[tuahogary]

my friend bought a fake IE8 despite my warning and it sounded extremely BAD! far worse than apple earbuds imo. all i hear was shreiking noise as if it was trying to pierce my eardrums. a bit like scratching the chalkboard with your fingernails, except it's right inside your ear canal

 

[mvp1]

definitely the worst headphones i´ve heard are coby cve05, they sound like a bad distorted tweeter in your ears, absolutely no bass and mids!!

 

[calipilot227]

Probably the free earclip headphones I got from Air France. Completely unusable with a portable player too, since they're low-sensitivity (designed for the earsplitting airline inflight entertainment system) and use a two-prong connector.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

other than dollar store headphones i will have to say the sony mdrv150 was the worst i have ever heard.

 

[blackcoffeex1]

Beats (solo?) I auditioned at Best Buy. They were $179. After listening to a few songs, I walked out very angry. The bass was so bloated that I could hear no detail at all. I couldn't decide if I was wearing them wrong or if they just sounded that bad. Songs that were never meant to boom boomed. My mom had to listen to my rants of rage the entire drive back home. That experience made me want to hold on tight to my HF5s and never let go.

 

[aleki]

Quote:

Beats (solo?) I auditioned at Best Buy. They were $179. After listening to a few songs, I walked out very angry. The bass was so bloated that I could hear no detail at all. I couldn't decide if I was wearing them wrong or if they just sounded that bad. Songs that were never meant to boom boomed. My mom had to listen to my rants of rage the entire drive back home. That experience made me want to hold on tight to my HF5s and never let go.

 I see kids all over campus walking around with them. They're really just for show; I'm sure people would laugh if I were walking around with a pair of HARX700's, despite their better SQ

 

[kanuka]

im having a good laugh with this thread!
so my experience were the Coby cve91 (iem ?? no, maybe close to canalphones ... =P )
and for $14 , worst buy!
 
btw,

 

[tdockweiler]

Some Maxell $5 clip on head phones at wal-mart. What cracks me up is that at the store, 90% of the packages of them were open and would not stay closed or on the hooks. You connect them up and out of my Ipod Touch you had to crank them up to 95% just to hear anything...for a $5 headphone.
 
I also hated the muffled sounding Koss UR-29. Maybe I had a bad pair. The Kicker HP541 I also hated. Sound clarity is what kills it. Extremely muffled sounding.
 
Not "Worst", but the Worst sound signature I've heard for MY ears and preferences was the Denon D1100. Where's the mids? Hidden behind all that bass I guess. Possibly the only headphone on the planet that made me curse with disgust after having spent 15 minutes just to open the stupid packaging. Then there is the hell of trying to put them back in the packaging if you want to sell them as used. Those things made the D2000 look bass light in comparison. To think I was almost going to fork over the extra $200(?) for the Limited Edition version.
 
Then there is the Auvio "Concert Class"..which turns out is just a rebadged Skullcandy Hesh...
 
One more...JVC Flats. I'm not sure how anyone could like this hollow sounding headphone, but doesn't matter. I'd rather have a $5 Koss headphone. I guess we all hear differently, so things I love, others will hate.
 
Someday I'd like to try my old favorite the Triport AE1 again

 
 

 

[roscoofyore]

interesting thread, i'll contribute.
 
worst i've heard and paid for:  koss plugs (hahaha) after i had shredded my portable er6i set.  i was traveling and desperate, i'll never do that again.
 
worst disappointment I've paid for:  pioneer steel wheels se-mj71 closed headphones from the amazon sale earlier this year.  bass rolled off in a bad way from a massive bass hump that bled a truly annoying thudding noise all the way into the mid-range, so having said that there was very little mid-range.  there were no highs, just an immense shrill that then overpowered the bloated bass from the other end.  a V headphone this wasn't, more like a very skinny U.  the soundstage was small, as if all instruments were positioned in one spot, about 8 inches from your face.  I was rightly offended.  after an extensive burn-in process very little changed and i gave them away.  didnt feel right selling them.  anyway ...  
 
 

 

[DCofficehack]

I'll play: Sony MDR-V150, which I picked up at Radio Shack a few years ago when I first decided to pay more for better sound. It was more or less the best the Shack had to offer. Or at least it  was the most expensive. I think I spent $30.
 
The biggest issue is the boomy base, which distorts everything. And it really doesn't do anything else well. The difference between them and the phones I replaced them with, HD 448s, is like the difference between watching something on VHS or Blu-Ray. Accuracy, Clarity. Definition. Speed.
 
I've always regretted not knowing better, as well as not having better options. At least the Sony's did me a favor by convincing me that there had to be better, if only I knew what. And that's how I ended up lurking on Head-Fi.
 
 
 
 

 

[BigBird]

The worst bud that I ever bought was from the Dollar store, I got one of those portable radios just for the heck of it and boy was that a MISTAKE!  That was the worst way i spent my $1.07. Back to the headphones the drivers would start vibrating withing there housing from heavy bass, then after a day a piece fell of and by the end of the week it fell apart into a pile of plastic and etc.  Ended up in the best place for it the trash  )

 

[Vloeibaarglas]

Sentry HO642
 
ljokerl gave it 4.2/10 in terms of SQ. I would give it 1/10. I spent $6 on these and threw them into the garbage can 5 minutes after opening the package.

 

[overcastgabe]

yep so true it makes me mad on the inside when i hear my headphones about the same as 20$ buds i really get mad and try to hide it when they say my 449 are worse then 20$ earbuds that gar-bitch its like some people like the muddy pisslike garbge sounding like fecal matter comeing out it just fast noises is what im hearing.

 

[Totally Dubbed]

Earphones i expected to be bad, but didn't know it at the time: Apple earbuds
Earphones I though would be amazing after all the hype: IE8, IE7's (real pairs)
 
Those 3, thinking back are the worst earphones I've ever owned/heard.
Although saying that, the apple's did well, considering I got them free and not for £180 etc...

 

[Jeremypsp]

Probably some brandless earphones.