Expensive loudspeakers that sound bad

[daftcombo]

I'd be interested to know your experiences with loudspeakers which sound just bad, in any room and in whatever configuration. Those going for several k€ and that you had to sell back just after, or those you heard at an audiophile's place thinking "all those $$$ for that?".

 

[pozz]

I find it's really hard to remember the ones I didn't like. At shows it's a blur.

Focals and B&Ws, I guess.

Edit: Wilsons, the Sonus Faber Aida and the Goldmund Apologue.

 

[NTomokawa]

I wonder how many speakers on this list measure like garbage. I hope not many.

 

[Purité Audio]

Anything by ZU.
Keith

 

[mhardy6647]

I could write a book.

Many/most Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers are way too harsh/bright/zingy for me.
The Vandersteens I have heard are all... umm... not to my taste.
All of the "Heritage" Klipsch loudspeakers are ear-gougers to me* -- although the K-horns were (are) OK.

__________________
* Full disclosure: I owned, and used, a pair of 1974-vintage Cornwalls for a full decade.

 

[garbulky]

I could write a book.

Many/most Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers are way too harsh/bright/zingy for me.
The Vandersteens I have heard are all... umm... not to my taste.
All of the "Heritage" Klipsch loudspeakers are ear-gougers to me* -- although the K-horns were (are) OK.

__________________
* Full disclosure: I owned, and used, a pair of 1974-vintage Cornwalls for a full decade.

Lol, I feel like I'm reading my own comments!

 

[mhardy6647]

I like my loudspeakers smooooooth and as close to real-sounding as possible.
Yes, that's why...
I'm a vintage Altec guy.

(Marky ducks and runs for cover...)

Heck, I'd send @amirm one of my Frankenaltecs to Klippel-ize, but
1) shipping'd be a little pricey
and
2) I think they'd be hard to spin around.

DSC_9984 (3) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[NTomokawa]

shipping'd be a little pricey

Maybe you could break one down and fit the pieces into one of those flat-rate boxes?

 

[mhardy6647]

Maybe you could break one down and fit the pieces into one of those flat-rate boxes?

they do come apart... partially

 

[jonfitch]

Paradigm Persona and B&W 800 series sound bad, unless you have an extremely A-weighted hearing response (typically rich old folks who blew their hearing at one too many concerts), which is generally the demo that buys these things.

 

[Doodski]

RFT speakers from East Germany. There was model we sold and it was called a BR-26 Classic and we would stack them on top of each other and call it a B-52 ;P We slang called them Really F***** Terrible.

 

[noobie1]

Most expensive passive speakers sound bad to OK for me. I would only consider 3-4 uber expensive brands - Magico, TAD, Raidho, Rockport. Have not heard Revels in person.

 

[NTomokawa]

Magico

These guys are great, and their speakers are on my end-game list, should I get there one day.

I heard Guldmund is pretty darned good, too.

 

[House de Kris]

I was surprised how much I didn't like Wilson WATT/PUPPYs when I heard them. Especially after liking the WAMMs so much.

 

[LTig]

• Devore (probably anything)
• Manger (not outright bad, but too bright)
• Focal Grande Utopia 180.000 € : for this amount I expect perfect sound but the one time I heard them the bass was muddy (no room EQ) and the imaging was not pin point (speaker probably too big for the listening distance of ~4 m)

 

[Hypnotoad]

A word on B&W speakers, they seemed to have gone with very basic crossovers in a lot of their more recent iterations, usually only an inductor on its own for the low frequency driver which means the bass doesn't roll off as steep as it should and you get nasty cone breakup in the treble region. Why they do this I don't know, a few cheap changes to the crossover can make a dramatic difference as Rutcho outlines here.

http://rutcho.com/tweaks/01_bw_dm601s3/bw_dm601s3.html

 

[Newk Yuler]

This thread seems it should be fun to follow... Disrespecting the brands we've heard and thought were crap. I've heard a lot of them, too. Just been too long to point fingers.

 

[Dialectic]

Zu, Wilson, Volti, Voxativ, Audio Note UK, and Verity.

They're all overpriced, embarrassingly bad junk, but the Verity Lohengrin loudspeakers, perhaps surprisingly, are the worst really expensive speakers I've ever heard. There was something unmistakably wrong with them, and Stereophile's measurements of other Verity models suggest serious engineering deficiencies.

 

[Martin]

All Wilson and Magico sound like crap to me. Any and all horns suck, too.

Martin

 

[dwkdnvr]

I only have really heard the expensive stuff at RMAF where it's risky to draw much in the way of conclusions. however, the same dealer usually had big rooms set up with Focal Utopias and Avalons of some type. To me, the Focals always sounded terrible and the Avalons almost always sounded great.