Vote

CD player (universal player).

Panasonic RP-966 Dolby encoder/decoder. Used one summer (1979). Still packed away.

Monster Power 3600 - Muddied my bass too much. I took it back the same day.

Marantz CD-52 SE. Bought without audition, second hand and cheaply. Just as well!

A Quest subwoofer. The price was right, but the sound wasn't. I had it for about two weeks. It shorted out continuously, even at low volumes, until I had enough and blew out the sub purposely. I then bought a Velodyne.

Sumiko BPS, Wilson System V, Shakti Stone.

Stax SR 80 MX; awful to wear and thin sound.

Rotel 855 CD player. But this is a compliment, not a criticism. The Rotel 855 was so much better than what it replaced, that I immediately went out and bought an expensive player.

My music server which was bought as part of a squeezebox system. In total over one month of tweeking, I got it to play for 1 hr, over countless attempts. If anybody need a cheap 1.5 GB server, please let me know. (and I thought was reasonable with computers being an engineer...)

AMP5 Class D amplifier got sick of it and it is now replaced with a Class A SE amp.

Koss second-tier electrostatic headphones. Kept blowing my amplifier.

The 'Made in Taiwan' award for shonky goods Apple's iPod. Although being quite expensive, the iPod is designed to spontaneously combust after a year. Apple describes this as a design feature and refuses to allow a free warranty. This is in breach of European and Australian consumer protection laws. Apple however refused to change its warranty and is currently in hot water with these various bodies.

Toshiba SD-9200. Tried to like it, but never could. At least mine didn't have the transport problems others had.

The Marigo 3D Stabilizer mat. Supposed to address issues of vibration and stray magnetism on CDS. This mat was supposed to enhance the soundstage and the transparency of the music. I used it for about 30 minutes before I decided that it actually took the life out of the music on my system. Some people swear by it, but I returned it immediately to the retailer. It was the worst accessory tweak that I ever experienced and all for only a C-note. I Highly Unrecommend. Fortunately, I got my money back.

Klpsch Forte speakers. They looked great in the showroom, but looked huge in my home! It's funny because I've owned larger speakers before and since then. For some reason, they dominated my living room! I sold them within two weeks.

Subwoofers, not particularly any individual subwoofer, but just every subwoofer I've tried hasn't stayed for much longer than six months.

Once bought a B&O turntable to replace an AR, Lasted about 1 hr. Looked great, sounded bad. Also, a graphic equalizer increased bass, which was the idea, but music lost the magic.

...a pair of Linn K400 Biwire Speaker Cables. I was shopping around for speakers cables, and I had already ordered a really nice set of Kimber Monocle Kables, but while waiting for them, I just couldn't stand my old Monster Cables anymore. So, I bought these, and I don't think I had them for more than a week before my Kimbers showed up. So, the Linns went to the "Little Bedroom System."

The Sony MiniDisc recorder. Don't get me wrong. Sony had a great idea. But, with technology zooming as fast as it is, the MiniDisc just didn't fly and now has no support. What a shame.

A well known and respected English amplifier. It sounded rather good, but when I asked it to really drive my speakers it fell to its knees. Yes, watts do count.

I bought a used Proceed preamp. It had an eerie black background to the sound which was very nice, but it was a sterile sound. I paired it with a solid state power amp and perhaps that was the problem. Maybe it needed a tube amp to breath a little life into the sound. I wish I still had it to play with, but I got rid of it within the week. :(

10" subwoofer

Fancy wire

Kimber Tonic interconnect. Never cut corners again . . .

TEAC CD player in 1996. Sprayed RFI throughout the house whether it was switched on or off, making VHF TV unwatchable, and had unbearable hiss when listening. Stayed in my system less than 24 hours. A true POS.

The Playstation-as-CD player I tried on a whim based on the raving ramblings of certain web articles and forums. Sounded like a cassestte deck.

A pair of Audioquest Coral interconnects. Poor imaging, lacked bass definition - very "murky" sounding. Having the nice sounding Jaguars already in my system, I was disappointed in these. Tried them for about two months in various locations before removing them. Just didn't seem to fit anywhere.

Ha ha, fun question. I guess that would have been my Akai tape deck back in high school. That only lasted a few years. While not necessarily a dud because it allowed me to copy all my friends record collections, the CD quickly came along and made it sound like garbage.

cassette player

a Bose 1801 solid state stereo amplifier.(mid 1970's) A quick listen to this amp will give you an understanding of why Bose decided to focus their attention on speakers.