The most overrated and underrated audio products you tried/owned?

[Pearljam5000]

Overrated - Focal Alpha 65
bought them and didn't like the sound at all.
Underrated -
Sennheiser HD800
The best sound I've ever heard.

 

[MattHooper]

Well, I think ultimately it depends on who is doing the rating - for instance the Golden ear set of audiophiles may be responsible for overrating Gear. And possibly I might think some ASR members would underrate other gear.

With that in mind, off the top of my head:

Overrated:

Spendor D7 floor standing speakers.

I was surprised that a spender loudspeaker practically tore my ears out with sharp wirey highs.

Focal diablo utopia - top-of-the-line stand mounted speakers.

Focal’s consumer high end line has always had a “look at me” sound for their tweeters which they seem inordinately proud of. Always brilliant and tipped up in the highs.
This seems to work OK when I’ve heard their large floor standing speakers, because there’s enough lower frequency energy to balance out the sound. But in a frequency limited stand mount It was just too much. The sound was beaming highs and an overall anaemic sound.

Martin Logan Hybrid speakers.

While I always enjoy some aspects of the sound because electrostatics are neato, I’ve never heard one of their panel/woofer combos sound fully coherent.

McIntosh loudspeakers

Honestly, I don’t know the reputation of their loudspeakers. But of course they have the highly rated reputation for their amplifiers.
As to the loudspeakers, the models with the vertical array of multiple tiny drivers.. every time I’ve encountered them they have sounded awful. Just a whole lot of gray, mediocre sound blasted at me.


If not overrated (I actually like them) overexposed:
KEF LS50.

Underrated:

Eico HF81 - the classic old 14w tube integrated amp.

Seen as a classic by some, dismissed I think by others, I was blown away when I borrowed one of these from a pal, and I had to end up buying one for myself (refurbished beautifully by a guy with lots of experience with the model). They even drove my inefficient MBLs wonderfully in my modest sized listening room.

Devore O/96 speakers.

Generally well-regarded outside this forum, highly underrated inside this forum (IMO).

Vinyl Records

They sound a lot better to me on my system than many naysayers would suggest.

 

[Doodski]

Over rated to me was the Celestion bookshelf speakers up to ~$6000/pair, all of the Mission speakers, a Mission compact power amp with separate power supply and the Koss Porta Pro headphones.

Under rated to me was the Sony Mini-disc, JBL Ti Series speakers, Luxman AM/FM tuners and the Yamaha M85 and MX1000 power amps.

 

[Chr1]

Overrated:

DSD: Massive files, a hassle to play and to me, no improvement over 24 bit Flac.

The resurgence of vinyl: Clever marketing money making exercise, but frustrating trying to explain to my nephew that his USB deck and overpriced albums are not actually sonically superior to my wee Topping E50 and free Flacs.

Fancy DAPs: Tried a few. My tiny £50 Xduoo X2S sounds better. Minimal screen and electronics probably helps.


Underrated:

Tannoy V12s: High quality passive pro-audio coaxial speakers from about 20 years back. Same HF driver as their DMTs + TOTL megabuck hifi speakers tho LF driver made for use with subs. (Which is a big bonus, I reckon.) Easily capable of high SPL with minimal Watts + sound great with a bit of EQ. Currently I have eight.

Valve Amplifiers: Controversial, I know but I think that though not strictly highest-fi, they can sound very good.
(To me.)

Denon UPO-250 Poweramp: Great quality (very) wee Japanese amplifier from the 90s. With input signal potentiometer and subwoofer output. Got several cheaply. Love 'em.

MathAudio RoomEQ for Foobar: Excellent free room correction software. Very simple and effective. Just need a UMIK-1.

 

[DSJR]

Well, I think ultimately it depends on who is doing the rating - for instance the Golden ear set of audiophiles may be responsible for overrating Gear. And possibly I might think some ASR members would underrate other gear.

With that in mind, off the top of my head:

Overrated:

Spendor D7 floor standing speakers.

I was surprised that a spender loudspeaker practically tore my ears out with sharp wirey highs.

Nonsense - but our rooms are smaller brick and plaster boxes by and large, so plenty of bass in that construction and just a slightly mid forward tone when I spent a morning with them (speaker in free space). Our local salon had a traded in pair and when a pal of mine who was genuinely interested in them phoned them up, he was told by a rather vocal 'newbie' to the store that they were too warm toned and what my pal really wanted was a nice shiny pair of Dynaudios!!!

Effin bloody subjectivists I was one mostly once, so can say that!

 

[Scytales]

The only overrated devices I ever used is the Rega Planet CD player (first iteration of it).

Brought to the pinnacle by the subjective hi-fi press, which influenced me so much to buy it together with a Rega Elex integrated amp of the same time, when I was a young adult, ignorant and inexperienced.

It was my first Hi-Fi buys and the worst I ever made. Both the CD player and the amp turned out to bee nontransparent and under-performing.

The only device I used to use which could have been considered underrated at the time is the Denon PMA-S10II integrated amplifier which replaced a more powerful Rega integrated amp that itself had previously quickly replaced the Elex. This Denon delivered on so many levels I cannot think of any real shortcomings of it. Nevertheless, I bought it second hand from someone who struggled to resale it for months despite an attractive sale price: not an enough audiophile amp to seduce audiophiles.

 

[alvigg]

Luxman AM/FM tuners

I loved mine in the day and also the Luxman prologic device. Getting surround for the first time was magical.

 

[Timmy]

This Denon delivered on so many levels I cannot think of any real shortcomings of it. Nevertheless, I bought it second hand from someone who struggled to resale it for months despite an attractive sale price: not an enough audiophile amp to seduce audiophiles.

Can you be seduced to name a rough figure regarding the price?

 

[Dan]

Overrated-PS audio Directstream DAC. Bought during my non "woke" days, expensive and, of course, made no sonic difference. I still get a kick out of reading all the update impressions threads where users would wax poetically about how their systems were transformed by minor software changes to the DAC

Criminally underrated-Room correction/DSP. Completely changed the way I view HiFi, essentially life changing for me. I use Anthem ARC at this moment and adore it. Thinking of trying Lyngdorf as well

 

[Mean & Green]

For me it would be these.

Overrated:

Sennheiser headphones, I’ve owned 3 different pairs at different times and haven’t liked a single one of them.

Linn LP 12, it’s got to be one of the most hyped up copies products of all time.

Tannoy Reveloution XT-6F speakers, I’m still trying to sell my pair of these. I can’t lie I did enjoy them for a while if I cherry picked what recordings I played on them. I put their flaws down to poor mastering when in reality the flaws were flaws with the speakers themselves. They won various rave awards such as ‘best floorstanding speakers £1000 - £2000’ and ‘ability to compete with speakers costing up to £10k’ and other such tripe from the hifi journalists.

Underrated:

NAD C326 BEE. Considering how much the original 3020 still gets talked about in audio circles along with other amps that seemed to reach legendary status like the Pioneer A400 and such like, I feel the NAD C326 BEE has been somewhat overlooked.

The on paper specs are seriously good for what was a very modest price and even hold up incredibly today, yet it seems completely forgotten.

 

[Scytales]

Can you be seduced to name a rough figure regarding the price?

If I remember correctly, it was sold for about less than one third of the price of a new one, which back then was sold at about the equivalent of 2,600 euros nowadays.

 

[Oddball]

Hmm, the most overrated from some recent history that I can remember would be:

- Yamaha A4A - lots of people seem to like it. Collecting dust in some storage for quite a while now. YPAO was a real mess and web interface did not work. Some years ago, so some of the issues are hopefully fixed.

- Storm Audio 16 - obviously iconic product, but in reality not much more than what AV-10 can do at less than half price. And eventually lacks Audy which comes handy if you need the advanced bass management but don't want to do it from scratch with REW. ART is there, but honestly not ready for prime time so overall not real value for cash.

The most underrated by far is:

- Heco La Diva towers - not much out there on these, but I fell in love with them first time I heard them. I don't recall anything playing strings and drums in such a particular way as they do. They might not be such reference as Perlisten R7t's but they did hit my preference for slightly lower price.

 

[MattHooper]

Nonsense - but our rooms are smaller brick and plaster boxes by and large, so plenty of bass in that construction and just a slightly mid forward tone when I spent a morning with them (speaker in free space). Our local salon had a traded in pair and when a pal of mine who was genuinely interested in them phoned them up, he was told by a rather vocal 'newbie' to the store that they were too warm toned and what my pal really wanted was a nice shiny pair of Dynaudios!!!

Effin bloody subjectivists I was one mostly once, so can say that!

Cool. I wasn’t seriously “ reviewing” them since I only listened to them for a brief while (because they turned me off) some years ago. But that’s how I remember them sounding and why they turned me off at least in the set up I heard.

 

[DSJR]

The only overrated devices I ever used is the Rega Planet CD player (first iteration of it).

Brought to the pinnacle by the subjective hi-fi press, which influenced me so much to buy it together with a Rega Elex integrated amp of the same time, when I was a young adult, ignorant and inexperienced.

It was my first Hi-Fi buys and the worst I ever made. Both the CD player and the amp turned out to bee nontransparent and under-performing.

The only device I used to use which could have been considered underrated at the time is the Denon PMA-S10II integrated amplifier which replaced a more powerful Rega integrated amp that itself had previously quickly replaced the Elex. This Denon delivered on so many levels I cannot think of any real shortcomings of it. Nevertheless, I bought it second hand from someone who struggled to resale it for months despite an attractive sale price: not an enough audiophile amp to seduce audiophiles.

If the clamshell Planet was used with a Couple (Klotz based) interconnect and the optional remote, it compared favourably back then with Arcam, Marantz and so on alternatives. Your main issue was arguably the clamshell Elex, which had an utterly 'safe' (read bland today) sound to it. By the time I came back to the brand in 1998, a Planet/Couple and Mira amp, made for a very capable pairing (admitting the Jupiter/Io transport/dac was more open sounding and neutral) and we sold a good number of these. Not sure the internal/external restyle in 2000 made for such a 'friendly' sound and after that, they went totally subjective as they seemed more able to tweak the 'sound' to suit the disciples' tastes...

 

[SlowJim]

Great thread. I am fairly new to the hifi rabbit hole but have owned 6 sets of bookshelf speakers so far.

Overrated - Monitor audio bronze 100 6g. Purchased these used and immediately disliked them. There's a weird hole in the upper midrange and even after EQ, bass is no better than polk xt20 or es20 which are both smaller speakers. IMO these should have been priced at around 300 USD new, their original MSRP is bonkers. They do look cool though.

Underrated - Monoprice DT-5BT. For a teenager or garage setup, you can't beat these for $120 a pair. I was genuinely impressed by the sound and refuse to sell them even though I have moved on to passive hifi speakers. They sounded miles better than sony ss-cs5's.

Also the RSL ia255. $110 for a non load dependent amp with physical controls is amazing. I love this little amp

 

[DSJR]

I had an original Micromega CD player with lift-up lid and heavy brass weight one placed on the disc (thank heavens the drive was the heavy-duty Philips type more able to take the extra rotating mass). It took ages to 'warm up' (many Philips based machines did back then, 34hr at least, but the 'sound' was thick toned and spongy, as if it was hobbled to have a poor-vinyl sound - ugh...

A pair of Snell E IIs (I think that was the model, from the early 80s) which sounded nice in a larger room and used with the matching Audio Innovations amp and Void turntable, sounded bloody awful on a modern ss amp and digital source, boomy in the bass and with a nasty peaky 'squeak/resonance' at or near crossover. I tried to live with them near field for two days, took 'em to the store and sold them to a chap with suitable system.

 

[Chr1]

Wow. Heavy brass weight on the CD.
WTAF?

 

[Robin L]

Overrated: Grado headphones. Both physically and sonically painful.

Underrated: Classical CDs of the 1980s. Some of them are among the best sonically, with the digital format an opportunity for recording engineers to finally record the full dynamics of an orchestra or piano without compromise.

 

[Chr1]

Apologies if off topic, but I am curious.
If the quality got worse. Any idea why?

 

[Robin L]

Apologies if off topic, but I am curious.
If the quality got worse. Any idea why?

Take the example of Acoustic Research - original owners sold the company to a larger corporation. You can guess the rest.