What would you never buy again? What would you like to own again?

[Arkless Electronics]

The Electrocompaniet "The Two Channel Amplifier" was exceptional. A commercial realisation of the Loestrom and Otala design published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, it was heavily biased towards Class A, ran hot, was not known for its reliability - and was a dream amp with which to drive Quad 57 ESLs.

That's lostroh..... Sorry to be pedantic. IIRC it was pure class A, certainly to 25W. Also IIRC it had an input impedance of only something like 1K!! Definitely no good with a passive

Edit: This is very IIRC... but the Pioneer M90 I believe used very similar circuitry... just not in class A.

[Ammonite Audio]

Stuff I'd be happy to own again:

Epos ES14s - rashly sold in favour of KEF Q35s
Quad ESL - the Alfa Romeo of HiFi, eg every serious HiFi aficionado should own a pair at some point. So good, yet so awful at the same time.
Lyngdorf TDA2200 - sweet, muscular, musical, efficient and I'd have it back in an instant.
Benz Glider - fragile but lovely
Quad 306 - I was shocked to hear how good these are, when liberated from the grey grip of the usual 34 pre-amp

Never Again:

KEF Q35 - to be fair, KEF seem to have made the UNI-Q design work rather better nowadays if my LS50s are anything to go by.
Hegel H160 - 'nice' sounding in a damning with faint praise sort of way. In other words, refined but musically boring. A SuperNait2 ran rings around the Hegel.
Tannoy MG - maybe great in the right (wardrobe sized) cabinet and in a system that can be caned without upsetting neighbours, but not for me. Well implemented HPDs are another matter, though.
Michell Technoarm - I actually bought two of these and both disappointed. At least the second example didn't have the horribly microphonic cable of the first!
Quad 34 Pre-amp - great design, grey sound. Holds back the otherwise very good 306 power amplifier.

Surprisingly, that's about it for me.

[fatmarley]

KEF Q35 - to be fair, KEF seem to have made the UNI-Q design work rather better nowadays if my LS50s are anything to go by.

I was surprised to hear how bad they sounded compared to the older Kef Coda 8 (Bl**dy What-HiFi? mag)

[Neil McCauley]

Stuff I'd be happy to own again:

Epos ES14s - rashly sold in favour of KEF Q35s
Quad ESL - the Alfa Romeo of HiFi, eg every serious HiFi aficionado should own a pair at some point. So good, yet so awful at the same time.
Lyngdorf TDA2200 - sweet, muscular, musical, efficient and I'd have it back in an instant.
Benz Glider - fragile but lovely
Quad 306 - I was shocked to hear how good these are, when liberated from the grey grip of the usual 34 pre-amp

Never Again:

KEF Q35 - to be fair, KEF seem to have made the UNI-Q design work rather better nowadays if my LS50s are anything to go by.
Hegel H160 - 'nice' sounding in a damning with faint praise sort of way. In other words, refined but musically boring. A SuperNait2 ran rings around the Hegel.
Tannoy MG - maybe great in the right (wardrobe sized) cabinet and in a system that can be caned without upsetting neighbours, but not for me. Well implemented HPDs are another matter, though.
Michell Technoarm - I actually bought two of these and both disappointed. At least the second example didn't have the horribly microphonic cable of the first!
Quad 34 Pre-amp - great design, grey sound. Holds back the otherwise very good 306 power amplifier.

Surprisingly, that's about it for me.

I fully endorse your view of the QUAD 306.

As for the Alfa bit, one of my sub-editors owned a 166. It was, when he bought it, 13 months old and had depreciated in that one year by > 60%, a record for that era only beaten (for a short while) by the Peugeot 605. All the hapless owner was prepared to say was

"The 166 would be a minor classic ..... if everything had been built for them by Honda"

Nuff said I guess.

Neil

[walpurgis]

Quad 306 - I was shocked to hear how good these are

I picked one up out of curiosity recently. Heard them sounding good in other folks systems, but had never tried one. Turns out it's very good indeed. Sounded very promising on the end of a cheap passive, but in a different league now with a TVC fronting it.

[fatmarley]

I fully endorse your view of the QUAD 306.

Yes, got one here sounding rather nice (with a passive preamp)

[fatmarley]

I picked one up out of curiosity recently. Heard them sounding good in other folks systems, but had never tried one. Turns out it's very good indeed. Sounded very promising on the end of a cheap passive, but in a different league now with a TVC fronting it.

How do you find the TVC Improves the sound over the little bear passive?

[walpurgis]

Yes, got one here sounding rather nice (with a passive preamp)

Mine has impressed me enough to wonder what a 909 might sound like in my system. I'd not used a Quad amp since the 303 and 405, which did not hugely impress (although the 405 sounded better than the 303 to me).

[Bonky]

Yes, got one here sounding rather nice (with a passive preamp)

Yep, me too; mated with a Schiit Saga (recommended)..However, having said that, I also have a Quad 99 power amp and I have difficulty telling the difference (both have been updated by RedHill Audio).
R.

[walpurgis]

How do you find the TVC Improves the sound over the little bear passive?

The Little Bear is fine at the price, but the (borrowed) Promitheus TVC just opens the sound right up and adds body. It sounds very lucid and open, yet smoother too.