Directors Best & Worst Purchases (1 Viewer)

[mackie]

What's the best HT product you've ever purchased and what's the worst?

I enjoy reading debates on the value of different HT equipment, and it seems that everyone has good reasons for believing the way they do. I'm not so much interested in a debate about mine's better than yours, but I would like to hear about the one or two products you've bought that you feel exceeded all expectations, works flawlessly every time, and that you'd buy again if needed. I also like to hear about products that you wish you never bought.

If this has been done before, please forgive me or if I posted in the wrong forum.

I'll go first:
Best - Home Theater Master 700 remote control. I don't come home to my girlfriend sitting on the couch looking at a blank screen anymore.

Worst - Audioquest Type 6 speaker cables. They don't hurt the sound anymore than the ones I had before. I wish had the money to buy and I-Pod.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Best - Panasonic 53WX42 Widescreen set

Worst - Polk LS50 floorstanding speakers back in 1995.

Those Polk speakers (mated w/ a H/K AVR-80) were so dark and muddy that they almost got me out of the HT game for good.

 

[Levesque]

Best:

JVC D-ILA HX-1U 3 chip LCOS projector. I'm so happy I didn't believe the ''CR and black level is everything'' crap of the DLP's loyalist... I was able to compare it with a Marantz S3 and the Sharp 12K, and the D-ILA was simply better.

And a special mention to the 19$ (for 100') Carol 12AWG in-wall speaker cables that I use for my Paradigm Signatures S8 and C5. Best 20$ I ever invested.

Worst.

The Rotel RMB-1095, nicknamed the ''humming refrigerator''. A real nightmare. So glad I sold it 3 months ago. Customer services at the lowest level. I will NEVER buy a Rotel product anymore.

 

[Ivan P]

BEST - Zenith DVB-318
WORSE - BOSE VSC-10

 

[Jack Briggs]

Guys, there's a specific area for this type of thread, which is where it's now located. Now carry on.

 

[NickSo]

Best: LG DV7832NCX and the Infocus X1...

haven't had a really 'bad' purchase yet... no money to warrant a bad purchase :p)

 

[Aaron Gilbert]

Best: Kenwood KM-X1000 stereo amplifier (130 x 2). THX certified from the pre-Select/Ultra/Ultra2 days. Dual transformers, stable into two ohms, bridgeable, cooling fan which isn't needed, built like a tank. Looks great too.

Worst: Legacy LUM-A1 5-channel amplifier. 80 x 5 at 8 ohms, 120 x 5 at 4 ohms. Compact and light, looks decent. BUT, cooling fan, supposedly 'silent' and dual speed, far too loud and seems on high all the time. Buzz/hum from one channel upon receipt. Sent it back to Proton (seller and manufacturer) for repair, who held it for six months, gave me story after story about when it's coming back or why it isn't yet, etc.. Finally got it back, and now the buzz/hum is worse, and in all channels! Absolutely horrible customer service and repair, wish I'd never bought the thing. Will probably use for background music outdoors at some point in the future.


Aaron Gilbert

 

[gene c]

Best is an open box H/K CDR 20 last January for $49! Honorable Mention prize is a 3 way tie between an open box H/K 520-$299, a refurb Onkyo HT-500-$119 and the Onkyo SKS-HT-500 5.1 speaker system NIB-$129. The worst? Two(2) Toshiba 6915 DVD players bought two weeks ago. Both had the same problem and went back the next day :frowning: .

 

[JohnRice]

Best: also the most expensive. Thiel CS 3.6 loudspeakers. Damn they're great.

Worst: Haven't had any really bad experiences. Probably a Samsung DVD-N501 DVD player, which is kind of a piece of crap. It's finicky as hell and sometimes just decides it doesn't want to work. It also flatly refuses to play several RCE Fox releases from 2003 such as 28 Days Later, Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink. I know there are others I own it won't play, but can't remember them.

 

[Brook K]

Best: Swan 4.1 Speaker Package. Until I got them I never realized what a huge difference "real" speakers could make.

Worst: Malata 996 DVD Player. Actually a really good player feature-wise, but it overheated and fried itself after about a year. A common defect of the model I didn't know about until well after I'd purchased it.

 

[Nick Sievers]

Best: Sony HS10 LCD Projector, not the best projector around but it really added another dimension to my movie viewing at home.

Worst: Boston PV600 Subwoofer, not a bad product. But when I bought this I was only learning and it didn't deliver the kind of bass I was looking for. 2 SVS PB2+ subs have been purchased and i'm now satisfied.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Worst: An 8”, passive, subwoofer. Very bad idea. What was I thinking?

Best: Rocket speakers. Beautiful, great sound at a very fair price.

 

[Evan S]

I'll chime in.

Best ACI Titan II Subwoofer. Quick, powerful, seamlessly blends with my main speakers and disappears. Not the lowest hitter on the subwoofer market, but for my needs, it's perfect. Furniture grade quality finish as well.

Worst ACI Titan II subwoofer. The reason I say this was my worst purchase is simple. The sub was so good, I had to upgrade my electronics and sell my Paradigm speakers for more ACI's to bring everything else up to par. Total cost? About 10K...ouch! But I don't regret a thing actually. I'm very happy with all of my HT purchases so far, even my piece of crap Sony DVD-330 has been able to last over 5 years without crapping out on me, which is far longer than most of the lifespans I've seen of this machine from fellow purchasers by far.

 

[Citizen87645]

Best: Tough call. I'm a little fickle I guess but it would be either the Bravo D1, the Home Theater Master MX500 or the Toshiba 4900 (my newest purchase, so it could just be infatuation). I like tweakability so all three have that in some form.

Worst: The Japanese market Panasonic S-VHS VCR I bought on my first eBay auction. I soooo overpaid on this thing that now just sits in my closet.

 

[Citizen87645]

Best: Tough call. I'm a little fickle I guess but it would be either the Bravo D1, the Home Theater Master MX500 or the Toshiba 4900 (my newest purchase, so it could just be infatuation). I like tweakability so all three have that in some form.

Worst: The Japanese market Panasonic S-VHS VCR I bought on my first eBay auction. I soooo overpaid on this thing that now just sits in my closet.

 

[JonZ]

Best:
-Pioneer 363K region free DVD player
-Sony 32 inch HDTV

Ive never bought a piece of equiptment Ive been unhappy with.

 

[JonZ]

Best:
-Pioneer 363K region free DVD player
-Sony 32 inch HDTV

Ive never bought a piece of equiptment Ive been unhappy with.

 

[Bryan_O]

Tough to choose the best... Could be my klipsch speakers I bought about 10 years ago for teaching my ears about quality audio, or could be the HDTV-- what an upgrade!

The best has to be the Series 1 Tivo. It's been running for a couple of years now, just recording away, never a problem, awesome machine. More importantly, it really changed the way we watch tv, moreso than any other piece.


The worst? I guess spending $700 for a DVD player, just to be the first kid on the block with one.

 

[Yi Yin]

Best: NEC LT-240K Projector, Hughes HTL-HD HDTV receiver

Worst: Liteon LVD-2001 upscaling DVD player. Did not live up to the hype. Went back to my trusted Denon 1600.

 

[Scott Tucker]

Best- Pair of Definitive BP7000 mains. Gotta love the 2 Supercube Reference subs built-in.

Worst- 7 Berkline chairs.