Worst speakers you have ever heard

[Tjj226 Angel]

This is a thread where you get to bash talk any speaker that you have heard that just makes you question the sanity of who ever designed them. 
 
There is a similar thread for the worst headphones you have ever heard, so I decided to make a sister thread. 
 
I will start. 
 
Monitor Audio PL300. At about 1500 bucks, I think this is one of the worst speakers ever made. My friend and I listened to them with a decent amplifier and CD player, but there was simply no bass and the mids were ridiculously thin. We listened to diana krall and we honestly thought we put in a different disk because all the body of her voice was just out the window. 
 
 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Any speakers some schmucks ever thought of mounting on scooters. And some sorts of public transport, like this one:
 


Along with their atrocious driving (stopping everywhere, then jumping out of the lane only to thrust back in just to get ahead of another driver picking up passengers), their blasting New Wave or gangsta rap at 100% distortion (I exaggerate but you get the drift) just makes me hate taking public transport, damn all the hippies who criticize me for it. For one, those hippies shouldn't even support these guys because they use really old, badly maintained Isuzu engines spewing black smoke. Think of the worst 30-year old Chevy engines that are still running with half the cylinders and about 10x the pollution.

 

[Chris J]

My friends Bose surround sound system.
Wretched.
He thinks it's awesome.
 
He's a nice guy so I don't have the heart to tell him it sounds like doggy do-do.

 

[Dave74]

  My friends Bose surround sound system.
Wretched.
He thinks it's awesome.
 
He's a nice guy so I don't have the heart to tell him it sounds like doggy do-do.

 A lot of people think Beat's and Bose are awesome.  When I was plugging my Verza into my iPhone at the end of the day to use for the bus ride home, a co-worker asked what the Verza was so I told him it was a portable dac/amp.  I let him listen to it with my M-100's and he told me they sounded  really good and very detailed.  Then from across the lunch trailer another co-worker came over and without even listening to them he said "I bet my headphone's sound better", I asked what he had and he told me he had beats studios.  He also felt that Bose and Monster were right at the top of the audio chain.

 

[Chris J]

Bose, Beats and Monster.
 
The Unholy Trinity.
 
To makes things worse, my friend drives his Bose surround sound system with a Yamaha Surround Sound Receiver.

 

[Dave74]

  Bose, Beats and Monster.
 
The Unholy Trinity.
 
To makes things worse, my friend drives his Bose surround sound system with a Yamaha Surround Sound Receiver.

Lol.  Yup, I had a Monster power conditioner for my HT system before getting my Furman 15 pfi and one of the lights on the back was out on it without me even knowing. I think it had taken a surge because a while before noticing the light was out it was making a long beeping sound after a power outage.  At least the Furman can reset itself after taking surge. 
 
I actually didn't mind my old Yamaha RX V2400, which I sold to my dad after around 10 years of use.  I do find my SC-68 is much better for movies though, It is much more dynamic sounding receiver, but it is also higher priced and 10 years newer technology.  
 
As for bad sounding speakers, my Bose 2.1 computer speakers are the reason I got into a headphone setup.  Very few songs sounded good on these and I would have to eq  at that.

 

[Chris J]

Lol.  Yup, I had a Monster power conditioner for my HT system before getting my Furman 15 pfi and one of the lights on the back was out on it without me even knowing. I think it had taken a surge because a while before noticing the light was out it was making a long beeping sound after a power outage.  At least the Furman can reset itself after taking surge. 

I actually didn't mind my old Yamaha RX V2400, which I sold to my dad after around 10 years of use.  I do find my SC-68 is much better for movies though, It is much more dynamic sounding receiver, but it is also higher priced and 10 years newer technology.  

As for bad sounding speakers, my Bose 2.1 computer speakers are the reason I got into a headphone setup.  Very few songs sounded good on these and I would have to eq  at that.

I shouldn't dump on Yamaha too much, I used to own a Yamaha CR-2020 receiver!

I have a Monster power bar.........and yes, one of the Indicator lights has failed!

 

[Shaffer]

I don't even know where to begin....

Worst speakers I ever owned? The Cerwin Vegas I had for 3 months, before discovering BA A40. That was in 1981.
Worst sounding speaker line I ever worked with? A tossup between Spendor and Epos.

Edit: No, wait. The Polk Monitor 60s I bought for my kids' TV a couple of years ago were absolutely horrid. I don't know if they were worse than the aforementioned C-Ws - too many years in between - but these things were wretched. Mud sounded better.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

I went to a audio fest last year and there were these god awful electrostatic speakers there. Normally I am a fan of electrostatic, planar, and weird panel speakers, but these things just sucked. 
 
I wish I could remember the name, but they were near 40K for a set. 
 
Another group that I am starting to dislike more and more is bowers and wilkins. Their new speakers with their microphone style tweeter sounds very flat. I can definitely tell that I am listening to speakers. My friend and I heard some of their floor standing speakers, and two seconds later we were gone. 

 

[Shaffer]

I went to a audio fest last year and there were these god awful electrostatic speakers there. Normally I am a fan of electrostatic, planar, and weird panel speakers, but these things just sucked. 

I wish I could remember the name, but they were near 40K for a set. 

Another group that I am starting to dislike more and more is bowers and wilkins. Their new speakers with their microphone style tweeter sounds very flat. I can definitely tell that I am listening to speakers. My friend and I heard some of their floor standing speakers, and two seconds later we were gone. 

Speakers need to be setup within a given space. That's not as easy as it sounds. Higher resolution speakers need precise setup. Gauging quality based on seeing something at a show or walking by a display in a store is simply meaningless.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Gauging quality based on seeing something at a show or walking by a display in a store is simply meaningless.

 
The thing is, if you're showing off a product, shouldn't the distributor or manufacturer take care to set it up properly? That said, I don't know how other shows are done, but here in (Metro) Manila they rent two hotel floors for this, but even then, marketing budget can severely handicap some brands. For example the Dynaudio C5.4's (along with Olive music servers and Macintosh downstream) and the Sonus Fabers were set-up in a hotel room (although they didn't sound that bad), while in the floor below, the Focal Stella Utopias (with VTL's) were set-up in a small convention room that really gave them the room they need to perform well.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

Speakers need to be setup within a given space. That's not as easy as it sounds. Higher resolution speakers need precise setup. Gauging quality based on seeing something at a show or walking by a display in a store is simply meaningless.

 
Mmmmm 
 
True, but at the same time electrostatics are not that finicky. Quad ESL57s and the large martin logan speakers can just be thrown up in a room and will sound ok. They probably will not sound amazing, but they will sound decent enough. 
 
No this was simply the only panel style speaker I have ever heard that was muddy sounding. 

 

[Shaffer]

Mmmmm 

True, but at the same time electrostatics are not that finicky. Quad ESL57s and the large martin logan speakers can just be thrown up in a room and will sound ok. They probably will not sound amazing, but they will sound decent enough. 

No this was simply the only panel style speaker I have ever heard that was muddy sounding. 

...if you say so.

Unsubscribing.

 

[TsukiNick]

  Bose, Beats and Monster.
 
The Unholy Trinity.
 
To makes things worse, my friend drives his Bose surround sound system with a Yamaha Surround Sound Receiver.

I can see the hate on Bose Beats and Monster but Yamaha?
 
Yamaha is a great company and their receivers are phenomenal for the price.
 
I have an RX-V473 and have had no issues with it with my surround sound set up.
 
2x Polk TSx440T Towers
1x Polk TSx250C Center Channel
2x Polk TSx110B Bookshelfs as rears.
And a JVC subwoofer don't know the model it was just some thrift store sub.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

...if you say so.

Unsubscribing.

 
Face palm. I have owned quads and martin logans. If you put them about 5 feet apart from one and other and angle them slightly, they sound fine. Do they sound amazing? No. But at least I can hear clear mids and highs, and then I go back and fiddle with them to get decent bass. 
 
These speakers did not have clear anything at all. Sorry, but that is not room effects. That is just the speaker.