malden
Lunatic Member
Much of what we audiophiles consider garbage actually bring joy to those who just want to enjoy the music they love.
Worst Stereo You've Ever Owned?
- Thread starter Yeeterkeeter
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This^^^. Sometimes I miss that kid who was completely content simply to be able to play and to hear some of his favorite songs.
I don't think I've ever had a bad stereo. They all filled a niche. When I was a kid the family had a GE "portable" with speakers that swung out from the body, and the turntable, like a Murphy bed, was hinged at the bottom and dropped down in the front. While it was objectively no hi-fi, I loved that thing and wore out tons of albums on it until we got our first component stereo. Boomboxes, mini speakers, powered monitors, MP3 players, hifi radios, office systems, cheap, expensive, normal, odd - they all played tunes and I was glad to have them.
twiiii
Lunatic Member
The first one of course. Garrard AT6, Knight Kit and some 12 inch speakers with wizzer cones in 3 or 4 cu ft boxes. Ported. I guess they were home made. What do you expect for under 100 dollars in 1961. The stuff was in a hock shop. I don't remember the cartridge. Maybe an Empire 35 or 38? I am embarrased to say the least but at 16 years old you have to start some where. After the amp blew up I bought a Scott 222 and some Frazier enclosures with an Oxford horn and a Stephens 80 FR using a Helmholtz resonator. That was my Christmas present to me in 61. Pays to have a part time job on weekends. I was in band and orchestra and had additional rehearsals after school so couldn't have a job then.
petes'picks
Super Member
I purchased a 300watt Pyramid car audio amp that was 1/3rd the price of the well known brands back in 1985, should have been called a car audio oscillator. For home audio it was a Readers Digest tuner, it looked the part but sounded like something Lloyds and SoundDesign owners would laugh at.
Mine was a Sears all in one 8track am/tm turntable . Got it for Christmas when I was 14 , it was ok but had no power . I rigged up a used car batt 12volt power Supply and 50 wpc Sanyo power amp , and a Radio Shack watt meter and a set of AAL speakers ,Then it wasn’t so bad lol ! then I replaced it a few yrs later with my sta2080 realistic receiver and put the power amp in my Monte Carlo !
Pyrrho
Super Member
If I listed the models of my first stereo and said I was glad to get rid of that junk, I would offend some who post here, as there are people who collect such things.
It was a pair of speakers, a turntable, and an integrated amplifier. Used, because I could not afford anything decent new. I later added a used tuner. Then I upgraded things, speakers, and went with a receiver that was better than the integrated amplifier and tuner. (That experience, by the way, showed me how ridiculous it is that some people have a prejudice against receivers; quality is not determined by how many boxes the equipment comes in; junk is available both separately and together, and pretty decent stuff is available separately and together. Sure, the very best is separates [separate tuner, preamp, and power amp], but not all separates are worth owning; some are a very bad deal [because they cost more in separate boxes, regardless of their level of quality] and a good receiver would be better to have.) And kept upgrading, buying used gear, and selling it when I wanted to upgrade some more. During the upgrading process, I added a cassette deck, and, later, when CDs came out, added a CD player as soon as I found a good deal on one (when they first came out, they were all over $1000, which was a lot of money back in the 1980's, and I could not afford one until the prices came down quite a bit and I got one that was a store demo that was greatly discounted). But because one of my brothers bought a CD player sooner than I did, I started buying CDs before I bought a CD player, and recorded them on cassette to listen to on my system, knowing that I would eventually get a CD player.
But, the first system I had worked, and I did derive pleasure from it, even though I was pretty constantly wishing I could afford better, and replaced each part of it as soon as I could afford better. Being a poor teenager, that is how I started buying and selling used gear, for the purpose of upgrading. If I had been rich, I would have started with something pretty good that was new. Like when the Infinity QLS (Quantum Line Source) came out, I would have purchased those if I had been rich, with separate high power amplifiers necessary for properly driving them. But that was so far above my financial ability, that it was never a real consideration. It did show me how very far from the best my gear was, which I already had a good idea about from a brother having a system that was, for its era (circa 1970), really good. Not state of the art in 1970, but really good, far better than what most people got then. Frankly, probably better than what most people ever get since then, too.
I am really glad I have equipment now that I regard as good enough, that I have no intention of ever upgrading. If things fail, I may replace them, but I don't plan on upgrading. There is virtually always going to be something out there better than what you have, almost no matter what you have, so it is good to be satisfied at some point that is less than the best ever made. I am glad I am not the sort of person who is never satisfied no matter what. Unfortunately for me, it takes some pretty good gear to reach the point of satisfaction. It would be better to be satisfied with a very modest system, as it saves a lot of money and trouble that way.
Of course, today, there is a lot of used gear on the market that is decent, and a poor person can have something that is better than the gear I started with, for less money than I paid for my first system, even without factoring in inflation. Deals like this can be had these days:
www.audiosciencereview.com
Where I live, most days, I could get something comparable to that off of Craigslist for $50 or so, and can find such things in thrift stores frequently, though not every day. The hardest part to get good is speakers, which has always been the case, though I have seen much better deals in the past 20 years than what one could get back 40 years ago. It is much easier to be a poor audiophile today than it was 40 years ago and before. There is a lot more used gear that is available, and much of it is not greatly valued by collectors, but does actually perform pretty well, so good deals on good sound are much easier to find.
It was a pair of speakers, a turntable, and an integrated amplifier. Used, because I could not afford anything decent new. I later added a used tuner. Then I upgraded things, speakers, and went with a receiver that was better than the integrated amplifier and tuner. (That experience, by the way, showed me how ridiculous it is that some people have a prejudice against receivers; quality is not determined by how many boxes the equipment comes in; junk is available both separately and together, and pretty decent stuff is available separately and together. Sure, the very best is separates [separate tuner, preamp, and power amp], but not all separates are worth owning; some are a very bad deal [because they cost more in separate boxes, regardless of their level of quality] and a good receiver would be better to have.) And kept upgrading, buying used gear, and selling it when I wanted to upgrade some more. During the upgrading process, I added a cassette deck, and, later, when CDs came out, added a CD player as soon as I found a good deal on one (when they first came out, they were all over $1000, which was a lot of money back in the 1980's, and I could not afford one until the prices came down quite a bit and I got one that was a store demo that was greatly discounted). But because one of my brothers bought a CD player sooner than I did, I started buying CDs before I bought a CD player, and recorded them on cassette to listen to on my system, knowing that I would eventually get a CD player.
But, the first system I had worked, and I did derive pleasure from it, even though I was pretty constantly wishing I could afford better, and replaced each part of it as soon as I could afford better. Being a poor teenager, that is how I started buying and selling used gear, for the purpose of upgrading. If I had been rich, I would have started with something pretty good that was new. Like when the Infinity QLS (Quantum Line Source) came out, I would have purchased those if I had been rich, with separate high power amplifiers necessary for properly driving them. But that was so far above my financial ability, that it was never a real consideration. It did show me how very far from the best my gear was, which I already had a good idea about from a brother having a system that was, for its era (circa 1970), really good. Not state of the art in 1970, but really good, far better than what most people got then. Frankly, probably better than what most people ever get since then, too.
I am really glad I have equipment now that I regard as good enough, that I have no intention of ever upgrading. If things fail, I may replace them, but I don't plan on upgrading. There is virtually always going to be something out there better than what you have, almost no matter what you have, so it is good to be satisfied at some point that is less than the best ever made. I am glad I am not the sort of person who is never satisfied no matter what. Unfortunately for me, it takes some pretty good gear to reach the point of satisfaction. It would be better to be satisfied with a very modest system, as it saves a lot of money and trouble that way.
Of course, today, there is a lot of used gear on the market that is decent, and a poor person can have something that is better than the gear I started with, for less money than I paid for my first system, even without factoring in inflation. Deals like this can be had these days:
Yamaha RX-596 Receiver Review
This is a review and detailed measurements of the vintage (?) Yamaha RX-596 Receiver (stereo amplifier with tuner and video switcher). It was purchased by a member from local charity (Goodwill) for US $10 plus $18 shipping. No, that is not a typo. He did buy it for just $10. It was sold...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Where I live, most days, I could get something comparable to that off of Craigslist for $50 or so, and can find such things in thrift stores frequently, though not every day. The hardest part to get good is speakers, which has always been the case, though I have seen much better deals in the past 20 years than what one could get back 40 years ago. It is much easier to be a poor audiophile today than it was 40 years ago and before. There is a lot more used gear that is available, and much of it is not greatly valued by collectors, but does actually perform pretty well, so good deals on good sound are much easier to find.
Xenon-Codex
Active Member
Crown cheap stereo, idler wheel driven LP player sounded like cement mixer, plastic platter was lighter than pre-oil crisis vinyl. Pic copied from some auction site.
The worst audio device I ever came across was a Kenwood POS aftermarket stereo that someone had installed in a 94 Chevy pickup I bought used. Bass went down to about 300 hz, radio sensitivity was horrible, and it ate CDs. How this was an improvement over the factory General Motors stereo I can't fathom.
Second prize goes to a Pioneer aftermarket radio that someone very badly installed in a 99 Suburban I bought used. This POS had no bass either and sounded worse than the AM radio in my old '65 Dart, it had an extremely irritating animated swimming dolphins display (I kid you not) that, to turn off, was a non-obvious menu item buried down 4 levels. Every time the thing lost power (due me working on the car, or just randomly due to the crappy install) that display had to be reset and every time I had to struggle through the menu to find how to disable it. it did have XM and the previous owner never changed his subscription - but it was the least sensitive XM receiver I ever had. I even got a General Motors factory stereo to replace it, but the guy who installed that Pioneer had cut the wiring harness and threw away all the connectors. I pretty much gave up on it after that, but did clean up the wiring so it wasn't just taped together. At least the CD player worked, not that you could hardly tell what song was playing for the horrible audio quality.
I've yet to see an aftermarket stereo that beats the factory and to this day avoid used cars with any aftermarket stereo. EIther they're crap, or poorly installed, or both.
Second prize goes to a Pioneer aftermarket radio that someone very badly installed in a 99 Suburban I bought used. This POS had no bass either and sounded worse than the AM radio in my old '65 Dart, it had an extremely irritating animated swimming dolphins display (I kid you not) that, to turn off, was a non-obvious menu item buried down 4 levels. Every time the thing lost power (due me working on the car, or just randomly due to the crappy install) that display had to be reset and every time I had to struggle through the menu to find how to disable it. it did have XM and the previous owner never changed his subscription - but it was the least sensitive XM receiver I ever had. I even got a General Motors factory stereo to replace it, but the guy who installed that Pioneer had cut the wiring harness and threw away all the connectors. I pretty much gave up on it after that, but did clean up the wiring so it wasn't just taped together. At least the CD player worked, not that you could hardly tell what song was playing for the horrible audio quality.
I've yet to see an aftermarket stereo that beats the factory and to this day avoid used cars with any aftermarket stereo. EIther they're crap, or poorly installed, or both.
Yeeterkeeter
Kermit the Frog
actually, I think I know the worst stereo I’ve owned, which was one of those Victrola record players
It has nothing but top ends and uses a 5 dollar turntable mechanism. This thing single handedly gave me a distaste for vinyl and put me off it for 3 years before I picked it up again. This damn thing also destroyed my records.
It has nothing but top ends and uses a 5 dollar turntable mechanism. This thing single handedly gave me a distaste for vinyl and put me off it for 3 years before I picked it up again. This damn thing also destroyed my records.
Yeeterkeeter
Kermit the Frog
I think the worst part about these thing is how numerous they are. If you search up record player or turntable on Amazon these are the first things that turn up. If someone you know is looking to buy a turntable, make sure they know to avoid these
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
^This!!!!!! and might I add who cared or who even knew at that age what was good or not
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
Interestingly enough my tech who also sells used equipment can't keep these type of new portable record players in stock, a slight exaggeration but he does sell a lot of them.
Most of the purchasers tend to young girls who probably only have an iDevice as a previous reference point for sound quality.
I'm guessing here that sound quality and the process of discerning said quality is not a priority.
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Yeeterkeeter
Kermit the Frog
my issue with these is the fact that they destroy records and sound like ****, leading people to believe that all records sound bad, in turn leading them to become disinterested in the hobby as a whole, which is exactly what happened to me. I only rediscovered the hobby when I discovered my dads CD collection and bought him a (vintage) CD player.
Yeeterkeeter
Kermit the Frog
hey it was honest with its naming I’ll give it thatA "Sparkomatic" car stereo that literally caught fire in the dashboard, circa 1976
Had to waste almost a full Beer to put it out......