Hi-Fi Products that totally underwhelmed you

[P700DEE]

counterofbeans said:

keirik said:

Have to disagree about the LP12.

May not have been the best in the world (everyone has a different opinion as everyone has different ears and brain) but back in 1981 it was orders of magnitude better than anything else that could be bought in Sheffield!
It really did make the hairs in the back of your neck stand up.

If you'd popped all the way over to Chesterfield (Audio Scene) you could have had a Pink Triangle which in PT TOO form wiped the floor with the LP12, to my ears anyway.

I had mine playing into DNM amplifiers and Epos ES14 speakers, happy days...

+1 ish. I too bought a Pink Triangle over a Linn but the PT Too was not available till 85 Now the latest generation of Vinyl lovers has come along you can make a really great sound with the right arm etc. combination with the Garrard 301/401 which had been around a far time before the 80s

[anonymous-user]

counterofbeans said:

keirik said:

Have to disagree about the LP12.

May not have been the best in the world (everyone has a different opinion as everyone has different ears and brain) but back in 1981 it was orders of magnitude better than anything else that could be bought in Sheffield!
It really did make the hairs in the back of your neck stand up.

If you'd popped all the way over to Chesterfield (Audio Scene) you could have had a Pink Triangle which in PT TOO form wiped the floor with the LP12, to my ears anyway.

I had mine playing into DNM amplifiers and Epos ES14 speakers, happy days...

Chesterfield. That was the other side of the world for a lad paying 4p bus fare to Sheffield.

Also while it may have existed in 1981 I don’t think I remember reading about it until after I’d bought the linn, and I’m not sure I’d have bought it over the longer established product.

When I’d do finally see and hear one I preferred the linn anyway, but each to their own

[Denis O]

Deranged Rover said:

Denis O said:

Anything B&O. Form over function every time, and the punters swallow it.

Maybe it promotes domestic harmony.

Oh dear.

This comment usually comes from someone who's never heard a decent B&O setup. Is this the case here?!

Yes I've heard B&O systems and wouldn't be so churlish to comment on them without hearing.

I have a Nait 3 and iPod Touch combination which would blow away any B&O.

Now my main system is a somewhat higher end Naim system fronted by a CDX/XPS combo which I'd put up against anything B&O offer.

[Sheetmaself]

TameRacingDriver said:

Possibly, but its fairly common knowledge in hifi circles!

Whilst in general i agree i own a soundlink mini as a mate had one, told him all Bose stuff is ste listened to it bought one within a week. Cost £150 about 4/5 years ago still sounds great battery still good travels the world with me in a sock in my suitcase.

[legzr1]

Denis O said:

Yes I've heard B&O systems and wouldn't be so churlish to comment on them without hearing.

I have a Nait 3 and iPod Touch combination which would blow away any B&O.

Now my main system is a somewhat higher end Naim system fronted by a CDX/XPS combo which I'd put up against anything B&O offer.

Beolab 90?

No, thought not

[thebraketester]

I thought B&O was just a more expensive version of Bose.

[brickwall]

colin_p said:

Sony minidisc players, I boought a walkman type and a component type for home.

A right faff to fill with music which had to be done in real time with other kit I had. I do seem to remember a matched CD player being available that could do it quicker but still a right old faff doing a "mix" disc.

And also bought only a few years before MP3 arrived.

I remember this as well; and they were expensive at the time (I seem to remember something like £180-220 in 2001). Everyone had an iPod by 2004.

[anonymous-user]

brickwall said:

colin_p said:

Sony minidisc players, I boought a walkman type and a component type for home.

A right faff to fill with music which had to be done in real time with other kit I had. I do seem to remember a matched CD player being available that could do it quicker but still a right old faff doing a "mix" disc.

And also bought only a few years before MP3 arrived.

I remember this as well; and they were expensive at the time (I seem to remember something like £180-220 in 2001). Everyone had an iPod by 2004.

I seem to recall around £200-£300 for a "deck" and about £130 ish for a portable player. I think my total outlay was around £400

[Deranged Rover]

thebraketester said:

I thought B&O was just a more expensive version of Bose.

Yes, many people do. They're wrong.

legzr1 said:

Beolab 90?

No, thought not

My thoughts exactly!

[carlymart]

I working in hifi retail from the 90's to early 00,s and all the stuff below I sold and listened to in our demo rooms as well as people houses. Bose and Pioneer a400 crap. Mission 753 speaker again sounded terrible. Always found arcam, audiolab and tag quite lifeless. But b&o has its place some of there stuff is ok. But when comparing price for price I always sold something else. Meridian alwayways sold well over b&o for sound. Stuff I loved was naim, musical fidelity, rega. Ruark. High-end tannoys. Matin Logan. And b&w. Currently I love my hifi of raspberry pi running volumio. Small m8 DAC. Naim bait 5i and b&w cm1s2

[Fermit and Sarah]

carlymart said:

Mission 753 speaker again sounded terrible. Always found arcam, audiolab and tag quite lifeless.

Most wouldn't agree with you, I don't. The 753's are an incredible speaker, but they are amp sensitive, best run with a mono-block set up. I have a Tag/Audiolab/Mission 752 set up, and lifeless isn't a word I'd use. And as for Arcam, I don't know which models you've listened to, but the Alpha 7 range upwards offered unbeatable sound quality per £. I have an Alpha 7 CD/amp/Kef Q35 as our second, more basic set up, and it's simply wonderful!

[krunchkin]

Sonos 5.

I dont know really what I was thinking. A moment of vulnerabilty to marketing hype. If you want decent fking sound you need 2 stereo speakers hooked up to a decent amp. What possessed me to think a grotesquely overpriced white box that only works when its talking to a terrible, badly designed, restrictive app on a phone was a sensible investment is beyond me. Bose for Hipsters. fk em.

[carlymart]

Fermit and Sarah said:

carlymart said:

Mission 753 speaker again sounded terrible. Always found arcam, audiolab and tag quite lifeless.

Most wouldn't agree with you, I don't. The 753's are an incredible speaker, but they are amp sensitive, best run with a mono-block set up. I have a Tag/Audiolab/Mission 752 set up, and lifeless isn't a word I'd use. And as for Arcam, I don't know which models you've listened to, but the Alpha 7 range upwards offered unbeatable sound quality per £. I have an Alpha 7 CD/amp/Kef Q35 as our second, more basic set up, and it's simply wonderful!

Think I sold 40 or 50 pairs of 753 just never got away with them no matter what they where with. Did the whole factory training on them how they should be set up. Just not for me, Loved the 754. With Cyrus kit though. Cyrus xpa7 power amps still some of the best I have heard especially bi amped to ruark equinox. I am just going off my personal experience. And it's why there is so many brands out there, everyone likes there own sound. The most important this is enjoying the music. Regardless of it playing on a £100 stereo of a £100k PMC bryston system. And I always let my customers decide what they liked and enjoy not my personal choice.

[telecat]

Sparky137 said:

Deranged Rover said:

But the king of them all has to be:

- The original Audiolab 8000A amplifier. Life just doesn't seem worth living any more when listening to this dreary, grey miserable sounding device.

100% agree with this. I had one in the 80's and was totally underwhelmed with it - dull and lifeless sounding. After about six months I sold it and bought an original Denon PMA720 amplifier. Far better than the Audiolab in every respect. I still have it somewhere!

I usually quite like most stuff I demo or buy but had a Weird time with the 8000A. I was uprating from a Yamaha A300 in the 80's and listened to a 8000A which was gorgeous. The Amp had everything I wanted with the Speakers I had at the time. Trouble was I had heard another and that sounded "flat" so I borrowed another and that was "flat" as well. Talking to the dealer they had noticed it as well. They had swapped parts from a Demo to a New one as the customer loved the sound so much. It seemed that every so often one would escape that sounded so much better that the rest and nobody knew why. A Musical Fidelity A1 finally replaced the amp followed by an AI A500 Valve amp

[tdm34]

Deranged Rover said:

Where do I start?!



- REL Subwoofers. All of them. If you like boom, thump and appalling timing, they're great. If you like tuneful bass that plays along at the same time as the rest of the frequency range; forget it.
.

Can't have been set up correctly, i've never had any of those issues with either the REL Storm or Stadium that I own, all I ever seem to get perfect timing and accurate and massively deep bass........

[jonny142]

toasty said:

techiedave said:

Hall of Shame moment
Not a great expense but I did once get one of those green pens and ring the outside of some CD's

I did all of my CDs with a permanent marker. I could've sworn it did make a difference.

Those were the days , this is one of the my neatest , most were all over the disc

[anonymous-user]

jonny142 said:

Those were the days , this is one of the my neatest , most were all over the disc

A superb effort!
I may dig out one of mine
I see you did the inner ring too?

[jonny142]

techiedave said:

A superb effort!
I may dig out one of mine
I see you did the inner ring too?

I had it in my mind at the time that any lazer light might escape through the inner ring too ,Plus it was fun and groundbreaking .

[gizlaroc]

I hated the Audiolab stuff, I have mentioned it many times on here before. Same with Naim and Tag stuff too, all so shrill.

The A400x was good, never got the A400's praise?
It was smooth though, but needed big efficient speakers to sing and most people had them on 87db bookshelves.



Regarding the B&O bashing, If you like Naim you will not like B&O.

I don't like the sound of Naim gear, just not my sound at all.

But then I have always had Meridian for the last 20 years, the polar opposite to Naim sound wise, while Naim go for a more forward midrange to give it PRAT, Meridian are all about being super smooth.
I would imagine, well know, that most Naim owners think it's boring.

B&O is very similar in sound to Meridian.
They do some seriously good kit, but you pay for it.
But then it also does so much as well, the fact their TVs have surround decoders in them, the ability to use the TV speaker as a centre and then swap the main left and right to become front right and rear right when you drop your projector down on the other wall. Stuff like that.

The Beolab 8000 speakers came out what? 30 years ago? They were good then and still good now.

I used to sell HiFi, always wanted to like Naim as love the design, but always disappointed, just not for me.

Mate just bought the Uniti Star and a pair of power amps, I was really excited for him as heard they are much smoother these days, it was £10k worth of front end and it has made his PMCs sound so shrill.
He had a pair of Parasound amps before, cost him about £3k and to me they sounded so, so, so much nicer.





Tag BP192 DP processor was terrible. I had a real ball ache returning it under distance seller rules too.
I should have known as I had already tried the AV32r and didn't like it.

Marantz CD63se, again so bright sounding.

Exposure, not sure what series, they launched some new stuff about 8 years ago. I went with a mate to hear it with the guys from Exposure. We genuinely thought there was a problem with the way it was wired up, just no weight to the sound at all. It was a bit embarrassing.

Chord. Again went to hear their new top end DAC/Streamer thing and their new big boy amp, it was nasty sharp.

[Fermit and Sarah]

I think what I'm garnishing from this thread is that all of our ears must be different!