What is the worst consumer electronics purchase you ever made?

[NINaudio]

I'd have to say that distinction goes to when I bought my Def Tech "sub". Which then led me here and eventually to building the UM18.

 

[Hetfield]

What’s your takeaway message?

If you’re buying an AVR or AVP, better stick to the giant brands of Marantz, Denon and Yamaha who have been making them for the last 50 years?

Um no, not necessarily. My point is sometimes you really covet something for no real reason and once you have this experience piece of gear it doesn't live up to your expectations or to the hype. Buying expensive gear doesn't always work out. Maybe something cheap from Outlaw or Emotiva will do the trick.
I've had expensive and I've had cheap and to perfectly honest, the cheap, the inexpensive give you 90% of the expensive for a fraction of the cost. I have many, many examples in my home theater right now.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[snakeeyes]

The AppleTV 4K I can use as a coaster. I bought 2 of them and a 3rd one was a sign up gift.

I replaced with a 4K Firecube and a pair of 4K Firesticks.

 

[Hetfield]

The AppleTV 4K I can use as a coaster. I bought 2 of them and a 3rd one was a sign up gift.

I replaced with a 4K Firecube and a pair of 4K Firesticks.

The Fire Cube is awesome. Fast as can be.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Your sub amp blew up or the woofer blew up?

Amp. And it wasn't worth fixing it.

 

[keepr88]

Worked at a pizza place in high school saved up and bought a pair of bose 901s. A few months later my dad got a 5.1 paradigm monitor set up with a pw2200 v2 sub.....immediately realized I wasted my money on Bose. Lessons learned. I later inherited that sub and still use it in my living room setup......Not my regret but a roommate in college bought speakers out of a white van......brought em home n hooked them up. HILARIOUS!! it was so bad.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Amp. And it wasn't worth fixing it.

You might read about externally powered subs. That way you never have to worry about any internal subs breaking.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

You might read about externally powered subs. That way you never have to worry about any internal subs breaking.

Or I just don't buy cheap POS subwoofers in the future.

I've done a bit of reading about passive subs, I'm not into DIY for this type of thing, and not many companies seem to make passive subs.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have been lucky with my purchases over the years, and have not really had a serious dud except for one.

I have kept a lot of my gear long, and much of it has given good service for decades. My three main turntables are well over half a century old. I have got rid of very little.

When we went on the Giga zone at Benedict Lake, I needed to update the router. I had previously used Linksys routers with good results.
So I bought a Linksys WRT 1900 AC. That was an absolute piece of junk. It needed rebooting often multiple times daily, especially if there was heavy traffic. It was also an expensive router. It improved after wiping out the software, flashing the BIOS and installing open source Tomato software. It still needed periodic reboots, especially when the grandchildren visited and were on their mobile devices. In the end I gave it the deep six and went with Netgear Orbi. I have since also put that in our new home, and have noting but the utmost praise for the system.

A relatively sorry purchase, was my first AV pre/pro which was a Rotel. It did not have HDMI, but no pre/pros had HDMI back in 2005, so that meant workarounds with a switch. The unit was unusually susceptible to RF interference. I did not have it long. It sold well. Then I bought my first Marantz pre/pro, and still have it, but it is in storage. The Marantz pre/pros I had at the Lake and at our Eagan town home are still in use and giving good service, they are the same models. With the new studio I put in the Marantz 7705, that I am very pleased with.

I try hard to avoid disasters, keep my equipment for long periods of time and take care of them. I mainly update for reasons of obsolescence. That involves mainly the pre/pros and TVs. I rebuilt my HTPC for 4K, and updated my DAW with a new build once.

In the AV era I have used pre/pros and external amps exclusively. In the audio only era I used separate pre amps and power amps. My power amps have been exclusively from Quad manufactured by the Acoustical Manufacturing company Huntingdon UK. I have to say that approach has served me very well. All my speakers, have been my designs and builds. That has been another really good decision. This has allowed me to enjoy good sound at comparatively modest cost for 67 years. For me longevity of equipment is a very high priority. I think I have by and large been successful in giving junk a very wide berth indeed. That is a key factor in keeping costs within bounds.

 

[highfigh]

I have been lucky with my purchases over the years, and have not really had a serious dud except for one.

I have kept a lot of my gear long, and much of it has given good service for decades. My three main turntables are well over half a century old. I have got rid of very little.

When we went on the Giga zone at Benedict Lake, I needed to update the router. I had previously used Linksys routers with good results.
So I bought a Linksys WRT 1900 AC. That was an absolute piece of junk. It needed rebooting often multiple times daily, especially if there was heavy traffic. It was also an expensive router. It improved after wiping out the software, flashing the BIOS and installing open source Tomato software. It still needed periodic reboots, especially when the grandchildren visited and were on their mobile devices. In the end I gave it the deep six and went with Netgear Orbi. I have since also put that in our new home, and have noting but the utmost praise for the system.

A relatively sorry purchase, was my first AV pre/pro which was a Rotel. It did not have HDMI, but no pre/pros had HDMI back in 2005, so that meant workarounds with a switch. The unit was unusually susceptible to RF interference. I did not have it long. It sold well. Then I bought my first Marantz pre/pro, and still have it, but it is in storage. The Marantz pre/pros I had at the Lake and at our Eagan town home are still in use and giving good service, they are the same models. With the new studio I put in the Marantz 7705, that I am very pleased with.

I try hard to avoid disasters, keep my equipment for long periods of time and take care of them. I mainly update for reasons of obsolescence. That involves mainly the pre/pros and TVs. I rebuilt my HTPC for 4K, and updated my DAW with a new build once.

In the AV era I have used pre/pros and external amps exclusively. In the audio only era I used separate pre amps and power amps. My power amps have been exclusively from Quad manufactured by the Acoustical Manufacturing company Huntingdon UK. I have to say that approach has served me very well. All my speakers, have been my designs and builds. That has been another really good decision. This has allowed me to enjoy good sound at comparatively modest cost for 67 years. For me longevity of equipment is a very high priority. I think I have by and large been successful in giving junk a very wide berth indeed. That is a key factor in keeping costs within bounds.

I don't understand people who constantly 'upgrade' their equipment on a regular basis, usually without actually upgrading it. Equipment failure is another thing, though. I'm not a fan of manufacturers whose equipment can't work for many years without at least one or two repairs for something that should never happen and when a known defect is discovered, I want a new one if it's under warranty. When Pioneer pulled out of most markets, I decided that I was done with them, even though I hadn't sold any of their equipment in decades- not sure I have sold more than a few pieces of Onkyo and that was before the notorious HDMI board debacle.

I have made my thoughts clear to the people I have as clients and my choices have allowed me to set up and build systems that are still working after many years, rather than constant replacement. I don't want that for myself, I don't make people put up with it just because they pay me for the equipment but some companies don't care as long as they can cash the checks.

 

[TLS Guy]

I don't understand people who constantly 'upgrade' their equipment on a regular basis, usually without actually upgrading it. Equipment failure is another thing, though. I'm not a fan of manufacturers whose equipment can't work for many years without at least one or two repairs for something that should never happen and when a known defect is discovered, I want a new one if it's under warranty. When Pioneer pulled out of most markets, I decided that I was done with them, even though I hadn't sold any of their equipment in decades- not sure I have sold more than a few pieces of Onkyo and that was before the notorious HDMI board debacle.

I have made my thoughts clear to the people I have as clients and my choices have allowed me to set up and build systems that are still working after many years, rather than constant replacement. I don't want that for myself, I don't make people put up with it just because they pay me for the equipment but some companies don't care as long as they can cash the checks.

That is my philosophy also. I buy carefully and seldom. There is just far too much junk around, especially in the receiver market.

 

[highfigh]

That is my philosophy also. I buy carefully and seldom. There is just far too much junk around, especially in the receiver market.

My turntable is a bit over 40 years old and I bought it because of the use of servos in the tonearm for reducing/removing the effects of resonances but if it ever stops working, it will become an expensive paperweight.

My theory- if it works well enough, why replace it?

 

[Eppie]

That is my philosophy also. I buy carefully and seldom. There is just far too much junk around, especially in the receiver market.

I try and follow that line of thinking. We got married 28 years ago and purchased a TV with wedding money. Read up on the Panasonic Gaoo tv's which were well reviewed. 32" CRT brute that weighed a lot but we kept that TV until last year when it went to the church for recycling money. How's that for longevity? Those tv's had pretty good audio too with a unique internal speaker configuration.

Did my homework with our first big flat screen and my Panasonic plasma is still looking good after 11 years. Chose the Denon AVR as the specs were very good and it had great connectivity options which was important as I had both legacy and newer video sources. It's kind of annoying that upgrading the TV these days also means upgrading the AVR at the same time. I think 8k is overkill and 4k is plenty for the consumer market but who wants to run a 4k tv off of a 1080 AVR? I'll eventually loose the analogue inputs making the switch which is a pain for us retro gamers that still like to fire up the Playstation 2 or Wii on occasion. Hell, I still have an Atari 800XL computer that can play Atari cartridge games, but it has a composite output. At least manufacturers are still including legacy inputs for now. The Denon X4700H for example still has pretty good connectivity for a new AVR.

 

[Kleinst]

It's interest

That is my philosophy also. I buy carefully and seldom. There is just far too much junk around, especially in the receiver market.

It's interesting. For me the thrill of the hunt has been fun and is fun. But the incrementality is questionable I'll admit. More often than not, a system dialed in optimally is likely where it is at vs the next level speakers (at a certain point). That said, as I get to where I have more things that I feel can't easily be improved on OR they are a real fit for the room, I find myself trying to hold back a bit in looking for what's next even though it's fun and stressful at times I think some of us could learn from your hits and misses in this regard. And when I say misses, it's not necessarily a piece of crap product that you regret buying. Perhaps also relevant to this thread would be instances you "upgraded" but perhaps regretted the fact that it didn't seem to help or perhaps maybe you thought it sounded better before. Would love to hear of those instances too. Likely most of the time you had hits but often one or two items you probably should have just stayed "as is"

 

[Pogre]

Okay, so where I first started getting serious is when I replaced my 25 year old B&W speakers with a pair of DefTech SM55s. The Deftechs sounded so much better and that really got me going. I had a Denon AVR 1910, which had MultEQ "with" Room EQ. It was an older receiver but a pretty good one. It was 7.1, had HDMI, 1080P with 90 wpc in stereo.

Well I figured the speakers were such an improvement surely replacing my old dinosaur with a modern receiver would be the next big leap so I ran out and bought the first entry level Denon I could get my hands on, a S510B. No MultEQ, no room correction and 75 wpc. I had no clue man. Didn't really understand room correction or its significance but I learned that I really missed it. That receiver was a complete wasted purchase, followed up almost immediately by another wasted purchase.

I then bought a Denon X1100H which has basic MultEQ, but discovered it had no preouts. Just one facepalm after another, lol.

 

[Mark of Cenla]

Back in the1990s, I bought a Kenwood cassette deck at Sam's Club. It was a piece of junk and only worked for about six months. The play, record, etc. controls were cheap beyond belief. The previous Kenwood cassette deck that I bought in the 1980s was a great machine. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Kleinst]

Okay, so where I first started getting serious is when I replaced my 25 year old B&W speakers with a pair of DefTech SM55s. The Deftechs sounded so much better and that really got me going. I had a Denon AVR 1910, which had MultEQ "with" Room EQ. It was an older receiver but a pretty good one. It was 7.1, had HDMI, 1080P with 90 wpc in stereo.

Well I figured the speakers were such an improvement surely replacing my old dinosaur with a modern receiver would be the next big leap so I ran out and bought the first entry level Denon I could get my hands on, a S510B. No MultEQ, no room correction and 75 wpc. I had no clue man. Didn't really understand room correction or its significance but I learned that I really missed it. That receiver was a complete wasted purchase, followed up almost immediately by another wasted purchase.

I then bought a Denon X1100H which has basic MultEQ, but discovered it had no preouts. Just one facepalm after another, lol.

It's interesting with receivers. Sometimes we might not should upgrade unless the features are really incremental. My bedroom receiver is calibrated GREAT for my room. It doesn't pass through all 4k (some). But my TV is still 1080p there. And I don't have Atmos in that room or need it. Pure 5.1 with 2 subs. Anyways, I wonder when I get a new 4k TV whether I lose a lot by running video to the TV and digital optical to the receiver and just keep it rocking. Not sure but don't hope to find out soon as it would cost a lot to replace that one

 

[Pogre]

It's interesting with receivers. Sometimes we might not should upgrade unless the features are really incremental. My bedroom receiver is calibrated GREAT for my room. It doesn't pass through all 4k (some). But my TV is still 1080p there. And I don't have Atmos in that room or need it. Pure 5.1 with 2 subs. Anyways, I wonder when I get a new 4k TV whether I lose a lot by running video to the TV and digital optical to the receiver and just keep it rocking. Not sure but don't hope to find out soon as it would cost a lot to replace that one

After spending some time here and educating myself a little more I ended up with a Marantz SR6011. Still using it in fact. I got it for $899 with a 3 year warranty from AC4L. I still remember it was @panteragstk linked me to it. I wasn't even looking at Marantz because as a rule they're usually more expensive for basically the same machine in a Denon. The 6012s had just started coming out tho so the price dropped on the 6011s. I've been very happy with it. Been over 5 years and it still does everything I need it to.

I shoulda done my due diligence first tho and skipped the previous 2 avrs.

 

[panteragstk]

After spending some time here and educating myself a little more I ended up with a Marantz SR6011. Still using it in fact. I got it for $899 with a 3 year warranty from AC4L. I still remember it was @panteragstk linked me to it. I wasn't even looking at Marantz because as a rule they're usually more expensive for basically the same machine in a Denon. The 6012s had just started coming out tho so the price dropped on the 6011s. I've been very happy with it. Been over 5 years and it still does everything I need it to.

I shoulda done my due diligence first tho and skipped the previous 2 avrs.

Good lord has it really been that long?

 

[Pogre]

Good lord has it really been that long?

I know, right?