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

Yamaha DSP-E1000 surround pre/pwr amp. The DSP processing just made the sound muddy, distorted and confused. It was abandoned on a top shelp in the bedroom cupboard, and after a few years the pushbuttons turned into some sort of sticky putty.
 
Worst product I've had (IMHO)

Pioneer SX-6 receiver. Plasticky thin materials used and plasticky sound to match. A huge downfall from the earlier SX-xx00 and SX-xx80 series lines.
 
The worst i had were Technics SB-3030 weak bass even in a small room.
Also technics SB-R4 too much bass and a screaming horn tweeter.
 
Hmm--quite a few, actually, but mostly for the 'overhyped' category that you mentioned. I'd put the HPM-100s I had in there, and their accompanying SX-1280. Those probably represented the biggest let-downs, though they weren't the worst sounding gear I've had. That would probably be a Phase Linear 3000 preamp I had a few years ago. But it was still fun to try it out, just to hear it, even though I didn't like it one bit. It helped steer me towards the Audire Legato preamp that I used for a long time.

Very surprising to hear the Pioneer SX-1280 mentioned and a later poster listed a 980 as well. Lots of Akers seem to like the 1280 however there seems to be a bit of debate between the superiority of the 1280 vs the 1250. Pioneer SX-1280s seem to command pretty decent money on ebay in good condition while the SX-1980 can do insane money.
 
It may be an anomaly, but I've had terrible luck with with my B&K AVR307. I bought it with blown outputs, rebuilt it, and a few months later the CPU board crapped out. It's a nice 55lb paperweight now.

I also found it disappointing (and more than a little dishonest) that B&K claims 150WPCx7 but four of the seven channels only have 2/3 as many output transistors as the other three.
 
sigh.... sadly, I must admit my Cerwin-Vega AT-12's, which I just gave away - at least for me, sucked the large one, more than any other sound equipment I've owned.
NO imaging. They allowed nothing to live or expand or breathe. They were ok with a pair of bookshelf speakers on top of them though. They provided "bottom" for the bookshelf speakers.

Just NOT the speaker for me.

Others' mileage may vary.
 
Dual CS627Q-----Speed would run up about half way through every record----WAAAAAAYYYY to fast. After three trips back to Dual for warranty service it would last about a week, then do the same thing.

Dave
 
A while back, before switching to Klipsch and Polk, I had several pair of Bose speakers on the recommendation of family and friends. Bose 201 - JUNK, Bose 301 - JUNK, but the Bose 10.2 were not bad at all, just very large and very heavy. Neither set had the imaging or clarity of my Polks or Klipsch speakers.

I bought the Bose 201s new, and was very happy with them at first... then the 301s were given to me as a Christmas present... and the 10.2s I bought on Ebay.... But none come close to my vintage Polk Monitors.

It seems that Bose speakers just are not for me. The most stupid thing I have ever heard was from a salesman at Best Buy. He said to me, after he tried to push some Bose speakers on me and I told him that I didn't like Bose products: "You probably don't like Bose speakers because you cannot afford them. These are on sale however." I just rolled my eyes at him because I was actually interested in listening to the Klipsch 82s. Well, needless to say, he lost a sale and the only thing he heard was the sound of my heels making clicking noises on the store's tile floor as I turned around and left.
 
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Many, many moons ago, when DAK was hawking audiowares, I bought a pair of BSR 3 way speakers floorstanders. They sounded like a clock radio in the bottom of a trash can full of wet newspaper.
 
Well, needless to say, he lost a sale and the only thing he heard was the sound of my heels making clicking noises on the store's tile floor as I turned around and left.

His attitude was sexist and ignorant and you did the right thing.
 
Try this

I'm also looking for a cheap T-amp. Could you please let us know the brand and model of yours?

I bought a HLLY T-Amp 90....paid about $120 in Shanghai.

It works, clean sound and doesn't get hot. Looks nice but has a few "small" build quality issues.

See my other posts for more info..
 
I'll play. When I was 14, I traded in a old Bell tube amp for a Scott 299T. It was a first generation transistor amp and really sounded bad. I replaced it with a Heathkit AR19, which was a pretty decent little receiver.
 
Not the worst but the one that disappointed me most was a Marantz 3600 preamp. I looked at the schematic and found out why. It’s based on an archaic IC. A Nikko Beta 1 someone gave me ran rings around it and I’ve been using it ever since.
 
Disappointments..Musical fidelity Pre amp 3a and MA 50 Monoblocks..
Great with Classical no spank with rock,,doubled your power bills,,ran really hot,,not practical in a small house in summer,,took ages to stabilise,,then went mushy after a couple of hours..I was using 90 db sensitive speakers with an easy load,,my 8 watt Wright Audio drives them no problem,,this was after the Amps had been sent back to the factory for a service..

Pioneer A9 my Nad 3020 seemed much more powerful,,it also sounded thin..Pretty awful I thought..

KR Audio,,again I found it very coloured and over warm..The transformer went into meltdown one day..I replaced it with a Wright Audio and never looked back..

I know this may draw the knives of fellow vinyl lovers but the SME 3009 series 2 improved..I have a 3009 series 3s not as bad but still the worst arm I own..

Goldring1000 series cartridges,,no thanks..
 
The worst piece of audio equipment I've had doesn't really qualify as hi-fi, but it was a 1986 vintage BSR CD player (don't remember the model number, even though I had it just recently). I used to think most CD players sounded similar. Not after listening to this thing! No matter what I connected it to or what I played in the thing, it sounded terrible...almost like the sound was clipped. It was weird. I never listened to a CD all the way through with it because I just couldn't stand listening to it. I have Sony, Sanyo and Toshiba players of the same vintage that all sound 1000 times better than that BSR. I bought it at a thrift store and re-donated it a short time later just to be rid of it.
 
i have to say-mac 2100-not a horrible amp-just not what you expect after the hype-on the other hand,picked up a mac 1700 and fell in love! who knew 40 watts per channel could sound sooo good?
 
A JBL 10" powered subwoofer that was $400 and it sounded so muddy it was rapidly returned, that was 1995. Still have not replaced my old 12" passive subwoofer I bought in 1989. It works great in conjunction with the rest of my modest 2.1 system.
 
A Van Alstine modifed Dynaco Super PAS-3 preamp.

Functional but lifeless to me.

Not a diss on Van Alstine, which makes some fine products, but just not to my taste.
An accurate assessment from a Stereophile article with the exception of the last sentence's opinion, which differed from mine.

Sound Quality
Whether via the transformer or straight in, the sound of the phono input was lightish in balance, with a slightly forward upper midband and a modest degree of exaggeration at the very top of the audio band which added a slight "tinkle," a wispy edge, to cymbals and snare drum. The midrange appeared a little "thinner" compared with the original on bypass tests. The degree of such tonal modifications was mild, however, and certainly not objectionable.

Not bad, but a genuine disappointment, making it worse to me than lots of stuff that I should have known sucked but tried anyway.
 
My stories aren't as interesting. But here goes.

I've had a number of the cheap 80's "hi-fi" units that have come out. They were great when I was 5, but as I got a bit older I demanded more.

The last cheap system I had was a Lloyds "shelf-system". I did have a mid-80's SoundDesign unit that I blew up...and for my sixth birthday I had some Montgomery Ward branded stereo with dual-cassettes and some cheap horrible turntable.

Sent from my Samsung Intercept with Tapatalk
 
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