What audio equipment did you at first think was Terrible, but now are in "awe" of?

Romeo Wolf

Romeo Wolf

Super Member
There are times where we bought pieces of audio, expecting it to be furry trash. But what came out instead set you in a mood of awe and shock.

My Aiwa Exos-9 would be a good example for this kind of thread. When I first got it in December of 2017, as I first listened to it, I thought it sounded terrible. But really, I just had the Equalizer set up in a very non-ideal way, with the bass cranked to the maximum and the 4 other bands shunned to the minimum. And having the hard-to-take-off-grille left on there, with the woofer pushing hard, creating an unwanted distortion that left it vacant without use for several months. That is, until I tried it out again a few days ago. Although I had a Replacement unit by this time since the bluetooth and AUX input on my previous unit crapped out.

But I wanted to take the drivers out to see what they were really made out of. Luckily, the grille was just about loosened on one side. So I proceeded, and then put it back together, albeit keeping the grille removed.

I then tested it, this time with either EQ Off or having 3/6 notches of bass boost and leaving everything else flat. And then I realized; Holy crap! I never realized how good this plastic stuffed box actually sounds. Or maybe I have since then reduced my expectations ;)

As it turns out, using a large speaker in a narrow part of a closet, with poor EQ taste really shuns the bass and the sound quality. Also I think it could be because of the grille rattling as it's a thin gauge metal, although there's rubber grips and foam pads that keep it secured.

I now currently have it on my Gel Cooled bed, in my actual room, just absolutely enjoying it. For $300 you can't go wrong unless you're an idiot like me.
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Oh, uh, what about your guy's experiences?
 
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There was a time when I didn't care much for Yamaha stereo equipment. I preferred new & vintage gear from brands like Pioneer, Marantz, Fisher (Sanyo-era), as well as newer gear from brands such as Denon, Harman Kardon, Pioneer-Elite, etc. The limited experience I had with Yamaha stereo gear led be to believe it had more of a dry, lifeless sound.

That all changed after I was given a Yamaha M-2 amp and gained significant newfound respect for the brand. Fast-forward to today and my entire stereo is practically all Yamaha.

There was also a time when I had mixed opinions about subwoofers. I've never hated subwoofers, but for a while it seemed like most of the "cheaper" subs (aimed mostly at HT) were rather boomy and had unimpressive output. The "good" subs from companies like SVS always carried quite the price premium. Back then there really weren't many/any "vintage" subwoofers because they had only recently become popular. The gap was filled by many people who simply put car subwoofers in their home, a concept which I had a particular disdain for. My opinions at the time were reinforced by the fact that my JBLs on their own could put out bass that would best many cheaper and even mid-range subs.

Today i'm running two subwoofers in my music system, and although they aren't specifically designed for car usage, they are commonly used in cars also (Dayton Ultimax 15").
 
When they were new, I was mammothly unimpressed by, e.g., the direct drive Technics consumer tts of the 1970s. Thought the arms were too heavy, the S-shape silly, and the lack of suspended subchassis barbaric. Also not a fan of direct drive vs. belt drive; seemed to me that it made a lot of sense to isolate the motor from the platter as much as possible. I was a fan of the sleek European tts of the era (and, truth be told, I do still like them a lot)... and as a tt snob, I simply couldn't cotton to the pedestrian offerings of the massmarket Japanese brands.

I have a much higher opinion of them 40-plus years later -- but, then again, the ultra-high-compliance cartridges popular in the late 1970s fell out of fashion a long time ago.

DSC_2464 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
 
Chris Brown said:
There was a time when I didn't care much for Yamaha stereo equipment. I preferred new & vintage gear from brands like Pioneer, Marantz, Fisher (Sanyo-era), as well as newer gear from brands such as Denon, Harman Kardon, Pioneer-Elite, etc. The limited experience I had with Yamaha stereo gear led be to believe it had more of a dry, lifeless sound.

That all changed after I was given a Yamaha M-2 amp and gained significant newfound respect for the brand. Fast-forward to today and my entire stereo is practically all Yamaha.

There was also a time when I had mixed opinions about subwoofers. I've never hated subwoofers, but for a while it seemed like most of the "cheaper" subs (aimed mostly at HT) were rather boomy and had unimpressive output. The "good" subs from companies like SVS always carried quite the price premium. Back then there really weren't many/any "vintage" subwoofers because they had only recently become popular. The gap was filled by many people who simply put car subwoofers in their home, a concept which I had a particular disdain for. My opinions at the time were reinforced by the fact that my JBLs on their own could put out bass that would best many cheaper and even mid-range subs.

Today i'm running two subwoofers in my music system, and although they aren't specifically designed for car usage, they are commonly used in cars also (Dayton Ultimax 15").
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I'm just gonna slap this here for Nostalgia purposes and just the insanity of it.
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Yep, that M&K stuff is legendarily good. I have a Volkswoofer that needs a new volume pot (de-oxit fixed NOTHING) and I got the...what is it....maven replacement woofer?? Sounds deliciously musical, and hits like a hammer.

Sorry, off topic.

It took me a minute to warm to Yamaha's pristine, exacting sound. Now, I love it.
 
I just tried adding a $10 pair of piezo's as supertweeters to my DIY build. It was an experiment before I went and dropped about 40 times that on high efficiency ribbons.
Honestly? Not bad at all. I can see why people wouldn't want them as straight "tweeters", but up in the lofty regions, above 8khz, they do the job quite well. Got me that "sizzle" I was lacking with my FR drivers.
 
I found a pair of Thiel model 02 speakers in the thrift quite some time ago. I knew the brand and was stoked to find them. Got them home, hooked them up to a low powered receiver and was very UNimpressed. Put them in the closet where they sat for about 8 yrs or so. Just the other day I came across a tread here about these very speakers and decided to pull them out and give them another listen. This time I hooked them up to my Toshiba sa-7150 150wpc receiver. I have a new appreciation for these speakers now. While not awe inspiring, they sound pretty good for what they are,their age and build price. Sorry they had to languish in the closet for so long before they could show me what they were capable of.
 
Cerwin-Vega D9 speakers. They have been replaced by others but I still crank them up once in a while. For rock/metal they are amazing.
 
Nothing, usually that which I thought was lousy then is lousy now. Now add in some nostalgia and all of those measures may change.
 
Yeah.... Nothing here too. If anything the opposite. I was once kind of impressed by some mid-fi stuff, but not anymore. I've lost a lot of respect for vintage gear over the years too. I don't like the sound of antique BJTs, the truncated bass of cap coupled amps and pre-amps, big paper tweeters, particle board cabinets, or giant floppy paper drivers.
 
There were a few, but 99% of the time when I hear something thats bad on first few seconds of listening they get nothing but worse no matter how many times I go back. The two exceptions were B&W 800 speaker and a Mcintosh pair of XR-290's. The B&O were on the floor to near corners and after playing around with the factory rep for an hour or so they sounded great. Hi Fidelity in Houston or was it Tweeter had a pair of 290's set up with a 2500 on the bottom and a 7300 on the top and they were pulled to far out into the middle of the room. After I made them return the straps and remove the 7300 hook up and moved them back near the rear walls they sounded great. When I heard a pair at Hi Fidelity in Lubbock they sounded fantastic. When we got our pair we used them first with a pair of 3500's that were in for repairs and needed to be checked out after restorations the speakers sounded even better.. Needless to say a pair of 3500's are still my favorite high powered tube amp. Of course I haven't heard the 2152 yet, but plan on it this spring. I'll stick with my 207s. Where would I put 14 channels of amplifiers?
 
I'd have to say my DB Systems preamp. My first 'real' audio gear was a Dynaco PAT-4 and Stereo 120 I built as kits. I used them to power a pair of Smaller Advents. Next, upgraded to an SAE 31B Poweramp. nice upgrade, and made the Small Advents really solid. I bought a DB Systems preamp because of reviews from some of my audio buddies. Swapped it in and while it was much more quiet, it sounded like it was missing something. A "Fatness" had gone away. The Small Advents sounded thinner. So I took it back and got my $ back. It was explained that what was missing was all the distortion from the PAT-4. OK, so I bought another DB Systems preamp and listened to it closely for about 2 weeks. The Shure V15 III did sound very good. I bought a Stanton 681eee (My first Stanton). Liked THAT cart even more than the Shure. I still have that DB Systems preamp, and about 10 years ago I bought another.
 
I would state it more moderately. I was not super pleased with the interface, and ease of set up of my SONOS stuff at first, but it got a lot better after the first couple years, and some upgrades they made to how they handled updates. And the sound and performance is very, very good for what it is. Not necessarily critical listening, but very decent sound and a very nice and solid convenience and tool for controlling and hearing music around the house.
 
Turntables. Back before CD's came on scene vinyl was the source. If you had a RTR, you had to play records to record onto your tape. Same thing with cassettes. I started out with a "next-to-the-cheapest" Technics deck with a cheap entry level cart. Scratched up records did not impress. I dumped vinyl quick when CD's came out. Fast forward about 25 yrs, a much better Technics, a much better cart, a receiver with a decent phono section and I'm loving vinyl.
 
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