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What's the most useless, over-designed, or badly designed feature ?

Remote controls
Digital display tuner
Carver anything (including Flame Linear and Sun Smoke)
AV anything
Power AMP modules
Limited input options
No Phono
No Scope output
P-Mount
Belt Drive
Linear Tracking (except for air bearing or other exotica)
Flimsy anything
Region Codes
HDMI
MP3
BPC
 
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Sir Terrence said:
The SH circuit and the ambience recovery system of the Speakerworks speaker operate very differently. The SH circuit sends an anti phase signal to each speaker, and the Speakerworks ambience recovery system sends a L-R, and R-L output to the drivers. One is designed to pull out of phase signals out of the recording, the other to send out a phase cancelling signal from opposing speakers.


The Speakerworks recovery system send the out of phase output out of the back side of a dual voice coil driver. The SH circuit sends an opposing anti-phase signal through the front of the drivers along with the in phase output of the driver.

Both approaches require time and phase driver relationships to work their best, and how one interprets the effect both is highly subjective in nature.

When the SH circuit is used with time, phase and frequency correct speakers, it does not exhibit the phase-y quality that you speak of. However when used with speakers that are not time coherent, it will. The staggered arrival of the signals from the different drivers located on the front baffle interfere with the working of the circuit, which knocks the arrival of the anti-phase signal
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I used it with time/phase coherent Dahlquist DQ-30s and Sony SS-m7s (also time/phase coherent). In both cases, it exhibited a phasey sound that seemed to alter the timbre of instruments, and also added noise and masked detail ( I was using a separate SH unit, it wasn't part of a pre). Just my experience with it- that's not to say all implementations of it were as bad as my experience. Niether of those speakers really needed any help in the imaging department, regardless. Especially the Sonys. I tired of the SH very quickly.

The Speakerworks technique worked quite well in practice, however- and his speakers are very nice. Exceptional parts quality to the crossovers considering their price.
 
Ruxman said:
What what what? :o

That is the best speaker connector I've ever encountered. I love them.

Makes me really sad that Technics gear is not good or good looking enough, I would love to have one as my main amp simply because of those speaker connectors..............
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Technics wasn't the only ones to have those. I've had an MCS integrated amp, a Sansui receiver, and a Yamaha power amp with that type of speaker connector.
 
Sir Terrence said:
...the Speakerworks ambience recovery system sends a L-R, and R-L output to the drivers.

The Speakerworks recovery system send the out of phase output out of the back side of a dual voice coil driver.
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From the the Van L site:

"By employing dedicated BINAURAL (dual) voice coils in each left and right speaker system, it is possible to route left and right total signals to the "primary" windings and filtered differential L-R and R-L to the "ambient" windings. In this way, the anti-phase differential radiates from the same acoustic source as the primary left and right signals."

More to the OP's question, it's interesting to note that in almost every case what some consider a a useless feature, somebody else finds quite useful. For example, I use the mute switch ALL the time. Most 'useless' features that come to mind for me are simply obsoleted by time.

Dolby FM never made any sense to me, though.
 
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I bought at a yard sale a big 80s Onkyo receiver. The guy demoed it for me by hooking it up to what appeared to be boombox speakers, complete with 24 ga wire coming straight out the back. Well, he turned it on and it didn't play, so I started creeping the volume control up. Well, I later found out that Onkyo had put a delayed start in the unit to keep people from doing exactly what I did. I kept inching up the volume and was almost at max when it kicked on. Ungodly noise for a second followed by silence. Not knowing what else to do, I gave the guy the five bucks he wanted for everything and put it in my car.

If you are going to build in a delayed sound feature, at least have it fade into full volume slowly instead of kicking on all at once.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Remote controls
Digital display tuner
Carver anything (including Flame Linear and Sun Smoke)
AV anything
Power AMP modules
Limited input options
No Phono
No Scope output
P-Mount
Belt Drive
Linear Tracking (except for air bearing or other exotica)
Flimsy anything
Region Codes
HDMI
MP3
BPC
Click to expand...

Get up on the wrong side of the bed today?
 
markshan said:
I bought at a yard sale a big 80s Onkyo receiver. The guy demoed it for me by hooking it up to what appeared to be boombox speakers, complete with 24 ga wire coming straight out the back. Well, he turned it on and it didn't play, so I started creeping the volume control up. Well, I later found out that Onkyo had put a delayed start in the unit to keep people from doing exactly what I did. I kept inching up the volume and was almost at max when it kicked on. Ungodly noise for a second followed by silence. Not knowing what else to do, I gave the guy the five bucks he wanted for everything and put it in my car.

If you are going to build in a delayed sound feature, at least have it fade into full volume slowly instead of kicking on all at once.
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Most receivers and power amps do that. It's a protection circuit to keep turn-on transients from damaging speakers. I think they assume most people have the sense to keep the volume turned down and wait. :D
 
John in MA said:
Most receivers and power amps do that. It's a protection circuit to keep turn-on transients from damaging speakers. I think they assume most people have the sense to keep the volume turned down and wait. :D
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You beat me to it. I think almost every amp that I own has that 'feature'. That sad times are when they never come out of it...
 
Balance controls that are behind the volume control. Change the volume, change the balance. Sony's bad for this...
 
John in MA said:
Most receivers and power amps do that. It's a protection circuit to keep turn-on transients from damaging speakers. I think they assume most people have the sense to keep the volume turned down and wait. :D
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With some amps it doesnt matter if the volume is down, because its the voltage in the power-amp stablizing which makes the DC offset swing, the correct way to resolve this is with a soft start circuit with speaker relays which dont engage for the first few seconds while the amp powers up......

My AU-999 does that, so I have the speaker selector switched to off until its powered up......
 
Balance control. Never use it.

Reverse switch.

As far as the mute switch, it is very useful when playing records. Flip the switch, change record and set down stylus, then flip the switch back.

Also, if you have a receiver like the G-22000, you need it to listen at lower levels.
 
I just got a Luxman L-5 and it sounds great, but all the inputs are on the bottom! Apparently the few inches of travel it saved improves the sound quality...

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mikeybc said:
How about those faux surround settings like "stadium" "church" "hall" etc. in those surround receivers, in fact I've seen these settings in Sony cd changers too....RUBBISH !!
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+1 This one's the winner for me. Add sound cards as being offenders of using crappy surround effects as well.

andrewto said:
I just got a Luxman L-5 and it sounds great, but all the inputs are on the bottom! Apparently the few inches of travel it saved improves the sound quality...
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Impressive -- that really sucks too!
 
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andrewto said:
I just got a Luxman L-5 and it sounds great, but all the inputs are on the bottom! Apparently the few inches of travel it saved improves the sound quality...
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at least they will be clean and completely free of dust...........
 
mikeybc said:
How about those faux surround settings like "stadium" "church" "hall" etc. in those surround receivers, in fact I've seen these settings in Sony cd changers too....RUBBISH !!
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LOL, My Explorer has that, but I have the "High End" Ford/JBL Stereo, The whole thing is useless if you ask me.
 
pioneerSRV said:
Loudness buttons/switches
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Try a pair of Bozak B-301s without it. :sigh:

jhoyt said:
Two phono inputs, Two tape loops, and one Aux input. Maybe it made sense 30 years ago.
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Use one of the tape inputs as an aux...

My KR-9400 almost always has two turntables connected.

bobbyonions said:
Car stereos with a remote. WTF? For people with no right arm or somethin'?
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My BMW's stereo mounting position is somewhat awkwardly forward, often it's safer and more convenient to change channels or the volume by using the remote. My Corvette is even worse.
 
Shuffle play on CD players. In fact most programming features on CD players.
 
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