What gear do you HATE?

Realistic is terrible in my opinion with THD ratings ranging from .9% to .5% in the late seventies to the mid 80's and costing upwards of $500, while a comparably priced receiver from any real company was able to pull off .1% THD or better at that time.

Your opinion doesn't match my observations. In the first place, most of those Realistic brand receivers were made by the Japanese majors under contract and used similar circuitry to what the manufacturers put in their own brands. The build quality of the ones I've had apart, including some of the earlier models made by Foster (parent of Fostex), is generally competitive with facing models from the Japanese majors. In the second place, the correlation between THD and listening quality is somewhere between weak and nonexistent, so it doesn't make much sense to use a THD number as a figure of merit. THD and IM graphs showing the level and order of the distortion are more useful, but I don't know of any manufacturer that publishes those graphs in its spec sheets.
 
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......ah, any system without a good high gain phono stage.

Bet no body was counting on me saying anything like that, uh?!

Happy (Analogue) Listening! :beatnik:
 
Your opinion doesn't match my observations. In the first place, most of those Realistic brand receivers were made by the Japanese majors under contract and used similar circuitry to what the manufacturers put in their own brands. The build quality of the ones I've had apart, including some of the earlier models made by Foster (parent of Fostex), is generally competitive with facing models from the Japanese majors. In the second place, the correlation between THD and listening quality is somewhere between weak and nonexistent, so it doesn't make much sense to use a THD number as a figure of merit. THD and IM graphs showing the level and order of the distortion are more useful, but I don't know of any manufacturer that publishes those graphs in its spec sheets.

Not going by paper specs alone, though they are a pretty good start for comparisons. I've hear Realistic gear in person hell we have one for speaker testing purposes and well I've never been wowed by it or really any Realistic ever. Most of the ones I've seen from the early 80's are custom made for Tandy in "Korea" not a country well know for ever making high quality components. Again my opinion you don't have to agree with it, but you should respect it.
 
... Most of the [Realistic receivers] I've seen from the early 80's are custom made for Tandy in "Korea" not a country well know for ever making high quality components.

That's the same place that Pioneer, among others, made many of their receivers. I recall lower-line Pioneer receivers as far back as 1978 that were made in Korea. They sounded pretty good to me and held up in service.

Again my opinion you don't have to agree with it, but you should respect it.

I thought I did, by stating that my observations differed from your opinion rather than writing in a more confrontational tone.
 
I thought I did, by stating that my observations differed from your opinion rather than writing in a more confrontational tone.



*This is not intending to be insulting/confrontational/or offensive in any way*

Never said you didn't, it's just that the OP asked people to not make rebuttals to comments about waht gear they personally hate (I know it hasn't been followed to well but).

For example, I completely 100% Disagree with the comments "I hate any Japaneses speakers with lattice grills" basically sansui (among others). I have 2 pairs of those "lattice grill speakers" and I personally enjoy them, but I didn't make a rebuttal to their personal opinion they've developed from their own observations.

So If you like realistic gear that great but stating that you're observations are to the contrary in a thread that is obviously gonna be 100% opinion based doesn't really change my or any one else's opinion of what gear we personally dislike.

*This is not intending to be insulting/confrontational/or offensive in any way*
 
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Poorly designed controls, aesthetics and bad usability!

For example:

- Arcam A65+ integrated - has a "full function" remote, but you can't turn the unit on or off with it!
- NAD T750 receiver - you have to use the remote to put it in standby!
- Receivers/Pre/Integrated without discrete buttons or labelled selector knobs on the front panel for input selection
- Front panel LCD displays that don't have a dim option
- Gear that advertises the capabilities with permanent silk screening on the front panel
(HDMI, RDS, DD, DTS, THX, etc, etc)
- Power cords that aren't detachable

... I could go on forever!

Also, the fact that you have to pay over $1000 to get new 2-channel gear that isn't made in China.
 
all kenwood as i used to love it till i dropped huge money on the best dvd,receiver,vehicle,and surround speakers they offered (5-6 years ago).receiver i gave away cause the name sickened me to the point of puking every time i looked at the dreadfull name.PURE JUNK!None of it worked a year other than the receiver.powered sub blew up,motorized face plate didn't motor,5 disc dvd player wouldnt play dvd,s,auto subs blew up and the amp won,t amp.
 
I hate anything BPC and the fact that soooo many companies went that route rather than to continue making stuff we are happy to say we own.

80's components with slider controls and a barrage of push buttons. Butt ugly, mostly cheap, weightless, throwaway components that sold for just as much as the better built 70's and early 80's gear.

While I'm a big fan of Technics, I didn't like the Panasonic brand audio gear even back in the 70's and 80's. Pioneer did some of this back in the day too but the name of the products escapes me, other than the "by Pioneer" logo.

Of course, the cheap gear from the day still irks me - Soundesign, Capehart, Electrophonic, Yorx, Kraco, Emerson, and some I'm sure I haven't mentioned. I'm willing to give most any manufacturer a try, but not the obvious junk brands.

CD changers. There always seem to be threads about changers going through the gears unable to find the disc and going haywire. From early models to modern day models, I don't like 'em. I even tried to like one several months back, having picked one up from a local pawn shop - a Harmon Kardon that I was hoping might be a better build than the ones I remember - only to find that it had the same crap going on, look for discs, skip, etc. No more changers for me, even though I see them at GW fairly often.
 
Canadiens: they play football with twelve players and have more than their allotment of top-notch comedians.

"Screw 'em." :)
 
Cables and cords....what the f*ck, all this technology and a decent wireless analog signal to your speakers seems to be a light year away.

My first big audio buy a JVC LF-71, expensive at the time cause it could be programmed and play an album in any order .....The IR musicscan IC went in less than 6 mos, and couldn't be replaced, so it became manual anyway...POS
I keep it to remind me of the past.

Tiny printing on fronts and rear panels!!!

BPC, SPC(silver plastic crap), and HTC(home theatre crap)

.........whew!!!:thmbsp:
 
Have to agree with CD changers, I baught a nice H/K FL8550 5 CD changer. It sounds fantastic but after the first week, it would start arguing with you. Open the front and it immediately closed, finally get it open and the carousel would just endlessly spin. ARRGH, when it occasionally works its nice but I havent used it for about 6 months. But I think I'll give up changers here on.

Now I definately DONT hate it and I know people will disagree, but Yamaha isnt for me. I find the styling is often sterile and well, the same for the sound. I havent had much but also havent liked any of it. I guess 'Natural Sound' is not for me, I had a CR-420 for a while and tried to like it but I actually had a fit of rage one day when I realised I wasent enjoying any music through the thing. Have a tape deck of theirs that I dont like either.

- Equalisers

- Noise reduction on cassette players (Unless your dealing with very noisy cassettes)

- Turn Tables....... Yeah, I enjoy records and listening to them but BY GOD do I hate turn tables. So freaking fiddily and never work properly, wear out all the time and cost a bomb to get something even semi-kinda-Ok-ish. AARGH, they frustrate me so much. Maby its because I'm a younger person (21) but jeezus.. Does it have to be so hard to listen to music.
 
Bose:nono:

Just about any of the newer slim "tower" HT speakers:no:

And I may get flamed for this but records and TT's always sucked IMO:sigh:
 
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