Disasterous equipment pairings?

Some equipment pairings are heavenly, others belong with Milton and Beelzebub in eternal damnation. List your atrocious equipment matches.

Worst I´ve owned was a combination of Sumo Athena pre-amp, Denon DP-6600 Monoblocks, and KEF 104 -II´s with coupled cavity bass loading.

All great items by themselves and with other associating parties, but just to doose in the bass department without the "Cube" equalizer.

Oh, the room was far from ideal, too, and IMO that might have been the main problem, for them KEF´s could pull out some deep, powerful and contolled bass.

Jorge

Sansui G-8000 receiver with Yamaha NS 1000M's. I love my big G but it will never drive the Yammies again. SCREEEEEECH!!!!!!

Interesting. G-8000 with those monster KLH Model Ones with modle five tweeter array. Shrieky and unbalanced.

I've got the G-8000 on my Altec Model Ones now and it is much much better. The big G definitely needs a warmer speaker to really shine.

Oddly enough, my most disasterous system setup was in response to suggestions for best quality sound. I had read on other forums about how "incredible" tube only Fisher gear sounds in a vinyl only setup. Well, I had a working Fisher 100-T preamp and freshly recapped SA-16 (considered one of the best sounding Fisher amps ever made) that I had used independently and decided to try. Separately, the preamp had a bit of a darker coloring and fuzzing up of the sound than I typically prefer (more so than my Marantz 3200), but it hadn't been objectionable. The SA-16 had sounded great with a solid state preamplifier and I had already been using it on my Flatlines. When I connected them both together and hooked up my vinyl rig, I was definitely incredulous. I've never heard such a thick, mushy, distorted sound in my listening system. It was the sonic equivalent of "molasses in winter." There were no transients, no highs, half-note bass (not even worthy of being called one-note), and it was difficult to tell instruments apart. What I had been led to believe would be sonic nirvana made a clock radio sound like a live performance. I suppose folks would like the sound, but it was nothing like real music.

To state an overly bright combination as others have, I'd have to say my worst pairing there was a Kenwood KA-5500 and Pioneer HPM-100s. The former is a bit harsh/grainy on the top end and the latter peaks 12+dB in the treble itself. The two combined would work great to chase away in-laws and other pests.

- JP

Of the equipment I currently own the worst match was with my Polk Audio Monitor 12s driven by my Onix SP-3. The bass was all but unlistenable. Boomy and loose. In fact, I was not too pleased with Monitor 10's when compared to my Klipsch KG4s also driven by the Onix. The Polks do shine in my HT however and that is where they will stay.

cubdog

My biggest disaster involved the pairing of an Adcom GFA-555 and a Conrad Johnson PV-7. I thought the combination would create a powerful warmth. Instead, all I got was a noise level so intolerably high that drove me into stupidity. In a rash moment, I sold the PV7, blaming the tubes for the problem. Instead, it was the 555 with the noise floor issues. Swallowing my pride, iIsold off the big watted monster, and went back to the used shop to reclaim my PV-7. Sadly, it hald sold within 24 hours.

Dude! Was this before or after I bought these from you ??
No matter, the KLH Model Ones evened out quite nicely by replacing the Model Five tweeters with JansZen 1-30 tweeter arrays. Still a narrow sweet spot with the low frequencies dropping off early, probably 80 kHz. The accuracy of the four 12" matched woofers + the JansZen make a pretty decent sound... especially considering their age. Late 50s, early 60s. Right on Kelly.

Matt

Conrad Johnson pre/amp combination with Snell B Minor speakers. I didn't own them, but auditioned the setup at a stereo retailer. My wife said the CJ equipment made the Snells sound like Vandersteens. The salesman switched out the CJ for a Bryston pre/amp combination and the sound improved tremendously. The best I could say for the Conrad Johnson gear with the B Minors was the CJ didn't have the balls to drive those speakers. Sounded like I was wearing earplugs.

Krell KSA-250 with Martin Logan Quest, shriller than cave of bats.

Bryston and Carver amp with B&W Nautilus, not happy at all. There were all during my audio snob, audio phool young days when only esoteric would do for me. Was making good money in the heydays of programming and therefore didn't mind spending but soon found out that money in this case doesn't necessarily bring happiness.

Carver, Adcom Monoblocks, Parasound HCA with Infinity Kappa 9. Never satisfying. However the MX-1000 made the Infinity sing and sing good.

I used to work for Rabsons in NYC, while it was a moderately upscale dealers, only few in NY area to sell Yamaha separates. Our bread and butter sale was NAD 3400 with Advent Heritage, NAD had the high PMPO even though the caps would go in a year but it made good marketing, the dual woofer Advents had 600W max handling rating, again a good marketing gimmick and they sold like hot cakes with all sorts of crowds, young or old nevermind it sounded like crap.

This post has been edited by Yamahaluver on October 29, 2007 07:17 am