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Thread: What were your worst HIFI purchases?

  1. #71
    Join Date: Mar 2010

    Location: London

    Posts: 2,094
    I'm colin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by daveyboy View Post
    The Cambridge D500 cd player, that will be the first and last time (i was new to hi fi at the time) i listen to a sales person only. I was intending to buy the Sony XB930 but was talked into CA instead, it sounded very dull with dance music or that matter anything which tested the frequencies. It had a very cold sound to the music also, I can't quite describe it but I was glad to get shot of it.
    God that reminds me when Richer Sounds used to sell only Hi Fi.
    I once saw a Nad cd player advertised in the What Hi Fi classified going for a bargain price so of i popped to Richer. When i got there they told me " oh its sold out but weve got this one here cheaper and just as good"
    Never heard of the asian sounding name before and never heard it again but like a mug i bought it. And what a pile of shite it turned out to be.

  2. #72
    Join Date: Jun 2010

    Location: Southampton

    Posts: 1,620
    I'm drunk.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Filterlab View Post
    Cerwin Vega VS-10s, I soon learnt that Cerwin Vega don't make "hi-fi" speakers. They looked great and kicked butt however no detail, no depth to the imaging, no delicacy, peaky response, boxy sound and poor build quality.

    Great for cinema though!

    Mad red cone surrounds too.

    I had a pair of the Cerwin Vega AT100's. Bloody huge things, the size of a fridge with a 15" driver.



    I agree their sound was a bit flakey to say the least. However, I decided to persevere with them and address all the failings. I ended up making the following modifications.-

    Reinforce cabinets by gluing 4" x 2" timbers between baffle and rear panel and between the side panels.

    Remove "shouty" tweeter and replace with Morel MDT33

    Remove mid drivers and replace with visaton drivers.

    Rebuild crossover with decent components and totally rewire with 2.5mm OFC cable.

    Add bituminastic lining and some acoustic wool.

    By the time this was done they actually sounded quite good and their high sensitivity allowed me to run them on a pair of Quad II's and an Audiolab pre amp.

    Shortly after getting them sorted, I was offered a good price for them by a pro DJ and decided to offload them while the going was good.

  3. #73
    Join Date: Jun 2010

    Location: Denny, Scotland, UK

    Posts: 2,226
    I'm john.

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    My first CD player an Aiwa only worked properly for a week then after 5 repairs went in a skip.
    John.

  4. #74
    Join Date: Dec 2008

    Location: East Riding of Yorkshire these days

    Posts: 4,779
    I'm Shaun.

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    Strangely enough a CD player and a single ended 300B valve amplifier. They were both Chinese...! Need I say more...?

  5. #75
    Join Date: Dec 2008

    Location: East Riding of Yorkshire these days

    Posts: 4,779
    I'm Shaun.

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    Quote Originally Posted by break-3 View Post
    An Inca Design Talon amp. Sound was uninspiring, but what I really hated was the digital volume control. The lowest volume level was far too loud for background listening (yes, sometimes it's required, in my house at least) and the steps between each level were too great, so I could never get it to the right volume. Didn't keep it long.
    Sounds remarkably like the volume control on my Croft combo. I use the word 'control' loosely.

  6. #76
    Join Date: Mar 2009

    Location: Glastonbury, UK

    Posts: 1,118
    I'm Chris.

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    A long time ago I bought Technics SUV-505 amp. Absolute pants!

    I also swallowed the hype on the TDL RTL3. Boom and tizz. Wish I'd known about that mod.

    In more recent times, the only product I have bought that failed to impress was the Lavry DA10. The bass was pathetic. The Transporter's own DAC outperformed the Lavry so I got shot of it quick. Luckily it received so much love on a particular forum that the price was ramped up after I bought it and I was able to get back almost what I had paid.
    iFi ZEN Stream/TV/CXC >> RME ADI2 DAC >> XTZ Edge A2-300 >> Rogers LS8a

    PC >> Hugo 2 >> iFi Pro iCAN Sig >> Raal-Requisite CA-1a

  7. #77
    Join Date: Jun 2010

    Location: Scotland

    Posts: 1,940
    I'm Tom.

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    Now there is a coincidence you posting there Mr Technobear, because the worst piece of SHITE I have ever bought came in fact from your good self.

    No, no, no, not the fine Castle speakers you sold me my good man, but those 3 inch lengths of QED SA that came with them I could not believe that 3 bastid inches of this horrid crap could mess up a system so much. Rave reviews aplenty, QED must have sold a zillions miles of this poxy stuff because how many queries do we got on forums from folks who are "looking to improve the sound", so we look down down their component list and see nothing untoward that would account for this musical dissatisfaction and then they finish with the words "I am using QED SA" Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!

    Up until then my worst ever purchase was an Arcam CD72 CD player which was out of the box, on to the rack, switched on, played one track, switched off, back in the box and listed on ebay in less than 20 minutes

  8. #78
    Join Date: Mar 2009

    Location: Glastonbury, UK

    Posts: 1,118
    I'm Chris.

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    Oh good heavens yes, how could I forget QED SA?

    Absolutely horrendous stuff. Harsh. Harsh. Harsh.
    iFi ZEN Stream/TV/CXC >> RME ADI2 DAC >> XTZ Edge A2-300 >> Rogers LS8a

    PC >> Hugo 2 >> iFi Pro iCAN Sig >> Raal-Requisite CA-1a

  9. #79
    Join Date: Dec 2008

    Location: Yorks

    Posts: 16,643
    I'm Nobody.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Effem View Post

    Up until then my worst ever purchase was an Arcam CD72 CD player

  10. #80
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    Right you lot (Mr technobear and Filterlab)..

    The Cerwin Vega's need a pillow in each unlined box and/or a bigger magnet to control the bass unit. Those drivers are basically ok, believe it or not and the crossovers used decent polyprop caps as well. Wouldn't have taken much to properly sort them, but sensitivity and price would have suffered.

    The RTL3's had a deliberate and impedance-killing recess in the midrange. Changing one crossover resisistor from 15 Ohms to 30-35 Ohms would have removed this as well as lifting the midband impedance to a more acceptable level. All bigger IMF/TDL's tended to have a recessed midrange (the lovely RTL2mk1 didn't as it happened) and when I had to modify the RTL3 so an unventilated Audiolab 8000P wouldn't shut down through overheating, this was what the drive unit and RTL designer told me to do (final "voicing" on these TDL's was done by TDL's John Wright, no mean designer himself - he designed the Goldring G800 cartridges in the 60's and possibly had a hand in the 820's too). We sold hundreds of pairs of RTL mk1 models and I got to know then inside out. The RTL4 was the weakest 'cos the box wasn't up to it..
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
    Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me

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