Worst pieces of Hi-Fi ever.

[Snoo]

Maybe 'Worst' isn't the correct word. Maybe 'misguided' or some autonym of 'Greatest'.

Anyhow.

My favourite hi-fi duck and one I can't bring myself to sell....

http://solojazz.com/lbr/equipamiento/fotosequipa/DCC.jpg

[nsherin]

http://i12.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/4c/a0/43_1.JPG

and

http://i23.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/51/12/87_1_b.JPG

and

http://i14.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/30/88/85_1.JPG

and

http://i9.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/4c/32/0d_1_b.JPG

and

http://i24.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/4a/5d/3b_1_b.JPG

and

http://i3.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/42/00/4d_1.JPG

and

http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/4e/3d/44_1.JPG

and

http://i24.ebayimg.com/02/i/00/e0/3b/57_1.JPG

and

http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/51/29/6a_1_b.JPG

and

http://i12.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/52/7a/69_1_b.JPG

[batfink]

Not strictly hi-fi, but still damned ugly!

http://www.jvc.co.uk/images/photo/mx-g700r.jpg

[voodoo]

Originally posted by batfink
Not strictly hi-fi, but still damned ugly!

http://www.jvc.co.uk/images/photo/mx-g700r.jpg

Nice, let's you practice your forearm as well as your backhand.
So how many tennis balls can you load in at once ?

[Mr_Sukebe]

Surely it's got to be the MF SACD tri-whatever and matching amp.

I can forgive a Goodmans system sounding cheap, because it is.
What I find somewhat more difficult to forgive is something so pretty much resembles a combination of sludge and treacle, yet costs in the region of £10k (including speakers).

[MikeD]

must say i agree. we're looking for the most overprices piece of garbage from the "big" names of the hifi world.

i'll offer up anything with a Bose badge on it (you knew it would come sooner or later ;)), along with the aforementioned MF Tri-Vista SACD thingibyjigger (i remember comparing it to a £300 nad/mission combo and it being slaughtered :))

[cookiemonster]

I don't tend to get out much, but to be honest, i don't think i've ever really heard a 'bad' bit of hifi.

Although with the passage of time i'm likewise beginning to doubt whether i've actually heard a really 'good' one as well.

Of course the greater the magnification, the further the world unfolds, opening up whole new vistas of adventure for those with a penchant for hiking. Gently sweeping hills suddenly transmogrify into breathtaking mountain peaks, whilst the shallow troughs of a gently flowing river metamorphose into treacherous raging torrents and waterfalls. Deflections of such magnitude no doubt make for an agreeable vantage point for those seeking adventure, but with the consequence that regular trekkers in the Himalayas would most likely be inclined to chop an arm off rather than go rambling in Wales for the weekend.

From an aesthetic perspective, then the undisputed grand masters were coined in the 1970s, positively dripping with brushed aluminium, man sized knobs and seductive night time lighting displays. Anything else is a firm second fiddle, and if it has to be black, then metal is certainly preferable to plastic, and the above pictured ghetto blaster abomination is surely anathema to anyone that isn't at least partially sighted.

[RDD]

'tis true, from a brand that I used to have a bit of a soft spot for JVC really are churning out some dreadful lookings bits of plastic, mass under 16 marketing I suspect :(

http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argos/images/5125832A60IFN118662M.JPG

[Goomer]

Originally posted by batfink
Not strictly hi-fi, but still damned ugly!

http://www.jvc.co.uk/images/photo/mx-g700r.jpg

Good lord....if cameramen can be shot in Iraq because a soldier mistakes their camera for a rocket launcher, heaven help the poor bugger caught with this.

[garyi]

It looks like a mans play thing.

In fairness this thread needs to be abouot proper seperates systems, I could reasonably take a photo of Comet and post it here.

My candidate is probably a Kenwood special addition malarky I used to own. Its not fair to kick the kenwood to much, but it did cost three hundred quid. However one day I blagged a nait 1 to borrow, and the rest for me was history. So as I say not fair to blame the kenwood to much.

[amazingtrade]

If I can get my sister out of her room I shall take a picture of her HIFI. Its a massive 1970's beast all stacked up top of each other with a Cambridge Audio CD32 in the middle of them all!

Its 100% pure proper seperates, they are just very old and cosmeticaly past their best.

[Emeritus]

nsherin,
You're not by any chance a Mastercare engineer, are you?
Or do you just have a psychotic hatred of Dixons? ;)

[wolfgang]

One piece of Ugly beast. I don't care if it sounds good or not. In my humble opinion you definately need to switch of the lights and cover your eyes when auditioning .....

http://www.krellonline.com/images/p_KPS25sc_lg_F.jpg

[Rory]

well it was between the BOSE© 321 system, anything with Technics on it and Bang and Olufsen Penta speakers, then i remembered my distinct hatred for these things
http://www.jeff.kirkman.dsl.pipex.com/Mission%20702e.jpg
Mission 702e
The front baffle rattles, the port falls out when confronted with deep basss, the treble is painfully bright and undetailed. Theres no lower midrange, let alone life in the sound and the bass drivers blow extremely easily Oh, and Mission forgot to put bracing in the early ones. Dear oh dear.
I should say their successors are far better- this ain't a Mission bashing session!

[PeteH]

Surely the Linn Komri (http://www.linn.co.uk/spec_sound/products.cfm?range=loudspeaker) has to be the world's ugliest loudspeaker - an absolute aesthetic travesty, especially as it costs £15000 or whatever. In the flesh, so to speak, it just looks like a gigantic boxy plywood coffin...

[Rodrigo de Sá]

The lousiest sound I ever heard was from the last versions of the pre power Audiolabs: no colour, no timbre, no treble, no bass, no transparency. A lot of ugly noise. Truly horrible.

[Dev]

Originally posted by wolfgang
One piece of Ugly beast. I don't care if it sounds good or not. In my humble opinion you definately need to switch of the lights and cover your eyes when auditioning .....

http://www.krellonline.com/images/p_KPS25sc_lg_F.jpg

Hi Wolfgang,

I'd happily take one off your hands and you don't even have to thank me for my considerable generosity, all part of the service :D

[joel]

Originally posted by Rory
anything with Technics on it
Nonsense.

Worst hifi i've ever heard was these:
http://www.wilsonaudio.com/products/images/pair.jpg
followed by these:
http://www.martinlogan.com/images/odyssey_zoom.gif
Unbearable with real music (the Logans' memorably failed to play the Stones) rather than demo room BGM.

[julian2002]

these could sound like angels singing but they'd never find a place in my living room
http://www.livingvoice.co.uk/images/products/airpartner_250_02.jpg

there were also some yammamura churchill horns which also looked like they'd been designed by helen keller.

i had a technics top of the range mini seperates system for a few years. very tasteful in black with 2 massive vu meters on the power section in fact:
http://www.stereovideo.cz/old/9901/sc_ca_10.jpg
didn't sound half bad, in fact it even convinced the sceptic i sold it to that there was a difference between cd's and mp3's whcih can't be bad.

[penance]

Originally posted by RdS
The lousiest sound I ever heard was from the last versions of the pre power Audiolabs: no colour, no timbre, no treble, no bass, no transparency. A lot of ugly noise. Truly horrible.

I concur

[wolfgang]

Originally posted by Dev
Hi Wolfgang,

I'd happily take one off your hands and you don't even have to thank me for my considerable generosity, all part of the service :D

Dev,
If I win the lottery and become so vulgar as to purchase that unit by mistake then sure.

I have nothing against Krell. Heard this other player of theirs in a hifishow. If they just put there mind to it then seems they could design a good looker.

http://www.guidetohometheater.com/images/archivesart/1102krell.1.jpg

[Matt F]

Not picking on this one in particular but I'd like to vote for graphic equalizers in general.

Matt.

[joel]

Originally posted by Matt F
Not picking on this one in particular but I'd like to vote for graphic equalizers in general.
I can agree and disagree with that :D THe problem with EQ is not that is inherently bad, but that it is very hard to do well. In fact EQ allows the user to screw everything up very nicely thank you.
But if you have a bad room, EQ can come in very handy. In any case, virtually all the music we listen to, recorded or live, has lots of eq applied all over the place.

[bottleneck]

Cant believe in a thread about the worst pieces of hifi ''ever'' we have such high quality components being cited!


I thought we were using the word ''worst''!!

IMHO..and according to my taste...

Ruark 'Templar's are bad.
Castle Harlechs are bad.

Worst speakers Ive ever heard (or owned) were a floorstanding pair of Spendors. Ive looked all over the web to find a picture of them (they were the model reccomended in the back of hifi world for years). I cant remember the model number.

I bought them on 'sale or return' from my dealer at the time. I tried to like them, but they sounded like a wet blanket had been thrown over them. Dull, drab and naff are the words I would use. I took them back.... and he told me that I was the fifth!!!! person to take them home and bring them back!

They were still in his classified adverts some 12 months later...

[joel]

Originally posted by bottleneck
Cant believe in a thread about the worst pieces of hifi ''ever'' we have such high quality components being cited!
High quality or simply high price... As we are constantly being told to do by our SOZ bretheren, I just used my ears.
I listened to an stunning amp the other day, one that would be laughed off of this forum simply because of its brand name...
I agree, the Spendor floor standers suck. They are the spawn of the current owner (former Audiolab boss FWIW) . Spendor "Classics" don't suck, but are quite different.

[nsherin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RDD
[B]'tis true, from a brand that I used to have a bit of a soft spot for JVC really are churning out some dreadful lookings bits of plastic, mass under 16 marketing I suspect :(

Agree there - went to some friends of my parents for dinner the the other night and they have a JVC system with the full flashing lights and 3-CD changer - horrible, lifeless sound and to make it worse, they place a bloody photo frame in front of one of the crappy speakers. The sound stage that was crap before is made even more non-existant!

Give me strength - there is no hope for some people :D

Emeritus - nah, not a Mastercare engineer, just a true hater of Dixons - the high-street empire selling own-promoted, cheap, plastic crap to the masses! I did buy a telly from them once, but it is a Toshiba and I gave the extended warranty a miss - cheeky git said it would cover me from dropping it when I left the store!! Availabilty was the only reason I bought from them - and never again if I can help it!

Those Missions look quite tasty - a pity they weren't too well constructed.

I've nothing personally against Techincs kit - my grandad has a full Technics seperates rig from 1992 and it still sounds pretty decent today.

Not that I'm saying all cheap stuff is bad - the £80 Aiwa micro system my sister has, produces quite an enjoyable sound, however, the Bush/Alba/Matsui/JVC/Saisho stuff is pretty crap!

[domfjbrown]

I concur - Saisho make one of only TWO CDPs I've ever used that'll play my copy of Hits 6 without getting stuck. If you can break in to the circuitry and add a digital output, my guess is they'd make a bombproof transport.

Note - the sound actually wasn't that bad either. Shame about the horrid 2 digit LCD display and the 0.000001g weight of the thing!

Dixons are definitely pure evil. They won't take returns, and they're a ripoff price-wise to boot. Oh, and their sister, PCWorld, is OK sometimes, but the webmaster's dead; either that, or they never have anything in stock, 'cos the site's been out for 4 weeks now for "maintenance".

Dixons' Mastercare is indeed a rip, but on my telly it was worthwhile; it needed a new motherboard 2 days after I got it (good old Sony and their crap build quality; I had one of the first models off the line as it was an ex-dem). The engineer came out same day, swapped the board in an hour and it's never put a foot wrong since. Shame the coverplans aren't as cheap as Richers' deals - and Richers' deals even cover their REALLY sh1t stuff like the bottom feeder Ariston and Teac plastic cassette decks at under £70! AND those horrid Bush turntables...

Oh - by the way - graphic EQs with spectrum analysers are GREAT! Wire one in on a spare tape out and watch those cool dancing lights, while NOT corrupting the signal. Cool - that's the only area in which I miss my midi. I might have to blag back my Kenwood EQ off my mate and stick it on the loopthrough from my headphone amp on the bedroom system ;)

[Markus S]

Originally posted by joel
I listened to an stunning amp the other day, one that would be laughed off of this forum simply because of its brand name...


Go on, don't be a tease, give us the details, please.

[7_V]

I am the proud owner of one of the ugliest pieces of kit ever built, the Sugden A48. The A48 was finished with the revolting furry stuff (nextel paint?) and my example has a brown stripe instead of the usual orange one.

I'm proud to report that my amp is probably the tattiest example of this beast on the planet. It works well though. Sorry I don't have a photo but it looks like this one (http://www.audiosynergy.co.uk/a48.htm) (but brown instead of orange and far tattier)

[batfink]

Originally posted by domfjbrown
it needed a new motherboard 2 days after I got it

But if that was the case then Mastercare wouldn't have been required - it was still under warranty wasn't it ?


Their Mastercare plans are all bulls**t in IMO. PC World sell them to you whilst giving you the mis-guided impression they will give you the latest PC when it breaks down (undoubtedly) when the warranty has just run out. You'd be surprised what they can fix though - and in my experience it's always been refurbished parts which break down again 6 months later.

They would be more likely to replace every single part with a refurbished one (twice the use for one cost to them) than to give you a new PC. I don't know how they justify charging such prices for their Coverplans. They want £150 a year now for my ancient Celeron 400 laptop!!
- Doubt I'll ever buy a full PC from there again. Accessories are fine, but for a full PC I would rather try Dell or something.

[PBirkett]

Originally posted by domfjbrown
Oh - by the way - graphic EQs with spectrum analysers are GREAT! Wire one in on a spare tape out and watch those cool dancing lights, while NOT corrupting the signal. Cool - that's the only area in which I miss my midi. I might have to blag back my Kenwood EQ off my mate and stick it on the loopthrough from my headphone amp on the bedroom system ;)

Thats the advantage with using a computer as source, I can have as many silly visualisations as I want, and I have to concur I love watching silly things like that as well :D

Back on topic, I think the most overrated hifi I've ever heard was probably the Quad 11L's. So weak and bland sounding, and definitely not worth the money IMHO. They were easily bested by a £200 pair of KEF Q1's, and they were no better than Wharfedale Diamond 8.1's for £100.

Also my old Cambridge Audio A500 was pretty bad for £200 (although thats not what I paid thankfully), and sounded worse than my 13 year old Kenwood minisystem I had before when linked into my PC.

[domfjbrown]

Originally posted by batfink
But if that was the case then Mastercare wouldn't have been required - it was still under warranty wasn't it ?

Well yes and no - normal guarantee doesn't allow onsite maintenance :) That 25 incher (bearing in mind I can't drive and had to lug the f***er to a taxi, and the telly had no box and 3 speakers and stand so a mate had to help!) was a PITA to move. It barely fitted through the door ;)

Mastercare is a total rip though!

[joel]

Originally posted by Markus Sauer
Go on, don't be a tease, give us the details, please.
Markus,
Far too ashamed. I must have been drunk or something :D
I have listenend to a couple of very non-u Sansui integrateds recently. Some of them are surprisingly good. Superb build, too - if you get the right model.
Intend to pick one up for "closer inspection" at some point.
Plenty available on German ebay, too if you're ever tempted...

[Markus S]

Sansui - I happen to have an old tape deck from them. Don't even know if they still do audio.

It's true, some old Japanese integrateds are much better than the flat earth police would have you believe. I remember listening to a Luxman (L410 or something) which wasn't half bad.

[domfjbrown]

I had a JVC AX-something (looked the same as the Memorex one Tandy used to do) that I paid £50 second hand for in Uni - it grooved like a bastard - especially with my old Mordaunt-Short MS25is. I only sold it 'cos my mate had a good deal for me on his old Audiodrab 8000A (still on loan to a mate with my Epos ES14s) - I needed the extra tape loops and THOUGHT I needed the extra power...