Design Acoustics PS-10’s
Whats the most dissapointing speaker you've ever heard?
- Thread starter nick parkin
- Start date
David_NC
Super Member
I am gonna say the worst was a pair of Bose AM-3's. These have the single driver in each satellite. They were horrible due to how and where they were setup... no comment on the speaker itself. My housemate had them on a credenza somewhat hidden behind stuff, as they don't fit in to his idea of how a 1908 house should look. The bass module was in the credenza with the door closed. At any rate, I upgraded him to a Vizio 5.1 soundbar that has amazingly remained unobstructed and sounds much better. Granted, they use these for TV and movies, but the AM-3's sucked even for TV. The Visio 5.1 'bar is actually impressive for it's cost and simplicity.
I mounted the satellites on rafters in the garage and put the bass module up there too firing into the angle created by the roof and wall. They sound amazingly good like that for a system I listen to while working on projects. Bass is loud, if not accurate, and the mids and highs are well dispersed in the garage. It just goes to show location, location, location applies to speakers as much as real estate!
epifanatic
acoustically suspended
Kirsch and JPL.
tomlinmgt
Lunatic Member
tomlinmgt
Lunatic Member
A PMC three-way monitor with a huge dome mid and sexy wave guide on the tweeter. Pretty sure the cabinet was either transmission line or utilized some sort of aperiodic loading. When I saw them I said to myself “now THOSE things have all the ingredients for greatness”. They wound up sounding totally lifeless to me. Upstream gear was all Audio Research.
55Redneck
Canadian Redneck
Most disappointing for me recently is a pair of Advent Legacy II's. Picked them up a couple weeks ago because I heard so many good things about them. Their highs give me a headache everytime I listen to them. I've tried turning the treble down on my receiver and the bass up a bit which helps a little but for the most expensive speaker I ever bought, I'm kinda bummed out. Gonna see if I can move them along and get my money back out of them. Driving them with a Pioneer SX D-7000 and they don't play well together.
Never heard of Vanderstein they must be the knock offs of the exceptional sounding Vandersteens
Audiofreak71
Second on the LS50
Lafayette(?) Criterion 50As. Looks like a KLH 17 or somesuch speaker, but doesn't sound anywhere near as good. Bought 'em at a flea market for $20, hooked them up to my system at home, and was immediately disappointed. Gave them to my brother, who hasn't done anything with 'em. 
-Adam
-Adam
- Klipsch Forte II - hard, etched treble, with flabby, ill-defined, one-note bass. Tried amps ranging from an 8 wpc 300b tube amp to 50 wpc Class A and 200 wpc Class AB SS amps, and nothing could tame those speakers. I couldn't sell them fast enough.
- Vandersteen 3a - flat, lifeless, no deep bass, totally uninvolving and boring speaker. Driven my a Modern McIntosh front end including monoblock amps. At first we thought some drivers weren't working properly, but careful inspection showed them to be functional. Weird.
That was your mistake, using McIntosh amps with Vandersteens, I got the same impressions with a McIntosh amp 2ce signature vandys , when paired with another amp it sounded like a totally different speaker . No offense to McIntosh lovers but in my experience Vandys don’t vibe with them at all .
Audiofreak71
That's a very interesting observation. I had resolved to give the Candy 3a's another serious listen if the opportunity ever presents itself based only on the stellar reputation that all of the Vandersteen speakers seem to enjoy. Your comments only reinforce my thoughts on these speakers.
Another thing I have observed is that despite Vandersteen pairing his speakers with Audio Research, every time I have heard them paired with these amps preamps and dac combos they sound anemic to me , but pair them with Krell, Aragon, Musical Fidelity, they open up and sing , this is all my opinion of course but I almost gave up on my 2ce Signature ii’s and would have hadn’t it been for a good friend of mine convincing me to try out different equipment with them , sure enough we found the right combo and sam I’d these aren’t some of the best speakers I have heard , period .
Audiofreak71
A few years ago I rescued a pair of HPM40 from the thrift, despite their being overpriced for the amount of wear & tear on the cabinets. Lovingly recapped them and set them up only to find they're just another party speaker with no outstanding features at all. Played with them for a while, couldn't bring myself to like them, tried once to give them away, finally stuck them in a corner of the basement where they still sit moldering. They certainly left me with no desire to seek out their bigger brethren.