite 'resets', which were a rip off.

So..after far too long trying to make it sound good to these ears, I flogged it and bought a Gyro SE, which blew it into the weeds. I now have an Orbe, which is better still.

 

[bazza.]

Buchardt A500, Great low down weight but ended up replacing them with some ATC SCM 7 plus a BKSub which blow's them out the water
The ATCs have so much more detail and a far better top end

 

[Curtis]

I’ve had a few things in the past where I’d expected more. A Marantz 63 KI for example. I was gifted the player and was excited to try it. It looked beautiful with its copper chassis but I could only live with it for a few months. I gave it a chance but It was often overly bright and could sound hard. I was a little bewildered at the plaudits it received and was disappointed. I swapped it for a NAD.
What have you listened to that has fallen below your expectations.

I think the Ki version’s are over tweaked personally.
The Marantz cd17 mkii ki sig was the worst cdp I had the displeasure of hearing.
Wonderful build quality though.
Puresound a30 (bewitch) valve amp-really bright & had no timing whatsoever.
Sonus Faber Cremona auditor speakers- bass all over the place & veiled.
Oh and Cyrus amplification obviously.

 

[mercalia]

Sony CDP-XB930 cd player. This the one with the tray and puck. No problems with that but the sound quality just did not work for me. I stopped playing cds as a result until I got the Audiolab 8200cdq when all was right with the world again

 

[Fretbuzz]

Potentially controversial but I'm going to say.... Things made in China!

Seriously, my Q-DAC suddenly stopped working this morning, fine, but on reflection any time I've had a serious fault or unforced error with an audio product it's been something, I've realised, made in China.

Cambridge 840 amp and CD player both had continual issues (thankfully extended warranty through RS); the digital volume on my Quad Atera Play suddenly stopped attenuating (instant max volume nearly killing my speakers and hearing); resistor went on a Prima Luna valve amp (flames); now the Audiolab.

Conversely, all the electrical products made here or elsewhere (Rega, Audio Note, Croft, Bluesound, Chord, Gold Note, Exposure, Nord, Graham Slee) - never a single issue, not one.

Pure coincidence? Possibly. Either way, it's not a pattern I'm going to ignore any longer!

Note some other China-made products have also been reliable, but fewer than haven't.

 

[mercalia]

oh Audiolab 8200 Tuner. I have 2 of them great sound but both have the DAB unit failed or gone wonky. I did buy them off Ebay and they worked fine for some time ( 1 year+). I need to send them to Audiolab to see what they make of it but this Covid thing has messed that. Any way DONT buy one of them

 

[Puggie]

Audiolab 8000 integrated from years ago. Bought it as an upgrade from my A&R A60. Ran it while I recapped the A60 and sold it on. I'm not saying it was a bad amp, I just expected more.

Genelec 1032a. My god what were they thinking, truly shocking piece of engineering. Sound awful, measure awful and their response as they aged drifted in random directions. After about 3 years there was not a stereo pair in the set of 5.

 

[Martin M]

The only one that I thought was so bad it must be broken (as opposed to not being to my taste) was a Cary 805c. Warm, fuzzy, distorted sound. It really must have been broken.

 

[Adiel]

Nagra.

 

[hifinutt]

which one ?

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Potentially controversial but I'm going to say.... Things made in China!

Seriously, my Q-DAC suddenly stopped working this morning, fine, but on reflection any time I've had a serious fault or unforced error with an audio product it's been something, I've realised, made in China.

Cambridge 840 amp and CD player both had continual issues (thankfully extended warranty through RS); the digital volume on my Quad Atera Play suddenly stopped attenuating (instant max volume nearly killing my speakers and hearing); resistor went on a Prima Luna valve amp (flames); now the Audiolab.

Conversely, all the electrical products made here or elsewhere (Rega, Audio Note, Croft, Bluesound, Chord, Gold Note, Exposure, Nord, Graham Slee) - never a single issue, not one.

Pure coincidence? Possibly. Either way, it's not a pattern I'm going to ignore any longer!

Note some other China-made products have also been reliable, but fewer than haven't.

A very common fault on one of the big Cambridge Audio integrated amps! Wonder if they share circuitry...

 

[herb]

oh Audiolab 8200 Tuner. I have 2 of them great sound but both have the DAB unit failed or gone wonky. I did buy them off Ebay and they worked fine for some time ( 1 year+). I need to send them to Audiolab to see what they make of it but this Covid thing has messed that. Any way DONT buy one of them

Mine works fine but I would never use the awful sounding DAB option,

 

[Timcat]

Naim NAC 252; sounded worse than my then contemporary Denon multi-channel preamp's front left and right outputs fed to the same Naim NAP 250 driving Shahinian Obs.

EWA Starting Point speaker cables; sounded thin and quiet compared to any other normal cable - on investigation, I found that the conductors had a resistance of 0.8-1R and that they consistently reduced the audio output by 2.5dB regardless of the music played, which explains their poor performance.

 

[gustav_errata]

EWA Starting Point speaker cables; sounded thin and quiet compared to any other normal cable - on investigation, I found that the conductors had a resistance of 0.8-1R and that they consistently reduced the audio output by 2.5dB regardless of the music played, which explains their poor performance.

That's disappointing to hear. The resistance you measured sounds much higher than the nominal resistance of 14mR/m though. Or am I missing something obvious due to my general ignorance?
https://www.abcaudio.biz/product-page/ewa-starting-point-loudspeaker-cable

 

[Fretbuzz]

A very common fault on one of the big Cambridge Audio integrated amps! Wonder if they share circuitry...

Couldn't say.

A cheaper Cambridge amp I bought (new) never went wrong, or its matching CD player, but again they've been the exception in my experience.

Poor reliability is a far bigger (expectation) let down to me than sound quality. I've heard some real disappointments and for some wondered what all the hype was about, but it's all so subjective and variable.

 

[Timcat]

That's disappointing to hear. The resistance you measured sounds much higher than the nominal resistance of 14mR/m though. Or am I missing something obvious due to my general ignorance?
https://www.abcaudio.biz/product-page/ewa-starting-point-loudspeaker-cable

It is much higher! However, it is consistent with the reduction in SPL of 2.5dB compared to Van Damme 6mm and some old Naim cable I have (both of which gave the same average SPL reading and had a resistance close to zero).

 

[mercalia]

Mine works fine but I would never use the awful sounding DAB option,

same with mine, the FM is not affected. But I got it for the DAB+ satations. I am not sure if it is a hardware problem as rather strange the same problem with both ( one is the original LCD display version , the other the Oled )or the software has crashed and no way to reboot it ( that I can tell - no reseting made any difference) Any way one to avoid if you want DAB as it is unreliable - surprising from an Audiolab, knocked my confidence some what in the brand

 

[herb]

I must admit that mine does not get a great deal of use.

I am enjoying my Meridian F80 radio. I wonder if F80s are serviced now if they should have a fault. It was £1500 new, is getting on a bit and is quite complex with a slot CD drive

 

[Nic Robinson]

Weirdly (referring to the interview quoted earlier), variables such as treble, bass and soundstage actually mean something to me, as do pitch stability, resolution and transient handling. As for pace, rhythm and timing, they are pretty much meaningless to me apart from being a function of pitch stability.

 

[Nic Robinson]

On topic: another vote for the Intek.

Weirdly, I bought one on the strength of a home dem. I was impressed I have to say. A few weeks after I purchased it, my dealer got in touch to say that Linn were changing something in the amp's build and were retro-fitting this to previously purchased units. This was free of charge, but new, post modification units were going to be cheaper (from memory £375 against £500 originally). All very odd. Plus, when the unit came back I liked the sound less. It had lost some gain and, I think, was less lively.

Could anyone with an inside track at early 90s Linn fill me in on what was actually done and why?

I did keep the Intek in a study system for a good few years as it was so bloomin' flexible. Powered my Kans adequately but never particularly beautifully!