[kman1211]

This is a truly tough one for me as I’ve heard some atrocious headphones when I first got into the hobby, don’t even recall what some were, best left forgotten, the cheap junk of course. Of what I do remember, these two were the worst. AKG K514 MKII, single brightest headphone I’ve heard and almost no ability to scale, downright painful to listen to, tonally decent though surprisingly. Audio-Technica ATH-AD500X, anemic, thin, tonally off, and didn’t scale.

Many of the vintage headphones I’ve tried have been surprisingly decent and some were amazing; there’s some real gems from the more distant past, especially from Beyer, AKG, and Senn. Many of the well regarded, popular, or liked budget headphones from like 10 years ago are subpar in my experience. Sound quality standards seem to of improved since then and it’s easier to find a good cheap headphone and I find myself sometimes surprised by lower end offerings.

 

[bagwell359]

Not including poor quality cheap headphones:

Grado SR80e - these things were terrible. Actually, every Grado I've heard has been terrible. From the 80 to 325 (never heard any of their higher end stuff). They will sound anemic to me, and the comfort is terrible. Outside of modding, I'll never understand what people like about Grado.

Senn HD600 - Easily one of the most boring headphones I've spent time with. I love the 650 and it's warm signature, but I'm bored to tears with the 600s neutral approach. Not that its a bad headphone I suppose, the sound just isn't my cup of tea - and that weird speckled coloring on it is so ugly lol.

With you on the Grado. Oppo on the Senn's. The 650 is fuzzy and veiled to me, bass sloggy. The 600 has fast bass (deep too on the Crack), true mids, lack a bit of def in the upper mids, and solid if uninspired highs. I can see not liking it, but its not the worst anything. I'm a HFM man but the 600 is better then the 4xx, 400i, HE5-LE, HE5se and Sundara any day of week. Go ahead and get any of them to do a piano true from top to bottom - they can't and I own 3 of them. Even the HE-500 won't unless it's modified.

 

[Mani ATH 87]

With you on the Grado. Oppo on the Senn's. The 650 is fuzzy and veiled to me, bass sloggy. The 600 has fast bass (deep too on the Crack), true mids, lack a bit of def in the upper mids, and solid if uninspired highs. I can see not liking it, but its not the worst anything. I'm a HFM man but the 600 is better then the 4xx, 400i, HE5-LE, HE5se and Sundara any day of week. Go ahead and get any of them to do a piano true from top to bottom - they can't and I own 3 of them. Even the HE-500 won't unless it's modified.

Why do people feel the need to defend their choices in headphones? The 600 is a terrible headphone to me, but I'm glad you like it I guess?

 

[SpeakerBox]

Why do people feel the need to defend their choices in headphones? The 600 is a terrible headphone to me, but I'm glad you like it I guess?

Same, but also glad others like it. To each his own.

 

[bagwell359]

Why do people feel the need to defend their choices in headphones? The 600 is a terrible headphone to me, but I'm glad you like it I guess?

Why do some people feel the need to make commentary about "A" then make more when someone makes some comment about their comment, and criticize them for it? In addition to my comment on the 650, I gave a simple challenge for those wanting to test the 600 or other headphones maybe you ought to try it out.

Without the desire to test, compare, and comment - where would this site be? I do that much and more, what is your reason for being here, and it's OK for you to opine, but not others?

 

[Mani ATH 87]

Why do some people feel the need to make commentary about "A" then make more when someone makes some comment about their comment, and criticize them for it? In addition to my comment on the 650, I gave a simple challenge for those wanting to test the 600 or other headphones maybe you ought to try it out.

Without the desire to test, compare, and comment - where would this site be? I do that much and more, what is your reason for being here, and it's OK for you to opine, but not others?

Ok.

 

[Beagle]

Perhaps worst sounding headphone I have heard, and I have been lucky in general, but the worst likely was the Master & Dynamic MH40. I'm sorry for those who like it, but man I just couldn't figure out what it was that people liked about them. Build quality, materials and design were wonderful.

What about the Flare Audio Reference R1? They were a great "reference" for making any other headphone sound spectacular.

 

[Sonic Defender]

What about the Flare Audio Reference R1? They were a great "reference" for making any other headphone sound spectacular.

Oh yah, totally forgot about them (go figure). Yes, those would for sure be worse than the MH40.

 

[GU1DO]

I won't say Auteur is the worst headphone, but it disappointed me. I expected much more based on hype. Auteur is way too hyped. It didn't stand out in any way as a headphone worth $1500+

Sure, it's made out of wood, but in the end, I want a sort of technicalities to the sound that bring something that sets apart from the lower priced headphone, and Senny 6 series is the benchmark for price, and companies should put effort to place pricing in a reasonable position in terms of sonic performance, not ridiculous.

I didn't like what the wood does to the sound. I appreciate it for the TH-X00 Ebony, but not for the Autuer. It sounded tubby, and it sounded a bit V-shaped in sig.

Auteur shouldn't be hyped to the level it is.

Same here , my pick for this year is not Auteur but still a ZMF headphone which is the Aeolus (1200$) , and i would say it didn't even have the air or the details of my HD660S.
ZMF headphones are really over hyped lately

 

[muscleking]

ok i will chime in a little. worst one i heard on a hifi level is Grado SR80, none i, received by mistake when i ordered the i model. store demo. it is so bloody sharp, you cannot listen to anything with vocal on it. absolutely untrue to any music. later i had a Grado GH2 limited edition headphones. while the high is now in control. for the price i paid (bought demo again), absolutely not worth it. for 660 canadian bucks pretty much any other headphone is better tuned. End up getting rid of it at a bit loss, wasn't easy to get rid of that even. of course you can go worse with dollar store ones. but these two was the worst purchase on headphones. actually beyerdynamic t1.2 is also not good for the price, but still many people is ok with it. LCD2 classic blow T1 out of water easy. i haven't able to listen to any dynamic after electrostatic and planar dynamic. listening to my audeze sine through audio-gd ref 10.32 right now and that one i got used for pretty cheap, less than 1/3rd the price of grado gh2 i paid and probably sounds 3 times better hehe.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

‘Worst headphone’ is such a loaded question. I’d be much more comfortable with ‘most disappointing headphone’.
I tried on an Auteur as well and can only second what’s been written above.
Absolutely gorgeous almost porn-like design...I mean holy ford! ...but up against my old HD580 it was a toss-up as to which one I like the most. There’s better bassextension on the ZMF, but the overall openness and air of the Sennie make up for that imo. The 580 is also ten times as comfortable to wear.
That being said, I wholly understand folks who buy these. If you’re into wood, you’re most likely going to end up as a happy bunny.

 

[Mystel]

The following is just my opinion.

Worst headphones ive heard/owned? The VOCE.
I am absolutely disgusted by 'high end' headphones that do some things decently, but is worse than sub 100 headphones in other areas . The result is a huge mess. It had pretty nice layering and separation, and then coupled with flat and lifeless vocals that also sounded veiled. Id rather have something that sounds consistently bad in all areas.
My worst purchase ever by a long shot, glad i got rid of it. I guess this is more of a, most disappointing headphone for me.

 

[Preachy1]

To each her/his own, I guess. I can't agree that ZMF's are any more over-hyped than other "hot" brands (see Focal). I have a pair of Atticus, Vibro, and Blackwood Planars, and they are my three top cans (not necessarily in that order). I will, as soon as I am able, be ordering a pair of the Aeolus.

Agree with previous comments about Grado and the M&D MH40.

 

[BananaOoyoo]

From the stuff I’ve heard fairly recently (and excluding the really low-hanging fruit like complimentary airline earbuds), I’d say the AAW x Shozy Pola. That IEM was a straight up failure IMO.

 

[megabigeye]

Worst, bar none, that I have used were the Sony MDR-V300. They were so bad that I actually stopped listening to music for about a year. That was before I really realized there were good and bad headphones to be had. They were so bad that the NuForce NE-8 sounded good by comparison.
I only tried the Shinola Canfield for a few minutes in a store, but they seemed to have a really bad tuning, with the vocals pushed way, way, way below, and the bass pushed way, way, way above everything else.
The Oppo PM-3 with solid state is mind bogglingly boring. The Oppo PM-3 with tubes is mind bogglingly beautiful.

For IEMs, NuForce NE-8 was a screechy, bass-less mess. NuForce NE-770X were a muddy, bass-bloated mess. It's like they saw the problems of the NE-8 and said "now let's do the opposite!" Oof.
Westone UM Pro 50 with the wrong tips are completely uninspiring and very matter-of-fact. "Here's your music. Don't like it? Too bad!" Westone UM Pro 50 with the right tips are really fun, musical and fatigue free.