I was walking through Ultimate Electronics browsing for a camera with the wife, and had the total displeasure of having our ears bombarded with the sound of the Def Tech Mythos sub / tower-sat system.
I didn't get a good look at all the gear, but ohmygosh what a dreadful sound. The highs were positivly piercing and shrill. The bass was boomy and ill defined. It reminded me of a ghetto blaster car sub. The mids were almost non existant.
The wife just looked at me and proclamined that the setup sounded like schitt. I almost died.
We agreed that our Cambridge Soundworks radio was more listenable than that the way it was set up.
I am fully aware that this was a big box store demo. I am strictly saying that under the conditions that we heard these... these particular speakers were without a doubt the worst we have yet to hear (and that is including the Bose Acoustimass).
Now, let us get a list going :-) What would you classify as the worst you have heard under a particular circumstance... possibly even putting you off from that brand?
The Def Tech need walls to be effective but they still need room to breathe,and even then i dont like them,the Mythos i like tho,Def Tech did a great job on those.The Wilson Sasha,they were lifeless and had 0 bass....thats a screw job,for people buying them,the 1st generation of the Paradigm Monitor 11 this was a horrible speaker boomy,and i could hear all the driver talking with a shrill bright topend.The B&W 703's a speaker that does nothing right the imaging is all over the place almost sounds like their out of phase.
I'll make a list at some of the most terrible speakers i've heard: Bose everything....except their car stereo's the older Martin Logans B&W 802D they are just a unballanced mess...especially for the price Ascend 340's just lifeless tinny,and bright av123 Mini Strata they make upbeat songs sound like slow cuts,no dynamics to speak of doesent help that the voicecoil on the powered subs hits the box and rattles Vandersteen model 3 their bass plods behind the music so annoying Aurum Cantus VM3 expensive beautiful,but sounds downright wrong
Paradigm Monitor 3 V3's (Use as surrounds in my theater, worse speaker ever for music)
Everything Bose.
JBL Towers at Best Buy being powered by a shrill Yamaha AVR with the Employee bobbing his head like it was the best sound he had ever heard. I never wanted to punch someone in the face as much as I did that day.lol
"JBL Towers at Best Buy being powered by a shrill Yamaha AVR with the Employee bobbing his head like it was the best sound he had ever heard. I never wanted to punch someone in the face as much as I did that day.lol"
A douche bag friend of a friend had some Kraco speakers in some beat up carpeted boxes in a beat up '86 or so Malibu Classic. As if the car wasn't enough of a POS, everytime the 'bass' hit, it was a loud crackling. Truly awful. Hands down worst sounding speakers ever.
The worst home system I've heard in a hifi shop was the first time I heard Totem Arros, surprisingly. I walked in asking about the Arros, and the dealer had a pair connected to an Onkyo AVR and CD changer. They sounded like the cabinets were vibrating, there was an screechy haze in the highs (no idea how else to describe that mess), and everything was a jumbled mess smack in the middle of the speakers. They dealer played Dark Side of the Moon, it was a very good room, and the speakers were set up right. He looked at me and asked what I thought. I told him 'that's the worst system I've ever heard.'
He chuckled and connected them to some Simaudio seperates, and it was one of the best systems I've ever heard. Just goes to show you that speakers aren't everything.
The most consistently awful speaker to my ears is the B&W 683 tower. Every range of the music seems so disconnected from each other to me. Never heard that before. It's like it's 3 seperate drivers in 3 seperate boxes placed about a foot away from each other. Just awful IMO. I know people love them, but I just don't get it.
I mentioned the Naim N-Sats before. I loved them for the first hour I heard them, but they just wear on me in that they're such a one trick pony. The PRaT excellently, but it's way too flat of a wall of sound, they have practically no bass, and have no texture to the sound at all. They sound a bit bleached and cold to me.
The N-Sats aren't close to being the worst I've ever heard, but I hate them more and more every time I hear them. My favorite dealer loves them.
The Yamaha NS-10 or whatever it's called that for some reason hifi rags loved is definitely up there too. Really no better than any other speaker they've made, and they've made some absolute crap.
The Bose tower that you couldn't see the drivers gets a Hall of Shame award from me too. As if Bose doesn't sound muffled and veiled enough, almost completely enclose them in a box and hear what comes out. I figured that could only be an improvement for Bose. I wasn't surprised by how bad they were, yet I was amazed by the how bad they really could get and charge what they do. The idiot at Nobody Beats The Wiz raved about them. They were next to a pair of NHT towers that got switched on immediately afterward. Everyone in the room laughed at that clown about 5 seconds after the NHTs started playing.