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The Worst Sounding Piece of Kit You've owned.

cjarchez said:
Crikey, that's the first real slagging I've read for the ATC 40s. Out of interest what were they connected to and what were they replaced by?
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I have seen a fair bit of negativity re the mark one but the mark two seems to be very very popular at the moment with quite a few being bought
 
RustyB said:
Oh,that reminds me: Alpha 7 amp, not mine, but unlistenable as in utterly interest free. That's the trouble with Arcam, lack of consistency, the preceding Alpha 6 was fine. Seems like their good products are a happy accident.
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agree there , i have 2 arcam amps and they are incredibly different [both arcam diva models]
 
NuFurce Reference 18 (I think) was a big disapointment for me.
Didnt like them at all!
 
Another vote for the Sumiko BPS along with Benz Micro Gold. Both lasted no more than a couple of weeks in my system.
 
hifinutt said:
agree there , i have 2 arcam amps and they are incredibly different [both arcam diva models]
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Funny that, I had an Arcam Alpha One (entry level amp in around 98), loved it. It was a little short on power but made nice music within its limits. I tried an Alpha 7r and it sounded a little soft/dull by comparison, the 8r was much better so I bought one of those. I bought an Alpha 7r and an Alpha 9 together in “unknown workout condition” for cheap (£70) both worked, the Alpha 7 was as I’d remembered but does fine driving outdoor speakers at my parents house, the Alpha 9 is big step up from all of the smaller/cheaper Alpha amps, genuinely good sounding amp, shame many of them suffer with input selector issues.
 
I almost forgot about the worst sounding product I’ve owned, back in the day as a budding 14 year old audiophile, I bought a few bits from a mail order store that advertised in What HIFI (called Hyperfi iirc), I wanted a pair of Mordaunt Short MS20 pearls that had on offer... surprise surprise, when I called, they had none left but were able to offer me a pair of Mordaunt Short VS100s for the same price which were “just as good” according to the salesman... they weren’t, they were absolutely shit, shrill and quacky, nothing to redeem them. I saved some more money and traded them in against a pair of MS20 Pearls from a local dealer, those were excellent with my Arcam Alpha one amp and Rotel 965BX CD player.
 
Shane2468 said:
Royd Sapphire.

S.
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Wow, I love mine. They have their flaws and they wouldn’t replace my active Ninkas in my main system but I wouldn’t part with them either, lots of fun on the end of a Linn LK setup with the volume wound up a bit.
 
mercalia said:
well the "worst sounding" is normally taken as an extreme description, beyond the matter of taste? unless you mean lt literally just the badest you have heard, like the coldest it has been in London ( not very ) compared to some where in Siberia
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No.....but having pretensions to sound good it simply, to me, sounded bad. It's clear that any criticism of this small box on this forum is going to raise disproportionate passions....
Also, be aware that the title of this thread is 'worst sounding...you've OWNED'... and I tend not to buy poor-sounding equipment. :)
 
TEAC 300 DAB tuner. No fault of TEAC, it didn't really improve much when fed through a Thorens DAC, but it was a prime example of GIGO.
 
It's a toss-up between a Garrard SP25 Mk5 and a Toshiba ST445 Tuner.
The Garrard turntable not only sounded crap, but it had Radio Moscow permanently on one channel and made the occasional loud farting noise.
The Toshiba tuner was an early digital model, it was very insensitive and had loads of noise on the audio.
 
Rotel RCD-950. At first, it sounded high-resolution and dynamic. As time and my exposure to high-end components expanded, it sounded bright and etched. Thankfully, I was able to connect the digital out to a Meridian DAC. Alternatively. Kimber 8TC speaker cable - sounded great on my Micromega integrated, but when I switched to Naim, it was painfully bright.
 
My wife at the time (1977) hated my metal and woodworking non skill and kept complaining "OK it sounds great" she would say "but look like a nutty Professor tea maid" so with that I went a local Hi-fi shop and bought Technics complete system, just because she thought it look nice,peace at last you may think wrong.
She was into CAW music and it sounded crap and not just the music but the whole system.
This was just before Magnum, guess what when I got my first design of the Magnum kit and a lovely Dias TT and Tannoy Buckingham's. She changed her mind we sold the Technics kit soon after. And along came the Inca Tech Claymore she had a red one. And still has.

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The worst sounding piece of audio I’ve ever owned, by far, is this

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These are brackets for JR 149s. The speakers deteriorate very significantly from being placed so close to a wall.

It’s interesting that Rogers should have manufactured them. They’re clearly a company driven by an ideal of high quality sound, but I guess they wanted to maximise revenues and were prepared to compromise that vision to do so. So you see these brackets, strange “tambourine” bookshelf speakers, possibly the “superwoofer” is like that.
 
Never heard 149s on the JR wall brackets, but my guess was that would be the result. I tried mine with the stands hard against the wall like Kans and didn’t like the results at all. I find 8-10” away from the wall is about right. It keeps some weight and warmth, but allows the mid to open up and their imagining strengths to shine.
 
When I first got them I had them on brackets and they sounded fine. But the brackets were on either side of a chimney breast and the speakers effectively had their back to an alcove, about 12” deep. I then moved them to another place on brackets, no alcove, and I just couldn’t get them right - I tried different heights but nothing was good. The sound was flabby in the bass, and splashy. Now they’re on stands, about 10” from a wall as you say.

One big thing I’ve learned from this, and I guess from my other systems, is how crucial the placement of speakers is.

I’m very pleased, they sound better now than ever before. I’m no longer looking for subwoofers for them. But what I would like to do sometime is get someone to give them a proper service.

The Krell isn’t in the same place at the moment, when I get it back here I’ll hook it up to the 149s first, and report back.
 
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