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

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

Infinity Qa speakers.

Driver compliment was a 10" woofer and an EMIT tweeter.
Infinity advertised that it had the mid-range of a 3-way speaker?
What horse$hit!!
You would need a psychic to FIND the mid-range on those sorry-a$$ designed speakers.
Steve

That Qa was in the company's infancy. Quite inefficient, and a sucked out midrange. Nice cabinetry if I recall though.

I recall the Qa getting glowing reviews from all the HiFi publications at the time. That's what led me to my local stereo store to check them out when I was in the market for speakers around 1976-78. Don't remember what my overall impression of the Qa was, however they also had the Qb (with midrange driver). They sounded better to me and that's what I ended up coming home with. Still have those and still consider them a good sounding speaker. On mine , however, the cabinetry was anything but good. Crappy "wood looking" vinyl on the cabinets, but worse, these acoustic suspension wonders developed air leaks in the cabinets. They were probably only 3 or so years old and I had to re-seal the cabinets.

To answer the OP, nothing I remember was truly horrid, but I do remember getting a BSR-810 turntable brand new and ended up being underwhelmed. I traded it off for other equipment a few years later and stepped up to a Thorens TD-160c.
 
Marantz 24 pre-amp/tuner. Dull, lifeless preamp, and a radio with no sensitivity. Lifeless phono stage. Had it 'tweaked' twice, both times the techs referred to it as a pigs ear.
 
Well I've had some cheap, light weight speakers that I should never had brought into the house. But I'd like to tell the tale of a unit with the worst Karma.
Answered a CL add for a onkyo integra receiver. It was an older unit and had obviously been treated badly. Broken buttons and a few dents. I was really in the mood to buy something so I bought it for spare change when the seller couldn't get any sound out of it. As I was driving home I guessed the real problem was that it was missing jumpers between the pre-out and the main-in.
After that it sounded pretty good. I checked the DC offset and it was a little high. While trying to adjust it my probes slipped and let some smoke out. Off to the repair shop it went. Paid a pretty penny for the repairs. Stopped and picked it up after work. Tried to get it all setup before Dinner was ready and I may have had speaker wires touching because it again let out smoke.
I took it back to the repair shop and told them if they could fix it cheap they should go ahead otherwise I don't care if I never saw it's ugly face again. They never called back.
 
A "Class A" 30wpc channel 1985 (or thereabouts) Technics receiver. I don't want to remember the model number. Hot. Congested and died about six months after it was given to me as a wedding gift. It tried to replace a stolen SX-680. I had no idea how far mass-market hi-fi had fallen in six short years. Turns out not ALL BPC was black. Outputs ran in series. But it did have a built-in (mono) TV tuner. A Ben Stein *wow* is about all I can say positive about it.
 
I have three that are joint-worst.

In no particular order:

1. Toshiba SR-A25 turntable. Lightweight plastic garbage. (Even the headshell was plastic!)
2. Akai AM-U22 amp. Lightweight plastic garbage. The bass had no weight and the treble had no bite. (And the LED meters had a slight offset, which annoyed me.) My ancient 1960s Nikko receiver sounded way better, even if it was unreliable and looked terrible.
3. Kenwood KR-2120 receiver. Despite (or because of its) being the most promising, this was perhaps the most disappointing of all. It just sounded so unnatural. But is was pretty much bottom of the pile even when new, and the single-rail topolgy was - to my mind - inexcusable at any price.
 
My hall of fame stinkers:
Worst sounding (non PC) speakers I ever owned:
SONY SS-5050:
$_86.JPG

They did bass ok, but the midrange and high end was horrible. I bought them when my front speakers died, and my neighbor decided to buy new speakers, but after I heard them (They were in the original boxes and barely used after they were bought at an AFB BX in Japan) they replaced my former rear surrounds, Realistic MC-1000's, which sounded much better. The level controls did tame them to some extent, but wow, they sounded bad. The cabinets were very nice. I replaced them with ADS L-730's which I really liked after I hit my second Keno ticket in '79. The Sony's went to another neighbor who loved them.
Worst AV Receiver: Another Sony, a 2005 lower end model. I don't remember the model number, but it kept going into protection mode when anything more than low volume was playing. It was soon replaced by a keeper, a Yamaha RX-V659. Worked fine for the friend I sold it to. I guess it liked the speakers he had better.
Worst 2 channel receiver: My first "good one", an HK 330B that sounded terrible. It went to HK service and came back sounding fine, about SIX months later. By then it was replaced.
Worst turntable, also my first "good one", a BSR 510? Had major rumble and it was very easy to make the stylus jump by just walking past the table it was on, and the dog would bark and it would come out the speakers! Replaced with Dual 1229 and Shure V15 Type III.
Worst cassette deck. Never had a bad one. The three I had, 2 Technics and an Onkyo lasted forever!. Two of them, the newer Technics (1980) and Onkyo (1982) are still going strong. The first Technics had a capstan motor fail at about 30 years and just after I decided to part it out, a new one appeared on Ebay, too late. I bought another one on ebay about 2003 and it's still working great.


Hi-Fi Choice in 1976 really slated this Sony model - Angus McKenzie writing:

"Various comments were made about this speaker lacking about every frequency you can imagine..."
"High frequencies appeared to have a sock in front of them..."
"Vocals appeared to come from a long plastic pipe..."
"The entire panel condemned this speaker..."

Rough stuff!
 
A Technics SL-DD22 turntable. It was my only turntable for about 25 years, when I still had a stereo but was out of the hi-fi game. Only when I got back into it about ten years ago did I realize how limiting the SL-DD22 really was. I'd had moving coils before, so got an Ortofon P-mount MC for it. Better, but I think the tonearm and P-mount headshell was its limiting factor. Not garbage, but not really hi-fi, IMO.
 
Well mine sound fine so to each his own I guess.I bought them new in 76-77 and they still do what I ask them to:)
I haven't heard any that has been recap or any mods..I bought mine with one of their (RS) receivers, I'm not sure of the model think it was 75 or 125 wpc. Could have been that receiver. I think I gave the Mach ones away and the receiver is packed away somewhere..I'm sure it's toast by now.
 
901 Series III. Gorgeous chrome tulip stands, refoamed. I so wanted to love them. A-B against a good speaker and right out the door they went. If you like horns they're great!
 
901 Series III. Gorgeous chrome tulip stands, refoamed. I so wanted to love them. A-B against a good speaker and right out the door they went. If you like horns they're great!

And the 901's aren't even horns! Just a big array of cheap little drivers pointing backward and one larger one at the front. It's those ports that look like a jet engine exhaust which can fool the unknowing. Weird response curves, but no denying that some folks like them.

http://noaudiophile.com/Bose_901/
 
And the 901's aren't even horns! Just a big array of cheap little drivers pointing backward and one larger one at the front. It's those ports that look like a jet engine exhaust which can fool the unknowing. Weird response curves, but no denying that some folks like them.

http://noaudiophile.com/Bose_901/
I so agree with this. I have never owned a pair of 901s, but have heard several, and know two people that have. Both sold their speakers in short order; both, I was told, bought the speakers because they were "Bose" and were dazzled more by the appearance than the sound. They are in fact, just as you said, "... a big array of cheap little drivers" unfortunately.:eek:
 
I recently purchased a pair of Elac B6.2 speakers. There is nothing really wrong with the speakers, and I like the very understated looks. The sound, in my opinion, leaves much to be desired. Perhaps they haven't been properly broken in yet, but so far, I am just not feeling it with them. Yes, I am a bit disappointed in them, but perhaps the sound stage, especially the higher frequency response, will improve significantly with time (or before I chose to sell them because they are difficult to listen to right now). :oops:
 
Not to speak ill of those no longer with us. My late girlfriend, knowing that I am an audiophool, and who had worked at (the now defunkt) Harvey Radio for 30 years, was pushing Bose before even seeing or hearing my stereos. When she finally visited to stay the night, it was still "Bose Bose Bose."
That was the ONLY time in my entire adult life when I could not (I needn't say it). What a powerful turn-off. I got dressed and took her home. NEVER diss (modern slang) a man's Hi-Fi.
 
My rogue’s gallery:
Speakers
>Klipsch R14: I’ve never heard a speaker sound so tonally wrong. They weren’t harsh or muddy, they just had this...I’ll call it the “spotlight” effect. It seemed like an acoustic spotlight was shined on a certain aspect of the music, and brought it into undue prominence-woodwind soloists would be very prominent while strings would just fade into the background. Maybe some people would like that, but I sent them back pretty quickly.
>Bose 501/II: Excellent speakers for casual listening, except for the awful underdamped bass. Could they dig deep? Down to the high 20’s in a small room on a small amp! But it was only because there was a massive mid-bass boost that gave me such a headache. Maybe I just needed an amp with better damping or a bigger room, who knows. Wasn’t a fan.
>Fisher DS-177: Objectively the worst-a cheap 12” 3 way with a half-assed crossover, meant to impress the uninitiated (ie: me). Empty box, with two holes punched in the front as “ports”. With a little EQ or some light modding, they actually sound quite nice, though.
>Sansui SP5500X: Like the Fishers, designed to impress visually, and disappoint acoustically. They don’t sound all that bad up top, but there’s just something objectively wrong about a 15” Woofer that can barely struggle down to 60Hz thanks to a tiny box.

Receivers
>Denon AVR-E300: Lame interface, mediocre audio/video quality. Audyssey was neat to mess around with, though. Forgettable.
>Fisher 195: “It’s supposed to make that pop when you turn it on, that’s just how it was back then”.
>Early 80s Sharp: Silver faced and had a dial tuner, but easily some of the cheesiest build I’ve ever seen. Not a bad phono preamp, if I remember rightly.

Turntables:
>I started out with a Crosley Cruiser. Enough said.

Tape Decks
>All of them, except for a Pioneer CT1270WR and a Denon DRW660. The lamest ones have been 80’s Technics, which all just sound lame and wimpy, and suffer from cheesy build. Working on Pioneer CTF750’s is a special kind of torture.
 
U-Turn deck.

1. Upon unboxing it, tiny bugs came out. Later I identified them as book lice.
2. The paint was sloppily applied with a roller. I had it ordered in red, but it had a pinkish tint to it.
3. The acrylic platter was very curvy. The replacement sent was not better.
4. The needle skipped the first few grooves of the record, no matter how close it was placed to the beginning of the first song. That was also customer support's solution...
5. It was multiple times noisier than the direct drive Sony PS-T3 I was trying to replace it with.
6. Its frequency response with a Grado upgrade was much worse than the Sony's with AT95E.

I had a hard time returning it, because really liked the way it looked.
 
I appreciate the info on the U-Turn. I'd been getting some suggestions to "buy Massachusetts made" as I'm looking at new turntables and was only needing a little push to say no. I'm likely going with a new NAD C588, which is made for them by Pro-Ject and is very similar to their Debut Carbon Esprit but with a better tonearm, feet, and a couple other little tweaks.
 
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