The most overrated kit?

What piece of hi-fi has just left you gobsmacked at its mediocrity - this is especially if it has had praise heaped upon it by the press??

For me, it'd be the original Mission Cyrus 2 amplifier. I owned one for 3 weeks, thinking I was upgrading from a Creek 4040. The little Creek bit the Mission's head off, chewed it up and spat it out. Fortunately some fool bought the Cyrus off me for a not-much-less-than-I-paid for it price.

A lucky escape.

 

Audiolab 8000A - Dire, IMO

 

That good eh??

 

yep

MF interconnect also ranks quite high up there, its a very good cable, for someone who wants muffled lows and cut off highs with no depth or stereo seperation.

 

Is that the one that had the ferrite rings on it? If so I'm not surprised.

 

Tube technology cd 64. pretty much everything about this player was offensive to me. from the cheap buttons to the wobbly cd drawer. sonically it amazingly managed to be both warm and harsh at the same time pandering to the worst stereotypes of valves and the dac 64 upon which it is based. truly an awful bit of kit.
second in line would have to be the ayre pre/power never has a more lifeless piece of junk been foisted upon my ears. construction was of the brick sh*t house school but that's all it would be good for.
there are other bits of kit both cheap and stunningly expensive that have done things very badly too. however all of these have had some redeaming features, the above 2 have none at all.
cheers


julian

 

The NAD C370 Utterly uninvolving, dull, boring, lifeless. And it had a captive mains lead that looked like it wouldn't power a table lamp so no scope to tweak it up a bit. The Arcam Alpha 8R showed it a clean pair of heels in every department including loudness

 

michell gyrodek, ditto most of the above, totally mechanical and lifeless.
audionote kit 1, too. pretty uninspiring.
musical fidelity a1001, big brute, outshone by a pioneer a400 totally , how many more replies will have MF in it?

 

The culprit for most overrated/disappointing kit tried at home is tied between the Pass Labs Aleph 3 amp and Musical Fidelity A324 DAC.

The dac, loaned out by Sevenoaks, failed comprehensively to improve the sonic performance of my system, in any shape or form.

While the Pass Labs was out classed by a couple of Rotel RB-03. No bass, no imaging and all in all a rather uninvolving listen. Unfortunately the amp was purchased blind, (or should that be deaf?) and therefore required me sell it on. Still at least it enabled me to discover what I wanted from an amp, and the subsequent purchase has sat happily in my system for 18 months now.

 

Mine was the Pioneer A400 amp.... fizzy, spitty, harsh, over bright bleached out sound. I cannot understand the reputation of this amp... I bought it in 1991 on the strength of reviews, could have had a NAD 3040 for much less. Due to the Pioneer A400 I am now biased very much to warm and smooth and allergic to anything with least hint of brightness. Which probably means I am missing out on some good kit.

MF Trivista 21 DAC was a big disappointment, luckily was able to sell it on with little pain.

 

I've not had that much experience with hifi kit, but I have a few nominations. The Sennheiser HD650 is one such nomination. Not particularly bad in any area, but not particularly great either. Hardly justifies its price either. I guess the CD3000 also hits that akward nomination too, although it at least sounds better on mid-fi kit, but neither is really worth the money.

The Quad 11L is another such product. How can these speakers be so highly rated is beyond me. They totally lack bass and drive, and sound as small as they look. The bigger Quad speakers are much better IMO.

 

The Tag DAC20 was much hyped at one time. It made absolutely zero difference to the sound on my system. I tried it with alternative amps but the result was the same - nothing.

 

Yeah, I was considering buying one when the bargain price was first posted here, but I decided to wait and see what people thought of it, and nobody's review really made me want to try it.

 

Here's a few to be getting on with (just IMO) :-

Krell,
Levinson,
Wilson Audio,
Tag Dac 20,
MF Trivista kit
Audiodrab

 

Marantz CD 63SE,really overhyped,flat and dull.
Arcam Alpha 5 and 6 amps,again flat and dull.

 

You're becoming an Audio cynic Robbo

Surprised to see that ugly two box CD spinner disn't make your select list

 

overated kit?..all IMO

Castle Harlech - zzzzz
Audiolab 8000a - no better than any budget amp
Spendor 7s - lifeless
interconnects - anything over 20 quid
power cables - any!
Tact - from one show only - transistor radioey.
Rega arms above 250/300 - competition betters

 

He is just hanging too much with audiphiles, many of the usual pet hates there...

For me the ones I remember most are JMLabs Utopia, from the micro to the largest BE playing with an all Chord setup in an audishow...

 

Agree with racey dac 20 totaly underwhelming
Boulder mono's major hype & then some.
M/F 308 power amp "Turdgid"
Krell
Harmonix, underperformers
Wadia 302
Yammamuria cables
Splendor S8's
LP12
Nait 3 (the 2, I quite like though)
Ayre CX7 cdp, takes boredom to another level.
LV speakers, good but not in the
:mana:


Chord gear, being my early aspiration, then owning it, and having to fork out for the therapy after the depression set in.
Worst culprit being the 1200 C, closely followed by the D64.
Oh and AudioDrab (well put) drier than bediwin's throat during a sandstorm.

 

Care to complete that WM

For me only general rules. Overrated?

Any emasculated, domestically acceptable, puny loudspeaker without a decent bass unit

Any amplifier incapable of driving a real man's bass unit

Any CD player

Oh and Nordost.