The worst speakers ever made - unbelievable...

[restorer-john]

OK, so I bought a big Yamaha receiver for parts the other day for a few dollars and the guys say, "there's speakers that go with that". I'd already seen these monstrosities and said, "nah you can keep them", but there were four speakers, two of these and two Yamaha NS200s which had some decent parts in them, so I took them all.

Was going to take them straight to the rubbish tip, but just had to post these pics. A new low in Chinese speakers for your enjoyment

From the outside, I've seen worse, but the baffle was falling off one and there seemed to be some rocks rattling around inside...




Gotta love those Piezos, the front baffles just pulled off easily- hot melt glue I think...



Is it really what I think it is? A plastic container filled with what looks like cement (or toxic waste maybe) on the bottom. That's what the 'rocks' were- bits of broken cement rattling around.



I have no idea what it is, but it was just heavy enough to stop the speakers tipping over if you sneezed.


I have tweeters with bigger magnets than these 500watt woofers...


They must be good, they were 'engineered' in the USA and they have biwirable terminal plates...





Someone should tell them how to wire them, but with such a sophisticated crossover, I can see they may have been confused...




The best part was the Apex Digital badge, it is actually aluminium and nicely finished. I kept the badge and the piezo tweeters, in case I need an alarm siren.

Next up, the Malaysian made, Yamaha NS-200s...oh how the mighty have fallen...

 

[biscuithead]

I am pretty sure this is that special mixture of Lead, Asbestos, and Melamine ... Good Stuff !

 

[4-2-7]

LOL

But they're digital ready

 

[4-2-7]

I would have given them 500 watts before disassembly.

 

[restorer-john]

...I am pretty sure this is that special mixture of Lead, Asbestos, and Melamine ... Good Stuff ..!

Maybe special acoustic sand from the bottom of the Mekong?

 

[Roadrash]

I would have giving them 500 watts before disassembly.

That would have been fun! A readily available fire extinguisher would have probably been advisable.

 

[bberkom]

Can't even imagine what they would sound like. Shame you didn't fire 'em up!

 

[restorer-john]

...Shame you didn't fire 'em up...!

Some things are better left unheard...

 

[sregor]

Looks like they were trying o make a MLTL??

 

[swechsler]

The really funny thing is that these aren't even white van speakers. Apex (an ironic name if ever there was one) is a fairly widely distributed brand, known for cheap electronics. I'd never buy one but I've seen them all over the place.

 

[biscuithead]

I love their sustainable / planet friendly "use" of everything... I can just imagine the guy that said " No don't throw away that circle cut out, add a dab of glue and glue it in the bottom, it will add 6 oz to the weight. "

 

[swechsler]

Just checked - the Yamaha NS200s seem like a decent pair of speakers. Wonder if both pair were owned by the same person?

One other thought: Piezo tweeters technically don't even need a crossover. They could have saved $.50 by skipping out on the capacitor. Did a designer actually listen to them and say "these sound bad even for us, we need a crossover"?

 

[turboyam]

I would have given them 500 watts before disassembly.

THAT, would have ''dissasemble'' them all reght!!!

 

[swechsler]

THAT, would have ''dissasemble'' them all reght!!!

I suspect the voice coils would have melted before anything interesting happened.

 

[woofercooker]

John, You made my day! Haven't laughed this hard in a while. Thank You!!

 

[faber12]

I saw a weight similar to that in the bottom of a lamp once.

 

[Zonker92]

Speakers like that are always fun at the target range.

 

[asilker]

These would have made an excellent candidate for plugging straight into a wall socket. I LOVE those videos where people plug speakers into the wall and get insane 60hz tones.

I love their sustainable / planet friendly "use" of everything... I can just imagine the guy that said " No don't throw away that circle cut out, add a dab of glue and glue it in the bottom, it will add 6 oz to the weight. "

Actually the Yamaha NS series did this. Both the 500m and 1000m that I owned had the 12" baffle cutout glued to the inside of the cabinet behind the woofer. Since it was 1" birch ply, it does add a bit of mass to the cabinet. I always thought it was a $0 cost way to make a less resonant cab

 

[White_wolf]

I love their sustainable / planet friendly "use" of everything... I can just imagine the guy that said " No don't throw away that circle cut out, add a dab of glue and glue it in the bottom, it will add 6 oz to the weight. "

Actually had a large pair of JVC speakers where they glued the cutout to the inside back of the box. They were 1 inch thick boxes though I don't know why, it just made them heavy as hell they could have used 3/4 and saved a few pounds, I mean they weren't that powerful.

 

[slimecity]

No doubt the weight at the bottom of the cabs are to give the speakers some "heft" to make up for the 1.5mm thick walls on the cabinets.

I would have loved to just plug them straight into a mains socket, just to see bits of crap speaker fly across the room.