My personal Hall of Shame (limnited top products I have actually owned and tried to use):
In descending order:
#6) The EMU B-3 module: I don't care what anyone says. It doesn't sound like a B-3 to me.
#5) John Oram Stereo Mic Preamp - Sweetwater was hyping the Oram line hard at the time. (They were exclusive USA distributors. Now ask them, and they say Or-who?) I got mine used, but by the time i got it you could barely turn the pots without a pair of pliars, all the pots and switches were noisy as hell, it sounded extremely bland, you couldn't read any of the silkscreening, and the build quality in general was so flimsy the chassis practically flexed when you breathed on it.
#4) Tie: AKG C1000 and AKG C3000 mics - if I wanted to buy something that sounded like shit I could have gone to the manure store.
#3) The Oktava 219: Worst mic I've ever tried. Makes the C3000 sound like a U87. Maybe I just got a bad one, but I wouldn't go near one again without a crucifix and garlic.
#2) the 3630. No need to elaborate. I bought it because I thought all the blinking lights looked cool. Should have just bought a strobe light.
and the grand prize winner:
#1)
the Alesis X2 mixer! (It was an 8 buss mixer with mute automation that "looked like" a $25,000 mixer for about $8000.) Only about 500 ever made - so I'm sure most of you never saw one. Good thing - the sight of mic preamps sponataneously blowing up is not pretty. "Luckily" it was modular, so i could unscrew the individual channel strips and send them back for an exchange while still using the rest of the board. It got to the point where UPS would show up at my door every morning without me even asking. ("Anything going to Alesis today, buddy?")
Eventually Alesis told me that they were running out of modules. I sold the board as fast as I could as soon as I heard. I would still feel guilty except that the buyer was some sort of Russian-mafia hustler type who was so sleazy I felt like washing my hands just from talking to him on the phone. He drove up from NYC, and I drove down from Boston and we met in New London, Connecticut to make the deal. Closest I've ever felt like I was a crack dealer.