Whats your worst 2nd-hand purchase?

[seasidersrock]

As above, what have you bought 2cnd hand that has been a total disaster, either faulty or just a side wise move.
I have just bought an Audio Analogue Maestro CDP, total nightmare, drove down to Cheshire to pick it up, it worked fine, played every disc with no problems.
Two weeks later laser packed up, Philips VAM 1250.
Started skipping and has cost me over £200 to sort out.

[Tons of Fun]

In terms of reliability, everything I've bought has been good.

I wish the original Audiolab 8000A I bought, hadn't worked however as I would have avoided listening to it.

[JB]

An ayre AX7e, from a well known dealer, supposedly not that old and in mint condition.......definitely wasn't!!!!!! Off loaded it pretty quick!

[daz-b]

As above, what have you bought 2cnd hand that has been a total disaster, either faulty or just a side wise move.
I have just bought an Audio Analogue Maestro CDP, total nightmare, drove down to Cheshire to pick it up, it worked fine, played every disc with no problems.
Two weeks later laser packed up, Philips VAM 1250.
Started skipping and has cost me over £200 to sort out.

Still cheaper than new though. The joys of buying 2nd hand...........
Hope you havnt fallen out of love with it as its a very nice CDP

[Nagraboy]

Bought some Nagra VPA monos from a second hand dealer. Got them home, there were loose bits rattling around inside one of the 845 valves. Turned out to be no problem. But within 3 months the valves stopped working in one amp so sent them to the distributor to look at. 4 new valves from Nagra in Switzerland plus a check over cost £1200. Then 2 months later the input valves took out the driver circuit (I think) and the amps needed sending to Switzerland. Packaging cost £250, postage on top of that, then the probable astronomical Nagra repair fees led me to chuck them in for a Leben CS300xs. The whole caper left me a few grand out of pocket. I pick up my new VPAs in October - wish me luck!

[It Cost How Much!?!]

Horning Agathons, sounded crap, mainly because the dodgy Essex dealer had 'mended' the drivers without telling me and they sounded really poor. Lost a few hundred moving them on after the dealer didn't want to know the arse. I believe he is banned from this site for various offenses, so I'll say no more.

[Fatmarley]

All the electronics i've owned have been fine apart from a Marantz cd player that was a bit unreliable.

The worst speakers for sound quality were Naim SBLs folllowed by Dynaudio contour 1.3se.

[HoopsOnToast]

Behringer A500, personally, dont see what the fuss was about, IMO, IME etc etc

[Papa Lazarou]

Best sounding amplifier i've ever owned (NAF 845SE) and also the most unreliable product i've ever had (full stop - not just hi-fi).

[bommer]

a nad c370 amplifier,dull,flat and lifeless,a what hifi 5* winner mind,
also forever going wrong

[la toilette]

An elderly Arcam Black Box dac - was like listening through a duvet.

[DCS]

Pioneer PDS904, sounded like a box of Lego and that was before I unpacked it.

[beckypumps]

I bought a sme v it was well made and sounded fine but It just diddent live up to all the hype so I sold it on and went back to a Townshend arm on my Rock ref. A few of my so called upgrades have been more sideways than an out and out improvements.

[clk230]

an audio analogue puccini se ,great amp but kept going wrong probably the only bit of kit of lost proper money on.

[lee1975]

Worst S/H buy was Exposure pre power. Hated it so much and a pair of Kef refrance 1s also very bad.

[Stuffed Chimp]

Roksan Kandy amplifier. Lots of power, but a scalpel like ability to remove the top layer of my eardrums. To this day I have yet to hear something so unbearably bright.

[Bourney]

a naim set up i bought cheap to sell on and keep a quadraspire stand that came with it. I sold the electronics for much less than i thought they were worth initially and the cd player failed shortly afterwards leaving me sending money to the buyer. not a little bit of money either.

bought some LV Auditoriums from a dealer and they were sent out with damaged drivers, took some discussion on here but i did get a chunk of money back and mananged to source a full set of drivers very cheaply through a very helpful hifi manufacturer!

Audio Innovations s700, went bang, lots of smoke, i hit the ground, the wife shat her pants and the dog bolted outside. Dealer was superb in rectifying the situation tho.

there are plenty more little incidents that i cant think of just now.

Most kit i have bought has sounded ok, only the odd buit has sounded noticeably wrong - ie Meadowlark Kestrel Hotrods - i thought the tweeters were disconnected but everything was working fine. V strange.
Unison CD player...well, i built myself up for it, the remote suggested something sepcial but it was so outlcassed in every area by a Rega Jupiter. Fur coat and no knickers!!

[Duvet]

Nothing at all

[Non-Smoking Man]

The stepdown transformer i won on Ebay for £30 in anticipation of winning a Magnavox 15 watt U.S. spec. valve amplifier on the same popular auction site 2 days later (which I thought was under the radar)..you all know the rest..

[MotherSky]

bought an ATC SIA2-150 on ebay - 'buy it now' for £1000 - it had been a long night at the pub, and I'm not really sure how I was able to operate the mouse correctly - domestic consequences were somewhat dire, as I'd spent nearly exactly all our money - "but it was a bargain" didn't get me very far, and it sounded like nails on a blackboard (usual qualifiers apply) - I did manage to sell it on at a decent profit though...