Worst pieces of Hi-Fi ever.

Dev,
If I win the lottery and become so vulgar as to purchase that unit by mistake then sure.

I have nothing against Krell. Heard this other player of theirs in a hifishow. If they just put there mind to it then seems they could design a good looker.

 

Not picking on this one in particular but I'd like to vote for graphic equalizers in general.

Matt.

 

I can agree and disagree with that THe problem with EQ is not that is inherently bad, but that it is very hard to do well. In fact EQ allows the user to screw everything up very nicely thank you.
But if you have a bad room, EQ can come in very handy. In any case, virtually all the music we listen to, recorded or live, has lots of eq applied all over the place.

 

Cant believe in a thread about the worst pieces of hifi ''ever'' we have such high quality components being cited!


I thought we were using the word ''worst''!!

IMHO..and according to my taste...

Ruark 'Templar's are bad.
Castle Harlechs are bad.

Worst speakers Ive ever heard (or owned) were a floorstanding pair of Spendors. Ive looked all over the web to find a picture of them (they were the model reccomended in the back of hifi world for years). I cant remember the model number.

I bought them on 'sale or return' from my dealer at the time. I tried to like them, but they sounded like a wet blanket had been thrown over them. Dull, drab and naff are the words I would use. I took them back.... and he told me that I was the fifth!!!! person to take them home and bring them back!

They were still in his classified adverts some 12 months later...

 

High quality or simply high price... As we are constantly being told to do by our SOZ bretheren, I just used my ears.
I listened to an stunning amp the other day, one that would be laughed off of this forum simply because of its brand name...
I agree, the Spendor floor standers suck. They are the spawn of the current owner (former Audiolab boss FWIW) . Spendor "Classics" don't suck, but are quite different.

 

I concur - Saisho make one of only TWO CDPs I've ever used that'll play my copy of Hits 6 without getting stuck. If you can break in to the circuitry and add a digital output, my guess is they'd make a bombproof transport.

Note - the sound actually wasn't that bad either. Shame about the horrid 2 digit LCD display and the 0.000001g weight of the thing!

Dixons are definitely pure evil. They won't take returns, and they're a ripoff price-wise to boot. Oh, and their sister, PCWorld, is OK sometimes, but the webmaster's dead; either that, or they never have anything in stock, 'cos the site's been out for 4 weeks now for "maintenance".

Dixons' Mastercare is indeed a rip, but on my telly it was worthwhile; it needed a new motherboard 2 days after I got it (good old Sony and their crap build quality; I had one of the first models off the line as it was an ex-dem). The engineer came out same day, swapped the board in an hour and it's never put a foot wrong since. Shame the coverplans aren't as cheap as Richers' deals - and Richers' deals even cover their REALLY sh1t stuff like the bottom feeder Ariston and Teac plastic cassette decks at under £70! AND those horrid Bush turntables...

Oh - by the way - graphic EQs with spectrum analysers are GREAT! Wire one in on a spare tape out and watch those cool dancing lights, while NOT corrupting the signal. Cool - that's the only area in which I miss my midi. I might have to blag back my Kenwood EQ off my mate and stick it on the loopthrough from my headphone amp on the bedroom system

 

Go on, don't be a tease, give us the details, please.

 

I am the proud owner of one of the ugliest pieces of kit ever built, the Sugden A48. The A48 was finished with the revolting furry stuff (nextel paint?) and my example has a brown stripe instead of the usual orange one.

I'm proud to report that my amp is probably the tattiest example of this beast on the planet. It works well though. Sorry I don't have a photo but it looks like this one (but brown instead of orange and far tattier)

 

But if that was the case then Mastercare wouldn't have been required - it was still under warranty wasn't it ?


Their Mastercare plans are all bulls**t in IMO. PC World sell them to you whilst giving you the mis-guided impression they will give you the latest PC when it breaks down (undoubtedly) when the warranty has just run out. You'd be surprised what they can fix though - and in my experience it's always been refurbished parts which break down again 6 months later.

They would be more likely to replace every single part with a refurbished one (twice the use for one cost to them) than to give you a new PC. I don't know how they justify charging such prices for their Coverplans. They want £150 a year now for my ancient Celeron 400 laptop!!
- Doubt I'll ever buy a full PC from there again. Accessories are fine, but for a full PC I would rather try Dell or something.

 

Thats the advantage with using a computer as source, I can have as many silly visualisations as I want, and I have to concur I love watching silly things like that as well

Back on topic, I think the most overrated hifi I've ever heard was probably the Quad 11L's. So weak and bland sounding, and definitely not worth the money IMHO. They were easily bested by a £200 pair of KEF Q1's, and they were no better than Wharfedale Diamond 8.1's for £100.

Also my old Cambridge Audio A500 was pretty bad for £200 (although thats not what I paid thankfully), and sounded worse than my 13 year old Kenwood minisystem I had before when linked into my PC.

 

Well yes and no - normal guarantee doesn't allow onsite maintenance That 25 incher (bearing in mind I can't drive and had to lug the f***er to a taxi, and the telly had no box and 3 speakers and stand so a mate had to help!) was a PITA to move. It barely fitted through the door

Mastercare is a total rip though!

 

Markus,
Far too ashamed. I must have been drunk or something
I have listenend to a couple of very non-u Sansui integrateds recently. Some of them are surprisingly good. Superb build, too - if you get the right model.
Intend to pick one up for "closer inspection" at some point.
Plenty available on German ebay, too if you're ever tempted...

 

Sansui - I happen to have an old tape deck from them. Don't even know if they still do audio.

It's true, some old Japanese integrateds are much better than the flat earth police would have you believe. I remember listening to a Luxman (L410 or something) which wasn't half bad.

 

I had a JVC AX-something (looked the same as the Memorex one Tandy used to do) that I paid £50 second hand for in Uni - it grooved like a bastard - especially with my old Mordaunt-Short MS25is. I only sold it 'cos my mate had a good deal for me on his old Audiodrab 8000A (still on loan to a mate with my Epos ES14s) - I needed the extra tape loops and THOUGHT I needed the extra power...