Hi-Fi that has not met the initial expectation placed upon it.
Discovering first hand that the £250 Onkyo TX-8050 stereo receiver sounded like a £250 stereo receiver rather than the giant-slaying beast it was being hyped up to be.
Hyped up to be? Who hyped it? Sounds like an excellent bit of kit to me and I've heard plenty. Your ears might be letting you down. Or the rest of your system, whatever it is, the 8050 punches well above its weight.
Oh, and early Cambridge amps. Once purchased A5 from Richer Sounds, sounded dreadful. Only kept it two days...
well luckily a lots changed since then....
Azur 640 amp + CDP. Within a week it was replaced by a C352/C541 the latter of which managed to play a couple of discs that the Cambridge didn't. A few years later, Cyrus 8 deja vu.
Arcam rDock.
ATC SCM11.
AKG 240 Mark II headphones.
Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones.
All interconnect cables over £40.
A Linn Intek amp plus Linn Katan speakers with matching stands... bought them after my previous gear had been ruined in a burglery in 92. So thought I'd take the opportunity with the insurance money to have a marked upgrade... wrong!! sound so flat, dry and lifeless.
Mac
Just a couple off the top of my head Arcam A85, Cyrus Amplifiers, Audio Technica AHT-W1000X, Audiolab m-dac's headphone output, Grado RS-2i, Sennheiser HD-650
I bought the mission dad 5 cdp when it came out it was alright but not that good and the I made the mistake of buying the dac5 to go with it thinking ( or not in this case) that this would improve things , all was well I hade an insurance policy mature and I bought a Marantz 17ki sig
Meridian 500/566 transport/DAC from late 1990s. Sold to get matching Naim CDX for my Naim amps. Loved the Naim too, but I think the Meridian would have had more long-lasting trouble-free satisfaction, and enabled use with later DACs.
Also a pair of Kef Celeste III which were the first 'real' speakers I'd owned back in 1980. Should have kept a lot longer... but unfortunately started reading the magazines.
Naim CDS3 and XPS2. Sort of done things right with its pace and analog sound but couldnt get near my vinyl rig in terms of pound for pound quality, and the soundstage was flat as a pancake indicating poor and cheap CDP, very disapointing.
You seem to have posted in the wrong thread. This one is entitled "Hi-Fi that has not met the initial expectation placed upon it". That's why I posted my experience. Really don't need you to tell me I'm wrong thanks. 
If you look, I'm sure you can find another thread to further worship at the alter of the Onkyo where you can disagree until your heart's content. 
As I said at the start, equipment that has proved disappointing (for a given individual) is subjective and personal and so cannot be wrong (for them at that time).
You seem to have posted in the wrong thread. This one is entitled "Hi-Fi that has not met the initial expectation placed upon it". That's why I posted my experience. Really don't need you to tell me I'm wrong thanks.
If you look, I'm sure you can find another thread to further worship at the alter of the Onkyo where you can disagree until your heart's content.
No, I posted in the right thread thanks and stand by the comments. I probably don't need to be told when I can or can't post a response in a public forum. "Thanks".
As I said at the start, equipment that has proved disappointing (for a given individual) is subjective and personal and so cannot be wrong (for them at that time).
Plainly, but with one exception. Hell, he couldn't even get the RRP right (£400)...still, it simply shows that partnered with the wrong gear, almost anything won't sound at its best.
As I said at the start, equipment that has proved disappointing (for a given individual) is subjective and personal and so cannot be wrong (for them at that time).
...still, it simply shows that partnered with the wrong gear, almost anything won't sound at its best.
Yup, which is why an individual experience is....well.....individual.
Oh, and early Cambridge amps. Once purchased A5 from Richer Sounds, sounded dreadful. Only kept it two days...
Leema Pulse MKII-S; Naim CD5i MKII; Denon TU-260L MKII; MA RS6 speakers; Pro-ject Xpression 1; loads of different cables...
Formerly known as plastic penguin