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Worst Stereo You've Ever Owned?

Worst stereo was the first stereo, a gift from my parents when I was 14 or so. It was a LLoyds, a lesser version of this pic. Mine had the controls on top, no tape, and only a 'tone' control for eq.
In reality I was probably more proud of that than all the gear I have now. I can't complain about the joy it gave me at the time.
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I had one of these that I used to tape Don Kirshner's Rock Concert shows off the TV with
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I had a Technics SA-DX930 A/V receiver with some clapped out Boston Acoustics A100s. I got the Technics from Fry's Electronics in 2000 or 2001 and the BA's were cast offs from work. After a few years, the Technics would go into protect or overload or something and just shut down randomly. The A100s were on their last legs, the surrounds all but gone, cabinet beat and chipped and veneer peeling up.

Gosh, I just realized I didn't get another system after that one until last year -- I got rid of it probably in 2010. :oops:
 
Sony STR-AV550 receiver.

There was a very noticeable compression of loud passages, and the digital volume control added an audible hiss that varied with the volume level, resetting every 10 points. Additionally, the receiver required repair twice.

So: Bad sound, background hiss, and unreliable.

I haven’t missed it since selling it to a friend who didn’t care about the above issues.
 
My parents bought me a piece of crap all in one Miracle Mart dual 8 track, CEC turntable (I think) with a radio. It was a piece of crap. Then I thought I was upgrading when I bought my Marantz 1530. It too was a piece of crap. Ruined me from enjoying vinyl until I got an NAD 7240PE.

I actually bought one early on in my return to vintage stereo, and I put it for sale after trying it for 10 minutes. Yep! Just as bad as I remembered if not worse!
 
YAQIN MC-100B. What a gutless POS. It was consistent though. Didn't matter what speakers it was hooked to it always sounded like ****.
 
sanford12 said:
YAQIN MC-100B. What a gutless POS. It was consistent though. Didn't matter what speakers it was hooked to it always sounded like ****.
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Curious if you ever tried different tubs in the MC-100B. I had the same experience with my Yaqin MC84L -- just sounded really poor with the stock tubes. Even after letting the stock Chinese tubes burn in for a month, I really disliked the sound. That completely changed after I updated all the tubes to Mullard new issues -- went from disliking it to loving it. I think about 10+ years ago, Yaqin's often came fitted with Russian tubes that were pretty decent, but more recently they typically come with Chinese tubes that I did not like at all.
 
peterp1 said:
Curious if you ever tried different tubs in the MC-100B. I had the same experience with my Yaqin MC84L -- just sounded really poor with the stock tubes. Even after letting the stock Chinese tubes burn in for a month, I really disliked the sound. That completely changed after I updated all the tubes to Mullard new issues -- went from disliking it to loving it. I think about 10+ years ago, Yaqin's often came fitted with Russian tubes that were pretty decent, but more recently they typically come with Chinese tubes that I did not like at all.
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I did. Vintage US. Didn't help one whit. I passed it along and they were happy with it. I kept the US tubes. My take on this is what stereo you thought would be good and wasn't. 2nd runner up to the worst won't be popular and is also tube but vintage. A Fisher KX-200. Just a dark muddy sounding amp. It was redone . A redone Sansui 1000A was so much better. Have to say 7591's aren't my favorite tube and I've never kept one for long. I'd rather listen to a 6BQ5/EL84 or 6CA7/EL34. Passed the Fisher along with that person also happy.
 
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BilboBaggins said:
My parents bought me a piece of crap all in one Miracle Mart dual 8 track, CEC turntable (I think) with a radio. It was a piece of crap. Then I thought I was upgrading when I bought my Marantz 1530. It too was a piece of crap. Ruined me from enjoying vinyl until I got an NAD 7240PE.
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When a poor piece of music equipment ruins the enjoyment of an entire medium for someone, I think that it's a pretty damn bad system.
 
Didn't Weltron make a television version as well ?

I love those quirky pieces. Remember the stuff from Panasonic ? The TNT 8-track, the Toot A Loop radio, The ball and chain radio ?
Those things were cool. Probably still work, too.
 
Mike Stehr said:
Something your mom buys for you knowing full well you will trash it...
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My parents actually gave me Grand Funk Railroad‘s E. Pluribus Funk to go along with my first stereo. I no longer recall the name of the unit, but it came from the OTASCO store we had in my hometown. I still have that record. Life was a lot simpler back then.
 
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