Lemons are an actual thing in high-end audio

The last couple of years I have been on a quest to get my system to the point where I am satisfied that it is as good as I could get it within reasonable budgetary limits, which for me was about $20K.

Along the way, I sampled quite a bit of gear in my home for extended periods. In particular, I went through a surprising number of amplifiers before I arrived at my preferred piece of equipment.What I discovered during this process is that lemons can and sometimes get released by high-end audio manufacturers. I am not going to name the manufacturers in question because I honestly believe that my experience was the result of purely random factors and could occur with ANY manufacturer.

One of the lemons I got was a high-power solid state amplifier, very well reviewed, from a highly regarded major manufacturer. I kept hoping that the fabled "burn-in" would fix what I heard. It did not. After about 200 hours I gave up.The sound, though powerful, was harsh and unmusical. In this case, I suppose that I only had myself to blame because although I bought it brand new, I had found it on the gray market. I just couldn't resist the substantially discounted price. Lesson learned. Interestingly, the amplifier I eventually settled on was a different model but from the same manufacturer. I bought it used, but it was from a reliable and known source. I couldn't be happier with the result.

The second lemon I got was altogether different. I bought a high-end DAC directly from the manufacturer, and in this case I was quite lucky. The shipper had made a mistake and sent me two separate units. The first one I got was a upgraded version of the same model that I bought that was intended for another customer. Until the manufacturer reached out to me I didn't know this, and I was terribly disappointed by what I heard. Not only was it not an improvement over my existing DAC. It actually sounded worse. When the manufacturer told me that my unit would arrive in a day or two and would I please ship the one I had been sent by mistake to the intended customer, I was elated. The unit originally intended for me arrived the same day I shipped the wayward unit to its rightful owner. As I had hoped, this less expensive version of the same DAC sounded MUCH better than the one I had been listening to. In fact, it sounded better than any DAC I have ever heard. So, now I am happy. The DAC was the last link in the chain of my dream system.

Much has been written by those in this hobby about snake oil and how manufacturers of high-end audio can take advantage of audiophiles by producing sub-standard gear at exorbitant prices just as a cynical way to turn a buck. For the most part, this has not been my experience. I have run across gear whose sound was obviously refined and well-executed, but just not to my taste. That didn't surprise me. But what did surprise me was the sub-standard gear I encountered from manufacturers acting in good faith who, for whatever reason, just got it wrong and let second-rate gear slip through their quality control efforts.

Buyer beware.