Worst headphones you've ever heard? / Low-fi experiences?

[expresado]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saintalfonzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif ibuds cost more than $10. Just because they come with the ipod doesn't mean they're free; trust me, you pay for them and they are crappy just like any earphones that come with an mp3 player.

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[Llama16]

The wireless headphone I tried to make from an old headphone that I found.
I cut of the wires, plugged a jack in the ipod and made them wireless.
They were so bad, couldn't even hear the song.

 

[KONAKONA]

First off, stock koss sparkplugs. The midrange was so over-emphasized that even back before I had heard any good headphones, I was disgusted at the sound. On top of that there were no highs or lows to speak of at all. I was messing with them and found out you can tame the midrange a lot by placing something to block the back air holes with, so mine ended up with the back covered with duct tape. I still had to EQ a V curve into it for it to sound reasonable though.

The other one was some 1$ set of earbuds I picked up one day. When I heard them I thought my MP3 player had broke, it sounded like the file had been converted to 32kbps .mp3. They found their way to the trash can quite soon.

 

[Berlioz]

Another question - do any earphones exist that use piezoelectric speakers? I don't imagine they'd be very good, considering they are usually used as alarms for clocks and watches.

Anyone ever hear one?

 

[.coco]

I bought some Koss ones in the late 90s for about $10, and havent touched them for about 8 years, and still have them sitting around somewhere. Those sounded like ****, but they did last a long time...

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Narrowing this down to IEMs in comparison only, I would prefer the iBuds over the Sleek Audio 6, V-MODA Vibes (any V-MODA product, actually), and UE super.fi 5 Pro. True story.

 

[PharaohsVizier]

I can't believe some of you are saying Apple stock buds are the worst headphones you've ever owned. Seriously, you guys must have never been to a dollar store for a pair or tried buds that came with a $2 MP3 player from China. Asides from breaking in a matter of days, even a 10 year old would say they suck.

 

[timaishu]

A cheap pair of coby ear buds. They felt so cheap is was mind boggling. I listened to them for a minute and truly hate them. Utter garbage, stock ipod buds sound 10x better. No joke.

I ended up destroying them the same day.

I then once bought a a pair of buds from walmart for $0.98 just so I could laugh at how bad they were. I ended up attaching them to my computer and maxed out the volume/treble/bass to see if I could burn them out.

 

[kjk1281]

The Sony MDR-XD100 is probably the worst non-pack-in headphone that I ever had the displeasure of shelling out money for, much less listening to. Bloated mid-bass with no low-end impact to speak of, honky and amorphous midrange, and shrill and grating treble equate to an aural train wreck of epic proportions. At least there is one good thing about the XD100: It introduced me to this great hobby!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PharaohsVizier /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can't believe some of you are saying Apple stock buds are the worst headphones you've ever owned. Seriously, you guys must have never been to a dollar store for a pair or tried buds that came with a $2 MP3 player from China. Asides from breaking in a matter of days, even a 10 year old would say they suck.

I was about to come in and post this, but you put it so much more eloquently and scathingly than I would have! If the ibuds are the worst you have tried, consider yourselves lucky!

Quote:

Originally Posted by saintalfonzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif gameboy earbuds... I remember as a lad barely being able to stomach Bach's French Suite No. 3 while playing Tetris. It's a horribly disturbing memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I'm not even sure why Nintendo bothered with those. I know they were probably trying to show off the stereo sound capabilities of the Game Boy, but I actually found those buds to be worse than the internal speaker. Truly terrifying! I feel sorry for anybody who purchased them separately after Ninty stopped shipping them with the console.

 

[flyingmonkee]

I have these earbuds that came for free with acne medicine >_>
I think it was Stridex. They sound pretty bad. Hard to drive and muffled.

 

[kjk1281]

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingmonkee /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have these earbuds that came for free with acne medicine >_> I think it was Stridex. They sound pretty bad. Hard to drive and muffled.

I forgot about those! Those were horrible as well, but I put them to good use: I sent them to Sennheiser during last year's rebate and exchanged them for a $15 check!

 

[ramintop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Koss The Plug. Just horrible!

omg YES! HORRIBLE!

it sounded like there was earwax filling the nozzle.

 

[average_joe]

When my J2 JBuds arrived, I was amazed at how bad they sounded, as they were all mids.

When my IE8 arrived, prior to burn in, I played a fast trance song and they sounded like total crap.

But here is the worst:
My mom tries, so when I am visiting her she is excited to give me...4 little boxes of earbuds. She got em free with makeup. I decided to try them to appease my mom.

The best thing about them is, well, there was nothing good about them. I had to call the police because my ears were assaulted. At least she tried and I now appreciate my good headphones so much more.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

@kjk1281
Quote:

The Sony MDR-XD100 is probably the worst non-pack-in headphone that I ever had the displeasure of shelling out money

maybe they are not "audiophile" headphone, but for less than 20$,
I find they are still good sorry.
In fact , when I compare them with my 200$ HD595, I was expecting a "bigger jump" in SQ (I should say in fact a better "ear-gasm" ). I noticed a much better clarity, sound stage on the HD595. Perhaps my ears are not as experimented as yours...
But just for the fun, without a big audiophile expectation , I still find
the MDR-XD100 enjoyable. And I like how MDR-XD100 are built, they are relatively comfortable.

Maybe I'll change my mind after changing my soundcard (realtek onboard), with a xonar stx . Coming soon...

 

[kjk1281]

extrabigmehdi,

I'm glad you enjoy your XD100. Maybe I bought a bad pair since mine just didn't sound that great. I hope my post wasn't taken as offensive, and if so, I apologize. I do agree that they were very comfortable.