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Nominations for the Worst Designed Audio Components

Kodaline said:
In the late 90s, I had a Sony boombox which I liked. It had separable speakers that still clamped on when wanted, dual cassette deck, AM/FM, 3 band equalizer, and aux jacks. I ran through several Discmans over the next few years keeping it in CD playing capability. It was left behind when I went to PCs for business and entertainment and music. I think it is dead and we may have chucked it. My sister had a slightly newer model my dad still has. On the brighter side, I did recently reclaim my 1986 Sony Sport am/fm/tape boombox. Tape player still works. Needs a little bit of work cosmetically, but not bad for a 37 year old piece.
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my Sony boom box is maybe only slightly newer than yours and still works, but I chalk that up to the fact that I haven't used it all that much, not that it's particularly well made. Most of those things seemed pretty chinzy to me honestly so one would be lucky to get a lot of mileage out of it...
 
SteveB2187 said:
I'll nominate the physical appearance of literally every receiver built in the past 35-40 years.

Yesteryear's receivers had a classic look with their gorgeous silver face plate, their beautiful blue or amber backlighting, volume and tuning knobs the size of hockey pucks, the perky VU and signal strength meters, the wooden top and sides, buttons and switches for virtually everything, etc.

However, the look of today's receivers are about as boring as it gets. A dull black face with minimal controls and a bland LED readout for the tuner section.

Come on. How difficult would it really be for manufacturers to put style back into the look of their current receivers on the market? Have their designers never seen a Sansui 9090, a Pioneer 1280 or a Kenwood 7600??
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And the lettering hard to see even with glasses and a flashlight! (Hello fellow Precottonian!)
 
RunOutGroove said:
my Sony boom box is maybe only slightly newer than yours and still works, but I chalk that up to the fact that I haven't used it all that much, not that it's particularly well made. Most of those things seemed pretty chinzy to me honestly so one would be lucky to get a lot of mileage out of it...
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It seems the Sport line survived pretty well.
 
Kodaline said:
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I nominate this thing and its colleagues. While the thing operates on a theoretically possible premise, it is driving a tape through a drive for which the 8 track player was never designed, and taking the signal through a pair of tape heads in series, and somehow you could even drive the 8 track player through controls on it.
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I still have one in the garage,hasn't been used in many many years though. lol

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Akai. :thumbsdown:

Bought a fairly expensive mini-component set in the mid-'80s. What a piece of Sh*t THAT was, sounded just horrid. I just couldn't take it. Then my son really wanted a stereo so I gave it to him -- he just loved it!

Then I bought a Sony Boombox - amen.

"Alls well that ends well."
 
Kodaline said:
View attachment 2825580

I nominate this thing and its colleagues. While the thing operates on a theoretically possible premise, it is driving a tape through a drive for which the 8 track player was never designed, and taking the signal through a pair of tape heads in series, and somehow you could even drive the 8 track player through controls on it.
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I give credit for even attempting to make that work. Let's go full on Rube Goldberg and plug our portable device into it.

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Nat said:
Actually, Erector Sets themselves were very well made. The things made from them, maybe less so. We had my father's from the twenties which we played with endlessly. It had such extra specialty parts as a Model T hood so you could build something recognizable as a truck, and it also had gear boxes and electric motors. A great toy.
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I miss good 1950's and 1960's Erector Sets. I got lots of cool toys as a differently abled kiddo. Mom insisted I be treated as normally as possible, given every chance. And allowed to be me.
 
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Canton little bookshelf speakers. Sweet sound. Super shitty terminals. The Germans should be ashamed of themselves for this "engineering."
 
damacman said:
Nice. Have you elaborated on this elsewhere?
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I have not, but have had a few through the system over time. One electrocuted me and produced a shriek noise. It was only 9 years old at the time. The other made significant flames. Getting into them was a s-show and the amount of sharp edges was not something I ever wanted to deal with again.
 
Andyman said:
I'll nominate DCM speakers as they are about biggest PITAs I've ever encounter to work on. The Timewindows and Timeframes have wacky cabs, with foam socks that rot, and the drivers glued in with the black goo from Hell have earned these guys a special place in my heart.

They sound nice though....:yes:
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Old post, but I see you still are posting.....I have never got the fascination with these speakers. But that is the case with much of what gets folks excited on here.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Any amplifier with trick power supplies claiming to be rated what it really isn't. Here's to you, NAD. Any integrated amplifier or receiver which uses STK IC Blocks in the output. Any manufacturer who will not supply service literature to independent shops.
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I used, and still have an NAD 7140. Nice unit. No complaints. But I only paid $10 for it.

(I have no need to shell out $$$$'s, something always turns up)
 
E2 said:
Old post, but I see you still are posting.....I have never got the fascination with these speakers. But that is the case with much of what gets folks excited on here.
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I’ve restored hundreds of speakers from dozens of producers and the DCMs are unique in their unfriendliness to restore. The butyl adhesive is by far the biggest gripe, but other build design choices, like the threaded rod through 3’ of cardboard tube and poly stuffing to hold the end plates on, make repairs far more complex than needed.
There’s an anecdote that DCM, built in Ann Arbor, MI, stands for Dope Capital of Michigan, and their designs seem to bear that out…
 
Andyman said:
I’ve restored hundreds of speakers from dozens of producers and the DCMs are unique in their unfriendliness to restore. The butyl adhesive is by far the biggest gripe, but other build design choices, like the threaded rod through 3’ of cardboard tube and poly stuffing to hold the end plates on, make repairs far more complex than needed.
There’s an anecdote that DCM, built in Ann Arbor, MI, stands for Dope Capital of Michigan, and their designs seem to bear that out…
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Was in Ann Arbor recently, can confirm. :)
 
It may have been named DCM for that reason, and getting in to repair stuff is much harder than one would hope, but the sound is well worth it. Among the best sounding inexpensive speakers ever, to my ear. And as for repairs - who thought 50 years ago that people would be still be using them, much less complaining about having to repair them.
 
Nat said:
It may have been named DCM for that reason, and getting in to repair stuff is much harder than one would hope, but the sound is well worth it. Among the best sounding inexpensive speakers ever, to my ear. And as for repairs - who thought 50 years ago that people would be still be using them, much less complaining about having to repair them.
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That, exactly, was/is the point of the design and appeal.
 
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