The worst piece of HiFi Equipment you've ever owned?

I purchased a Harmon Kardon/Rabco turntable from a store in Peoria, IL back in 1979 (in the Metro Center). It never tracked right, the linear tracking arm was either too fast or too slow, and sometimes it refused to move at all... which was real hard on the cartridge. Replaced it with a Micro-Seiki from Dick Green at EDI and was happy for a long time. I hated the HK/Rabso so much that I couldn't sell it to some poor unsuspecting music lover, so I threw it away - literally, in a garbage can. At least it was recycled.

Good listening.
 
The WORST:
Everything from Bang&Olufsen
  1. B&O 4002, stupid engineering exemplified
  2. BeoCenter 9500, effing POS- cheap thin, fragile plastic; very difficult to work on
 
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Klipsch kg4 speakers. While some recordings sounded good on them a high percentage were bright, harsh, and generally obnoxious.
 
Look up Dennis Murphy's measurement of the ESS Heil tweeter....he was able to tame it with his crossover skills... But I practically gave them away after a month.
 
I have never understood the religion that is Bose surround systems... what absolute crap. Overpriced, ugly to look at, hard to use, but at least it HUGELY overprocesses and oversamples the unlistenable noise that emenates from the "speakers". I do love flipping vintage Bose, people will pay up for them. But you won't find any Bose either in my family room or living room. Way back in the day, I bought a 4.1 system at a garage sale new in box for super cheap now I understand why they were dumping it. Just like Sony, if you tell people it's great enough they'll believe it. Don't like that stuff either (unless I'm flipping vintage Walkmans or Playstations on eBay, then I love them!).

I was in the stereo business back in the 80's and Bose was always a running joke in the industry, even though they were financially very successful... "No highs, no lows - must be Bose!"

Bose does a really great job of marketing low quality crap for big money to those who don't know any better through a lot of BS hype and pseudoscience

Many people who buy that overpriced junk are so proud of it that we were always careful not to "call their baby ugly" when they were shopping in our store - we just felt bad they dropped so much cash on such terrible sounding gear.
 
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Not the "worst" audio gear that I have ever owned--that would have to go to the champagne-faced Pioneer pieces that I briefly owned back in the 80's (don't even recall the models, as they didn't stay long), but perhaps the most "disappointing" is a pair of Vandersteen Model 2C speakers that have been sitting here unused for over 2 years at this point. I had read rave reviews here and on other sites, and always wanted to try a pair.

No one that I know had a pair, and they don't turn up very often (or at all) in my area, so when a pair turned up relatively locally at a reasonable price (not a score, but a reasonable price), I jumped on them. Really nice shape, factory stands, and I called Richard Vandersteen to confirm (based on S/N) that they indeed do have the rubber surrounds, rather than the foam (which would likely need to be replaced due to age). Set them up, and boy was I "underwhelmed". Power and placement are issues that I am very familiar with, and I have multiple 300 wpc amps and two pair of Maggies (amongst other speakers in my stable), so I am very aware of these issues. I could just never get them set up to live up to their "reputation". I could just never get the detail and imaging that I expected, so after 6 months of trying, I gave up--don't get me wrong--they don't sound "horrible" by any means, but perhaps I expected too much out of a "well-regarded" speaker.
 
Mark Levinson No. 37 Transport ... Damn thing lasted a couple months and quit working and the only place that could repair it wanted $700 down to even look at it. I sold it for parts after just a few dozen hours of use. Harmon is running quite the scam ... they hoard the parts and only let 1-2 "authorized" service centers have access. They charge crazy prices to do even simple repairs.

Shame ... I loved the sound
 
Marantz Imperial 7 speakers and a 1980 silver faced Kenwood tuner, it lasted a whole year before dying.
 
Yeah, I remember at those ads in Stereo Review when I was a teenager...DAK had lots of junk. Fortunately at the time I was too young to have any kind of money before I educated myself. I'd probably would have had a pair. Thunder Lizards...what a crappy name for a crappy speaker :thumbsdn:




Yeah...it just goes to show how big Jeremy's mouth really is

DAK, (Drew Allen Kaplan) Enterprises. I bought some stuff from him. My biggest disappointment was the reel to reel tape he sold. Really hyped it in the sales catalog. Supposedly on par with BASF tape, the good stuff. Tried it once or twice on a couple of tape machines. I decided that it wasn't good enough tape to wrap a package. The answering machine I bought from him lasted a good long time though.
 
Never....

I research things too deeply to just buy something and try it out. So many don't understand how specifications of different units combined make a soundstage. Details are everything.... If you hook up a unit with great specs like a TT to a receiver with only minimal specs, the sound from the speakers will be minimal at best !
 
Does car audio count? I bought a Delco AM FM STEREO cassette in 1978 as an option with a new Pontiac Sunbird attached to it. The sound was pure crud. About a year later it was replaced with a Panasonic deck and Jensen 4X10 whizzer cone speakers. What a relief. The car was also a POS. I've never been back to a GM dealer since. Do they still make Delco sound systems?
 
Reading some of the early entries made me remember a Sony clunker I purchased.

A techy friend of mine was convinced in 1978 that v-fets were the future and that the Sony v-fet integrateds were superior to anything else ever made, afterall, he bought one. So I bought one to... about 70 wpc (I think, don't remember for sure). It sounded terrible and had me yearning for the big Scott receiver (70 wpc, and I'm sure of that) I had traded in. Then the Sony started blowing output devices - over and over again. The repair man at the "authorized Song repair center" told me, after putting my third set of v-fet outputs, that the design was flawed (we had become friends) and that I should trade or sell it ASAP. So, I did.

I called my techy friend and told him what I thought about his recommendation and just how bad it was. Turns out, John hated his too, got rid of it, and built his own amp which he owned for years. I think of John (now deceased) and the wretched v-fet amp whenever I see one for sale on e-ripoff advertised as "rare." There is a reason they are rare!!!

Good listening.
 
Worst equipment I ever owned was a Kenwood preamp with a set of matching 150 WPC mono-block power amps. This was back in the early 1980s when audio was still a thing. Bought them brand new and had nothing but trouble with the preamp, It would quit working regularly and need a trip to the shop after about the 6th time with some lame excuse about a cold solder joint somewhere, I told the store I wanted a replacement or a trade or something because this was BS, they wouldn't do anything for me. I went as far as contacting the regional manager for Kenwood products to do something for me....nope, sucks to be you. Told the guy and the store, enjoy my money cause' you'll never see another penny from me. Took the preamp home, propped it up against a cement block and shot it with a 410 shot gun (I lived on a farm then). Sold the amps for what I could get for them. Both Kenwood audio and the store I bought this junk from went out of business.....funny that.
 
Mayby not the worst, but certainly by far the most disappointing piece I've had was a Mac MR77 tuner, reworked 3 times by one of the more visible shops that has a banner here, who shall remain nameless (not Terry).. It sounnded great on crappy staions above about 97 mhz, but would absolutely reject signals below 93mhz. My stations are all 91.5 and below. I have excellent antennas.

I sent it back twice - they did not charge me, but I paid shipping. I finally had enough of it and sold it locally with all documentation and full disclosure. The new owner just likes the looks of it, so he's happy.
 
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Mayby not the worst, but certainly by far the most disappointing piece I've had was a Mac MR77 tuner, reworked 3 times by one of the more visible shops that has a banner here, who shall remain nameless (not Terry).. It sounnded great on crappy staions above about 97 mhz, but would absolutely reject signals below 93mhz. My stations are all 91.5 and below. I have excellent antennas.

I sent it back twice - they did not charge me, but I paid shipping. I finally had enough of it and sold it locally with all documentation and full disclosure. The new owner just likes the looks of it, so he's happy.

Bill, good to hear from you! You just never know - I found one of the best tuners I ever owned in a junk/thrift store in Wyoming for five bucks. I swapped it, and some other gear, the other day for a nice Denon power amp.
 
I don't remember the model, but it was one of the first Technics, microprocessor controlled cassette decks. It would occasionally jump into Pause/Record that even though I could just hit Stop to end it, it would shove the erase head against the tape and erase a hole in the music! Some of which was live concerts that couldn't be replaced. I gave it away.
 
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