What is the worst speaker you've ever heard?

[Sokel]

Some small 3-way (I think) B&W (7 something or so).
I don't remember the amp,some medium AB class and an ESS dac playing Mahler.
I have heard chain saws that bothered me less than this.

 

[raindance]

1. Zu Druids
2. Too many PA speakers with blown horns, although they sounded a lot like the druids...
3. Advent - I think it was the minis - terrifically bright and harsh

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Most awful I think was a pair of Dayton-Wright electrostatics I heard in the late '70's. The electrostatic cells were encapsulated in a supposedly air tight envelope of neon or argon gas which ostensibly allowed them to be driven to higher voltages and presumably higher volume levels. Problem is, they leaked and as a result they arced. Noticably from both an auditory and an olfactory standpoint. Not good.

 

[Doodski]

Dayton-Wright electrostatics

I had the opportunity when I did a too drunk to drive sleep over at a buddy's place. He left Pink Floyd playing so that I could listen to his Dayton-Wrights. They where pretty bright and sharp sounding but it was very accurate and the acoustic guitar was phenomenal. Vocals came right through clear as can be. It was very low volume because they where sleeping but I got a 1 hour listening session by myself and I loved it.

 

[Dialectic]

Linn is a cult. Several years ago a label owner insisted I mix an album on a set of Tukan’s. I then insisted he remove my name from the credits.

According to Wikipedia, Linn provides entertainment systems to King Charles III.

Don't remember the brand, but they were being shown at AXPONA a few years back in the @atmasphere room. Gigantic, very retro looking, and absolutely unlistenable. I had been touring the show with my doctor (who is also a good friend), immediately texted him to come downstairs to this room to hear "something interesting." His reaction after about 15 seconds of listening: "Is this on purpose?"

Did they use exotic "field coil" drivers?

 

[Inner Space]

I think there needs to be an element of disappointment and/or should-have-done-better here ... so I nominate the B&W PM1 - such a mangled suckout in the vocal range that they were virtually unintelligible. I seriously thought I must have suffered a brain injury that destroyed my language center.

So as to be sure I wasn't misleading anyone with this post, I just checked the exact model number online, and I saw an old What HiFi review from the UK that said: Best standmounter £1500+, Awards 2011. Arguably the most engaging and entertaining speakers B&W has made in years.

 

[dfuller]

I think there needs to be an element of disappointment and/or should-have-done-better here.

I agree. That's why PMC and Barefoot ended up atop my list, because they could be good but are terrible.

 

[Doodski]

My First Diy Project

My first DIY speaker was a slab of 3/8" plywood with a heavy 2"x 4" base and transistor radio woofers with headphone drivers for tweeters in a simple dipole arrangement. Running off about 100 feet of cheesy wire they sounded pretty good for about 7 seconds and then the tweeters fried because I had no high pass/blocking cap on them...

 

[Dialectic]

I think there needs to be an element of disappointment and/or should-have-done-better here ... so I nominate the B&W PM1 - such a mangled suckout in the vocal range that they were virtually unintelligible. I seriously thought I must have suffered a brain injury that destroyed my language center.

So as to be sure I wasn't misleading anyone with this post, I just checked the exact model number online, and I saw an old What HiFi review from the UK that said: Best standmounter £1500+, Awards 2011. Arguably the most engaging and entertaining speakers B&W has made in years.

Well put. I didn't list TV or smartphone speakers for this reason.

 

[SIY]

Did they use exotic "field coil" drivers?

Maybe? They were apparently heart-attack-expensive so that would fit with the branding.

 

[Balle Clorin]

Børresen Z1. No bass , strange sound in general
Some AudioNote speakers, muddy sound

 

[kemmler3D]

When I was a kid I got some 'speakers' that were driven by headphone outputs. Basically they found ~2" drivers sensitive enough to be audible a few feet away at normal headphone voltages. The distortion and FR were so bad that my dad made horrible faces at them whenever he walked by. At the time, I was just happy to have speakers.

 

[Marc v E]

For me that would be stock car speakers. The worst I heard were in a Honda civic. One of the better -according to a local tuner- is in VW's. I don't know about that but I do know that I'm forever fiddling with the eq settings thinking "Oh come on, you can do better than that!"

 

[williamr]

White van. Circa 1990.

 

[airgas1998]

jensen

 

[theron_day]

ZU audio whatever model they call it. they all have rising peaky distorted highs, loads of beaming and no bottom end.

agree i had one called the Zu Dirty Weekend… looked great but that was about it…

 

[Blumlein 88]

Obviously plenty of terrible speakers. Like those things in 1960's console stereos. The worst I've heard that was supposed to be good were some old Bozak Concert Grands. Here are some without the grill cloth. It sounds as bad as you'd expect looking at it or worse. Those cabinets are like 5 feet tall. A nice set now will fetch possibly $5k. They were over priced at what would be $30k in inflation adjusted terms. The sound was bass heavy, screetchy bright, with a hollow midrange. As for imaging, you could easily hear where each driver was located, but they couldn't create a real image. There was a false hazy image that was the same with all recordings if you got far enough away from them.

 

[pseudoid]

I was like meh when Bose introduced the 901s and started selling them by the boatloads!
They were loved by many and became quite the fad, back whenever.. reviewers and buyers couldn't stop raving about them.
I just did not care for that Bose sound[?] and they would confuse the crap earwax out of my ear/brain interface.
They seemed like someone took a can of sardines in olive oil; drilled an 1/8th inch hole on the edge of it; and started squeezing the can in a vise to force the sardines to squeash out like a paste.

 

[restorer-john]

Heard a lot of absolutely shocking speakers, but the standout headscratcher to me was/is the Auratone cubes that somehow became 'legendary' in studios. Sure, I know their nickname (horrortones) and their raison d'etre, but they are so bad they nearly made me vomit.

These terrors are also up there:

I tried to give them away, but nobody would take them. Enough to put you off HiFi for life. Now they are used as sacrificial speakers for intermittent fault amplifier testing. I was able to give away the tower version to my Dad. He uses them as pedestal stands for bookshelf speakers.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Heard a lot of absolutely shocking speakers, but the standout headscratcher to me was/is the Auratone cubes that somehow became 'legendary' in studios. Sure, I know their nickname (horrortones) and their raison d'etre, but they are so bad they nearly made me vomit.

Oh yes, and they now have people who remake modern copies of the Auratone. I think the original idea was this simulated a lousy car speaker sound so you wanted your hits to sound good in the car. Only problem is most cars had better sounding speakers.