Top Ten "Reasons I Don't Like This Component"


Many of us have had the short term experience of demoing or acquiring a piece of gear that, when we installed it in our systems, we soon realized that it wasn’t going to work.

An example I recently cited was after home demoing a CJ 17LS preamp years ago. I couldn’t stand the banging sound of the volume relays while adjusting. The unit sounded fine enough musically but this particular feature was intolerable.

What other features or quirks of components have you had similar experiences with over the short term? I’m not talking about chronic upgraditis, which most of us are afllicted with, just short term experiences that make us say, "this does not work for me."

No need to list ten reasons, just one or two. I'll keep a tab on them and summarize later.
stevecham
In loudspeakers, it is those which provide a "looking down on the soundstage" perspective, and/or which put a vocalists mouth at waist height. I like to look up at the stage, and I want a vocalists mouth at least 5' off the floor. Point source loudspeakers often produce the former, line sources the latter. 
I don't particularly like the way my amplifier and CD remotes rattle if you shake them. The buttons are steel bearings and the casings are also steel. Only four bearings on the amp unit (power, vol up, vol down, mute) but there's 24 bearings on the CD unit and it can make some noise if you shake it. 

viridian,

"...a quirk that dates back to their professional heritage."

I found a picture of Naim (Supernait, or something like that) on the Internet and it really looks that speaker cables would cross. However, I am curious why is that linked to the professional heritage. Is there any benefit to it?


Post removed 

viridian,

Thanks, it makes sense now. I completely forgot that it might have been "power amps professional heritage" and not the button-infested faceplate integrateds.