What's the Single Worst Piece of Audio Equipment You've Ever Experienced?

Sorry, but you've completely missed the point.
Apple made a portable player system that just worked. System being the integration of the hardware and software and playback experience. It worked well. While everything else on the market at the time had a slow user experience on the device. Apple was smart enough to have the desktop computer do the heavy CPU work to index and organize the files and metadata on the player. All the other players had the wimpy CPU on the portable player do that heavy CPU work and had a slow user experience because of that.

Apple did smart computer and software engineering when designing the iPod and how it worked. The rest of the portable player market did not. Apple ended up making a lot of money on the iPod because of that.

I'm a software engineer. I get impressed by good software and system design. Apple gave a good lesson in what to do when designing a portable player. Especially back then when portable CPUs were very wimpy. They implemented better algorithms and systems to manage the device and manage the files and metadata on the device. The result was that scrolling through all of your music in the iPod was fast and responsive. While other portable players were slow.

 

I believe he's talking about the iTunes program for Windows PCs, not Apple's own portable devices. That responsiveness on the Apple devices is why I use them, but I use Windows for my own computer, and the downloadable iTunes program has always run dreadfully on every PC I've owned.

EDIT: I see now what you're referring to. I missed that line in the middle. My bad.

 

Do you have/had it/heard it yourself?

 

No, but I want one.

 

I see. Just audition it carefully ))). I just looked on internet for pictures -inside it looks like a school project from someone who just learned how to use iron )).

 

Yeah, there is even a post on another thread with the internals. Quite messy, lol.

Listened to the top Shindo system today. Still in shock

I do not want to pay anywhere near $1000 or more for a used one. $500 would be best but I doubt I could get one for that price. I should be satisfied with the Joey Roth chip amp I got off ebay for $75 but I always wanted something by 47 labs.

 

I would have to say probably my Legacy FOCUS loudspeakers. There was a cosmetic abnormality on one of the woofers, so it prompted me to take the woofer off and examine the inside of the woofer, and there was nothing wrong, so I never did anything to correct it, as it appeared to be cosmetic. However, it was at that time I viewed the internal construction, crossover and wiring of the FOCUS, and wow, it looked like some after school labor assembled it and finished it (internally), it was just such poor craftsmanship, I was really stunned at how poorly it was finished on the inside. We can look into a Wilson or Aerial loudspeaker and see ultra quality construction in a loudspeaker, but that was certainly not the case with my FOCUS loudspeakers. That really made an impression, lots of outside window dressings, and drastic internally, so no more Legacy for me. Legacy loudspeakers are priced so high now, heck, you might as well go Wilson or Aerial anyway.

 

My older brother had an Ampzilla amplifier that always blew up. I lived in Queens with my parents and just started driving (he in the city) and he would have me to bring it to the authorized repair guy somewhere near Great Neck. What was the worst for me was this thing weighed a ton. I remember struggling with it.

 

Mine's a case of relative value, I suppose...

About 18 years ago, I was amusing myself of a Sunday afternoon when I wandered into a very "high end" audio boutique. In their main room they were demo-ing a very imposing system for some obviously wealthy person -- (IIRC) Linn universal player, D'Agostino amps, and huge Wilson speakers that looked like robots. I'd never heard a system like this (probably $300k worth of kit, or more), so I was quite keen.

They were playing music I was mostly pretty familiar with, so I had some frame of reference. As I listened, I was ticking audiophile boxes in my head, and pretty impressed (zero distortion, black background, incredible dynamics, "detail", clarity, tone, etc.). But fairly quickly, ten minutes in maybe, I found myself looking at my watch ... I was bored. The experience was akin to looking at a very elaborate painting of musicians, rather than experiencing actual music. I was kind of dumbfounded.

So, I exited the premises, and headed up the street to another hifi shop (the one I have shopped at ever since), where they happened to be playing music on a Rega system with Epos speakers -- I don't recall what components exactly, but it cost about 1 or 2 percent what the big blingy system did. I had them put on a couple of the albums I'd heard down the street. After a while, I asked for some other music. I was hugely enjoying myself, tapping my foot, etc. There was just more groove with that particular 'inexpensive' system.

So, I guess that particular "high end" system* was the "worst" -- at least in relative value terms. To my ears, it failed at the basic job it was supposed to do: play music in a convincing fashion.



*Note: this is not meant as a condemnation of high end audio in general! Since then I've heard several six-figure systems that grooved like crazy. But I really believe spending that kind of money is, at best, an indulgence and unnecessary.

 

I think you are mistaken as d’agoustino as brand did not exist 18 years ago.

 

Then it was some other gigantic set of amps that were kind of bling-y, and need a forklift to move. Levinson, Krell or similar, perhaps.

 

Plenty of old tat over the years before getting more serious about what kit I use, but if we're talking more about kit that disappointed whilst pursuing the audio hobby and looking to improve kit then I think maybe the Ortofon Red (bad IGD) and maybe the Wharfedale 220's - whilst both maybe considered very much budget devices I don't feel either were a good purchase on balance.

 

Have been reading this interesting thread for a good long while and keep thinking "can't remember any truly awful home equipment," then...
...REALIZE that I've just pushed the truly bad stuff out of my memory because it was sort of, well, PAINFUL.
And, unlike the good stuff that when it gets old you store it in the garage, the PAINFUL stuff goes to Goodwill while still in its prime.
But can relate plenty of studio equipment that has caused distress, notably AEA pres and microphones.
OUCH!
They have that "almost good enough" syndrome. You keep thinking that a ribbon would be perfect for the job and, somehow, that AEA ribbon never makes the final cut.
And to make matters worse, AEA is a fine CA company with great people who try and be helpful and an infamous owner who goes out of his way to contact you and see how things are going. He's so pleasant on the phone that you don't feel comfortable telling him "your mics just aren't quite good enough."
So you just hide the R84 and N8 mics in the back of the mic locker, behind those ribbon pres AEA sold you that were so noisy they would hiccup whenever a phone got within arms distance.
Would it be best to level with AEA? Just let them know that their products suck in kind of an almost nice way?

 

Well, for super pricey stuff it only got worse.

 

A SoundDesign AM/FM transistor radio that I found at the dump and wired to a pair of Realistic speakers with some zip cord. I was 12 at the time, so what did I know about anything.

 

Dynaco PAS-3 preamp. Could not even make it sound better than mediocre after installing best parts and tubes. Just a terrible distortion generator.

 

Bose acoustimass 5 powered by a cheap pioneer receiver. Shame on me.

 

What is it?

 

Being that you’re in Newcastle, I’ll bet you’re referring to D.A. vs the nearby M.HF on NE 20? I frankly see little point in D.A.’s experience. No fun, just materialism. I have a friend who bought a system there, probably a six figure price, and I had your experience. kinda meh. Loud and clear but meh.

 

M.HF? Not familiar. Can't believe there's an audio place around here I don't know!

My experience was on Roosevelt in Seattle. Uhh, D.A., then to H.S.

Mind you, I have heard a six-figure system that was awesome in my "regular" place.

 

The one that surprised me the most in a disappointed way was my daughter's Crosley portable record player. Beyond spinning a record at the general right speed it has no redeeming quality. I'm sorry my brother in law spent the money on it.

 

Why...I bet it sounds almost as good as the automobile 7", 45 player. I heard one years ago. The car was not in motion. The owner said it skipped on any little bump whilst driving. I wouldn't mind having one if you could upgrade the cartridge! I'd say that it too went the general, right speed, unless you turned on the air conditioner or fan.... that I saw, heard...

 

My latest disappointing experience happened while I was listening to a demo of the KEF Blade Two. I was expecting to hear a grandiose version of the LS50, something with incredible stage and imaging but without the limitations of a small box and that's not what I heard. I like KEF speakers, I appreciate the dedication and efforts put into improving their coaxial design and the first decent pair of speakers I heard were KEF bookshelves back in the late 70, early 80's. I had KEF Q5 in my living room for more than a decade and I still think that buying the LS50 for the study was probably one of my better decisions. So not being wooed by the Blade Two was kind of surprising to me and a huge disappointment. It was not the worst but still...

 

Definitive Audio, then Magnolia HiFi. Overlake/Bellevue, a mile or so south of Microsoft. I think there was a Definitive catty-corner across from Hawthorne on Roosy also, wasnt there? I’m too far from that area now to frequent it, but I saw my old Nakamichi 500 at Hawthorne about a year ago. Probably gone now. I knew it was mine because it had a San Diego dealer’s sticker on it, where I bought it

 

Some more to add....

KEF Reference 1 Standmount Speakers.

Purchased a pair blind what a mistake. A true boom and fizzle box, grossly overpriced, who is buying this crap?...

Chord DACS

Once you move outside of Rob Watt's reality distortion field, you find you are listening to an uninvolving over priced and over hyped mid level DAC. One for the clueless sheeple over at the Head-Fi forums.