[Mr calvin]

Hahaha I've got a good story for you guys! When I was younger I went through headphones left and right. As I got older I learned how to do wiring. So I took one 30mm driver from a Sony piiq and a 20mm driver from a Nintendo clip on headphone and soldered the whole thing together. Frankin headphone was born! The ear cups were made from cut up nerf darts! That's how bad these were. The drivers were on 2 different impedances, the whole thing sounded like a cat in a garbage disposal and the worst part is, when it was all put together, I painted them with a beats logo. Anyway I've changed my ways. I have a hifiman he300 with a wolfson iPod running alacs and right now I'm using a dennon stereo but I'd like to get a tube amp. Thanks!

 

[autoteleology]

Yeah, it seems as though Bose is about the only company that has done a good job with active noise cancelling technology as of yet. I believe Sennheiser makes some very expensive, somewhat effective NC models though.

 

[ssrock64]

I may have posted this here before already, but I made a whole thread on my worst headphone, the Hamilton Electronics HA-5. It's a Chinese piece-of-crap educational headphone that has horrible treble spikes even when playing just a minimal piano piece, let along more conventional music.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/622095/behold-the-worlds-least-practical-headphones
 

 

[realcyndre]

Coby half dollar (almost free) buds. They totally suck. Lifetime max like a week.

 

[pclov3r]

http://www.califone.com/products/3060.php and http://www.califone.com/products/3066.php these are the worst I've used.
 
The second one had non-existing sound stage
 
Recessed mids, highs, and no bass. Tinny sounding to the max. IMO they are not even good for kids use that they are intended for. I didn't buy these there were provided free to me for a credit recovery program so I cant complain. I did replace them with something else due to the ****ty factor and being unable to understanding what they were saying. 

 

[swaffleman]

Some of you jokers mentioning bose in this thread are ridiculous. They are overpriced, but not terrible sounding...you could do sooooo much worse.

 

[Zoom25]

Quote:

Some of you jokers mentioning bose in this thread are ridiculous. They are overpriced, but not terrible sounding...you could do sooooo much worse.

 
Yea I'd agree with that. Bose is actually quite decent to listen to. The only problem I had them with my Triports was the treble, it was a bit too bright for me. The bass rolled off early but had a good kick. The vocals for movies and tv came off nicely and the comfort and isolation is usually good with those models. I can still put on the Triports when going to bed after listening to HE-500 or LCD-2.
 
On the other hand Beats actually sounded bad to me, lacking high frequency extension and mid congestion

 

[swaffleman]

I liked the original AE triports. I don't really like the redesign, except I do like the detachable chord.
 
The original AE's were well balanced, had warm natural sound, pretty good separation and decent staging. The original OE had horribly over done bass, but good actual sound. If they had been better balanced, they would have been great. The new OE's are an improvement over the originals, but only marginally so.
 
My beef with the Bose phones is that I felt that the bass quality was poor. I could hear it but the texture wasn't there, and I didn't get much impact. It did lend to a nice, warm sound, though.
 
 
But sometimes you run into a group of people that just have an unwarranted, unnatural hatred for something. On some forums, you'll see people that just seriously, seriously hate Metallica, or something like that. It's weird.
 

 

[bubsdaddy]

Agreed on the Bose comments above. While they are somewhat overpriced, they aren't bad. The QC15 is still regarded as the best noise cancelling technology available. You do pay for the name a bit but with that you get great customer service is something goes wrong (even out of warranty). 

 

[bearFNF]

Quote:

Some of you jokers mentioning bose in this thread are ridiculous. They are overpriced, but not terrible sounding...you could do sooooo much worse.

 
Quote:

 
Yea I'd agree with that. Bose is actually quite decent to listen to. The only problem I had them with my Triports was the treble, it was a bit too bright for me. The bass rolled off early but had a good kick. The vocals for movies and tv came off nicely and the comfort and isolation is usually good with those models. I can still put on the Triports when going to bed after listening to HE-500 or LCD-2.
 
On the other hand Beats actually sounded bad to me, lacking high frequency extension and mid congestion

 
Quote:

I liked the original AE triports. I don't really like the redesign, except I do like the detachable chord.
 
The original AE's were well balanced, had warm natural sound, pretty good separation and decent staging. The original OE had horribly over done bass, but good actual sound. If they had been better balanced, they would have been great. The new OE's are an improvement over the originals, but only marginally so.
 
My beef with the Bose phones is that I felt that the bass quality was poor. I could hear it but the texture wasn't there, and I didn't get much impact. It did lend to a nice, warm sound, though.
 
 
But sometimes you run into a group of people that just have an unwarranted, unnatural hatred for something. On some forums, you'll see people that just seriously, seriously hate Metallica, or something like that. It's weird.
 

 
Quote:

Agreed on the Bose comments above. While they are somewhat overpriced, they aren't bad. The QC15 is still regarded as the best noise cancelling technology available. You do pay for the name a bit but with that you get great customer service is something goes wrong (even out of warranty). 

Still dosen't mean they were'nt "WORST headphone you ever heard?" as the thread title is asking for though, right?  some are fortunate enough that Bose was their worst...must lead sheltered audio lives.

 

[swaffleman]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it is probably impossible too have gotten to these forums, heard a myriad of headphones, and not have had some initial experiences with some cruddy ear buds with some portable device, or heard some airplane phones. There is no way someone hasn't heard the lower rung of the audio ladder. And let me tell ya something folks, Bose is mid fi, not lowest of the low.

 

[autoteleology]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it is probably impossible too have gotten to these forums, heard a myriad of headphones, and not have had some initial experiences with some cruddy ear buds with some portable device, or heard some airplane phones. There is no way someone hasn't heard the lower rung of the audio ladder. And let me tell ya something folks, Bose is mid fi, not lowest of the low.

 
Bose is really good at the thing they specialize in - noise cancelling. Other than that, mid-tier at most.

I'm surprised the higher-end Bose don't get flak for being extremely bass-heavy, as much so as the Beats.
 

 

[xcd1947]

The beats studios, OMG! Only bass and more bass

 

[ssrock64]

Quote:

 
Bose is really good at the thing they specialize in - noise cancelling. Other than that, mid-tier at most.

I'm surprised the higher-end Bose don't get flak for being extremely bass-heavy, as much so as the Beats.

That's another reason not to trust the graphs. They have no impact, so they don't really sound anywhere as bassy as a Solo.

 

[FriedRice25]

Monster Solo HD - lot's of bass that leaked into the mids and very recessed treble.