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12.40.63.146
We all talk about things we liked
what about things it didn't ?I had a Garrard Lab-80 - the wind from an open window
picked up that wooden arm and scracthed the "sht" out of
my favorite record...It went right into the trashI got a Radio Shack 909 R to R - when it ran well it
was great -as my first R to R ...But after i heard my
friend's Sony ..that had to go ...tooWhat horror stories ..We all must have
Ams and speakers that caught on fire ... The speakers
that your old girlfriend's cat couldn't resist using as
a scratching post...The tuner that drifted so bad
that a clear station was an event rather than a sound sourceLet's hear those stories..Confession is good for the soul
Follow Ups:
A few of my least favorite things:Every eight-track player I ever heard, and most of the first generation of cassette players.
Anything audio that was made or sold by Sears, especially their "Studio Standard" crap that purported to be by Fisher. My dad worked for Sears for years, so guess what I had to listen to?
Koss headphones -- at least every pair I tried. Heavy, uncomfortable, and terrible-sounding to boot.
Sansui G-series receivers -- maybe it was just my brother's unit, but there was a grainy sound that set my teeth on edge.
Yamaha YP-series turntables with all-plastic plinths -- don't recall the model numbers, but the slightest bump or breeze would send the tonearm skating across the LP like Eric Heiden!
Worst component I've ever owned was a Pioneer SX-3700 receiver I bought in 1980. There are alot of Pioneer fans here so I'll leave it at that but the blue power meters were cute.Worst speakers were the original version of the Snell Type J. I hated them after I lived with them for awhile and will never understand what people think were so magical about them. No deep bass, overdamped midbass, a thin and lifeless midrange and irritating treble, no dynamic range to speak of and....ugh. A waste of a good SEAS woofer with a crossover that looked like someone's electronics shop project...from junior high school.
Worst CD player was an early Music Hall that was imported in the early 90s. I swear the thing was mono.
Snell J's - same experience
Funny thing got Snell J's off Ebay for $55.00
Refoamed them for $80
Couldn't sell them fast enough for $175 !
Boom/ sizzle - nothing redeeming
My son and wife hated them right away !
Maybe for the tone-deaf- or roll-off tube equipment lover ?? !
At least I made a little for my efforts
The new owner had Snell A's - and wanted something
for a spare room...Hope he likes them ..I sure didn't !
All this in warranty period.1) Balance was off from day one. Factory service response - measures fine. Nothing we can do about it.
2) Lower trim strip beneath tuner glass started to peel off. Factory service response - "We can't get new face plates". they took it off and also removed the matching trim above tuner glass dial so they match "It looks better like that anyway.
3) FM mux died and distorted/garbled everything in stereo mode. Mono was fine. This they fixed, but it died again after the warranty expired.
That is amazing as Fisher service back then was considered some of the best in the US industry.Was this a factory authorized service center, i.e. Joe Tech Authroized Service Center or from Fisher's factory? If an authorized service center it would have been a someone not providing the level of service expected by The Fisher Corporation. I know that as late as 1972 they were providing new faceplates for their mono and tube receivers as well as the first gen SS units as I had to order some for used units I was at the time restoring. I had bought out a store stocking used units and the owner had defaced many units before they were seized by the repo man. Getting replacement Scott faceplates was difficult. Sherwood had plenty of stock; if I knew the what I know now, I'd have bought of their available model stock and stored them. Imagine having access to NOS tube Sherwood white painted faceplates today.
...and I bought the 200T, I was tossed up between the 200 and the 220. Guess I made the wrong choice.The faceplate thing was that is was so new that replacement parts parts hadn't been distributed yet. It seems I got one of the very first ones.
He was the authorized dealer for many brands when I later went "into the business" and he did great work. He didn't have too much faith in this particular product since it was among the first engineered totally under Fisher's new owners at the time. He redid my Marantz 2270 twice over the years, the last time was three years ago and then went out of business. He did a wunnerful job on the FM alignment and everything else.
As for the balance, he said it measured right, but who knows. I got rid of it soon afterwards.
I do remember that when I sold Fisher later, their 700T was famous for blowing output transistors. ...or was that the 400T? don't remember, but it shook my faith in their "new" products.
JVC 701VBK (I think?) receiver, 4-channel surround, bought in the late 80s as my first "real" component. I was really proud of that thing, but it always sounded like crap - no real power, volume would drop by half if I turned on the "B" speakers while the "A" were playing. Lousy tuner,ambient buzz from FM interference no matter what the input, and the speaker protection circuit would click on from time to time for no apparent reason.After replacing speakers and other components for a few years I realized it was the POS receiver. Switched to vintage SS and I've been happy ever since.
I owned a few others that were real disappointments:B&W 802 - demo pair from dealer with blown tweeter, eventually replaced by B&W but never did sound as expected.
Marantz 2230 receiver - seems to be somewhat of a favorite around AA but mine was a piece of junk.
Maplenoll arm/table - fantastic performance out of the box, developed problems within a month. After an extended effort to repair it, my dealer took it back in trade on a SOTA.
I had gotten it in kit form new. My Dad got it for me at cost because he had done some freelance design work for them (not on this amp). This amp sounded ok but blew up if you looked at it cross eyed. It just didn't like the load my Koss ESLs presented. I rebuilt it several times and finally tossed it.Crown DC300 power amp: Sounded awful on the Koss ESLs.
Crown IC150 preamp: Worst sounding preamp by far I ever owned. I finally gutted it and put in pc boards from an Audio Amateur magazine article.
I ended up using Dyna 400s on the Koss's and they worked great, eventually replaced them with Dyna MK6 tube amps when Stereo Cost Cutters sold them out cheap.
I'm sure I'll think of a few others in a bit :)Dave
How do you like the Mark VI's?Dave
I wish I still owned them, they drove the Koss 2s really well...Dave
I had a chance at a pair in the 80's. I should have goten them!Dave
The number one thing on my list of hated stereo equipment has to be the Rotel RA-820 integrated amplifier.One thing that always struck me about it was that it's a remarkably small unit, about two inches tall, and about ten inches deep. Looking in through the ventillation grate on the top, you could see that it was mostly empty too - just one circuit board in the bottom of the case and a power transformer at the back right of the unit.
The sound was consistent with this too - small and empty. It was terrible. It's sitting around doing nothing right now; good vintage tube equipment powers the speakers instead.
-Robert K.
SoundCraftsman 5000 or 5001 pwr. amp, I'm not sure now.
The first time I used it, it sounded horrible. No amount of burn-in was going to help that thing.
Then I looked inside! A huge tangled mess of spaghetti. The cheapest parts you could ever ask for.
my Counterpoint Solid 2A. It blew out two sets of midrange drivers in my speakers.
When powering off the 2A, the midrange drivers violently sucked all the way in, bottomed out and stayed there for about 5 seconds. A few times of that and the drivers' voice coils were toast.
I spoke to ME and he had no knowlege of the problem.
Who knows.
I didn't really like the AR turntable. I knew I was SUPPOSED to like it, to admire its design simplicity and all that, but I just didn't like it. Bouncy, flimsy and clunky all at the same time.
Could not agree more. Bought an early model new in 1969 a total piece of oversimplified poorly made crap. Wish I had never heard of the company to this day.
I did not like the tonearm either. I still have my fathers old AR but I don't use it. It would take a lot of work to get it useable.Dave
When I was in college dorm I had a pair of AR2ax's--not bad I felt...until the guy next door came back after summer with a Pioneer integrated and, more importantly, a pair of L100s. I tried to pretend that the ARs could rock like his JBLs, but to no avail.
I was not into the west coast sound or hiked highs, mids or bass. The east coast sound was somehow too slow and muffled. So I guess that my preference was somewhere around Illinois or Indiana
Can "Ride the Storm Out" in central IL with a receiver that going to get blown away by the wind.HB
...Oklahoma City, now the home of the former Altec Factory!Chicago Transformer also made some great iron for tube gear; Heathkit W6 anyone?
Benton Harbor, Michigan was home to Heathkit BTW...
Plus every movie house and stadium in the midwest was full of Altec and James B. Lansing.
--
Al GSilence is Golden
Duct Tape is Silver
Jensen and E. H. Scott. Also Shure and Webcor. CTS was from Kentucky, and later brownsville, TX. How about Utah? They were from Indiana, I think.Magnavox was in Toledo, OH. Dayton-Wright? Paul Klipsch in Arkansas. Lots of Midwest companies.
Chicago sound? Too specific! How about North Coast sound? That's why I have jazzed up Advents and toned down JBL's. life in the median.
Jerry
Heh!I think I found the Illinois sound, but it turned out to be from England.
And yes I do like British speakers.
I like that - great observation.
I have to nominate a pair of Koss Pro 4AA (?) dating from the 1970's as my most disliked component. The heaviest, most uncomfortable set of phones I can imagine. I bought them primarily because of the great hype surrounding them, and didn't realize what garbage I had until I got home.Completely uncomfortable, they sounded both muffled and bass heavy. And then, to add insult to injury, they fell apart quickly. The experience nearly put me off headphones forever, but Stax brought me back, as did Grado and AKG.
...Koss will restore your 4AA cans.They sound much better when the rotting foam is replaced behind the drivers.
New earpads too.
From: Support@Koss.com:
Please send your stereophones to our Corporation and we will repair or
replace them in accordance with our Limited Lifetime Warranty.If you are sending from the U.S., our address is:
Koss Corporation
Attn: Warranty Return
4129 N. Port Washington Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53212
You may also visit our Milwaukee location if you are from the area.Please include: $6.00 for US warranty or $7.00 for Canadian for the return
shipping and handling per stereophone (money order, cashier's check, or
personal check: payable to Koss Stereophones), a note describing the
failure, as well as your contact information: return shipping address,
phone number and email.We recommend that you keep your tracking information on file. If you would
like to check the status of your warranty, please call our customer service
rep at 1-800-USA-KOSS.Thank You,
Customer Support
Koss Stereophones
1-800-USA-KOSS
--
Al GSilence is Golden
Duct Tape is Silver
My son stole my Grado SR60's so I got out my old Koss Pro4A from college days...yyyyyikes the worst of all worlds- uncomfortable and terrible sounding. I may use them to clamp up my next woodworking project.Decided to spring the $300 on Amazon and treat myself to a new set of AKG K701's. All I can say is I definitely won't be missing the Grado's.
MAK
Quite interesting.I needed to get a pair of headphones to supplement my Stax set without the need for an adaptor. Four years ago, I bought a pair of Grado SR-225s. Last month, my cellist daughter wanted a pair of headphones with superior audio to her iPod ones. I lent her the Grado SR-225s, thinking I would purchase her a pair of SR-60s if she liked the fit and general sound. Well, she liked them so much, they became hers. In addition to the sonic qualities, she really liked their "retro" appearance.
To replace the SR-225s, I decided to switch to AKG K701s, with a Grado 15' extension cord. So far, I have no complaints. They sound great and feel fine. This level of headphones always makes me think of those miserable Koss phones - who on earth ever thought they fit well or sounded good?
I am hiding the gold adapter to my AKG K701's...so the kids don't steal these, too. Your story gave me a good laugh.MAK
nt
Absolutely, these things were soooo popular but Koss manufacturing clearly took some short cuts over the years.The thing I hated the most was that you'd be wearing them and then feel this little trickle of liquid down the side of your neck when the silicone found a way to leak out of the cushions. We sold lots of replacements, too.
The other thing that got real old if you attempted to use them for a longer period of time was that they really did clamp onto your head. Yes, they stayed put but if you were doing any sort of recordings and needed to use them for hours on end, they really did become tiring.
Cheers,
David
Just about every time I move, somehow I run across them, and of course, feel compelled to put them on just for a minute...and usually in much less than a minute I take them off, thinking 'omg, it feels like having my head in a vinyl lined vise,' tell myself I should throw them away and then somehow I forget...they disappear...go into hiding...(cue Jaws music)...until they strike again...after the next move or spring cleaning...
Yes, I thought the Pro4A was much better, less muffled and more open sounding. I thought I must be crazy at the time not to like the latest and greatest, but that's what I remember.
My dad had a pair of these in the 70's and I remember using them to listen to Zeppelin etc...I picked up a pair at a garage sale last year for $1. I can't believer how bad these things sound, not to mention all the comfort and weight issues.
I do not recall whether the model I had was the Pro 4AA or 4A - I purchased the piece of junk around 1976-9.Thanks for reminding me about the ear pieces - the liquid did drain out, fortunately while I did not have them on my ears.
They fell apart so quickly I could hardly believe it. Heavy and uncomfortable - and those were their strong points!
elto
"The speakers
that your old girlfriend's cat couldn't resist using as
a scratching post..."
Elto, You bastard I won't sleep for weeks!!!!!!!
This post was from personal experience
I gave my mint KLH 6's to my sister
6 mo later
that funny - nubby grill cloth on both of them
was shredded ..and I was VERY VERY sad
Be Afraid - Be VERY AfraidDogs ok - cats - NEIN !
elto
my wife got two cats recently, those bastards already are scratching up furniture and boxes, and I am looking at getting a pair of quad 57s. Of course, with them powered up (2kv), that could solve the problem when they sink their claws into the cloth... :)
I was SO proud of that damn thing...1st component TT I'd owned. Cheapo clock motor it died after 6 mo; it was 3 mo. before the shop got a replacement motor in for it. Misery!
I never liked them much myself. They were too complex and had too much plastic. There was better available for the money. I admit that nostalja is part of this game, so I can understand how someone might have fond memories of it.You must have had bad luck on the motor. I get them from time to time at the thrift store I volunteer at testing equipment for, and the motors are fine. There is one on the shelf now.
Dave
A BIC 1000. I kept it for 3 or 4 days.
The dealer said he would not take it back. Finally he gave in and I traded it for a Dual belt drive. It was either a 1245 or a 1249, I can't remember now.
Ashly HiFi went out of busines soon thereafter. Everybody hated the guy.
Rotten luck! FWIW, I've owned a BIC 960 since the late 1970s. Never had any real trouble. It serves as a backup to my good stuff and as a "road show" unit.BTW, I learned the hard way about Grado hum. Now, there's an AT331LP on the BIC that works SURPRISINGLY well.
Eli D.
...and, in all fairness, it really was just a disappointment and not something I at all detested, but I tried two Marantz 1060's and felt that both of them were just average sounding. I bought the first one because of all the hype it got as one of the best pieces of vintage gear known to man; disappointed. Bought another one because I thought I must have gotten a dud the first time; same thing with the second.Perhaps it was a synergy thing with my other gear. I generally really like 70's vintage Marantz. I suppose I could have checked them to spec's but I didn't have the time or the interest in doing so.
I'm always surprised at what some people call "good" vintage gear, quite a bit of it is crap...
I liked the 1060 but I don't think it would work well with any speaker. You would need something that was a easy load and fairly efficent. It has also been claimed to drive QUAD ELS 57's well. I have not tried it myself.Dave
Funny I felt the same way. I was not taken with the 1060 and eventually sold it. But the amp section to the 1200 is TOTL. Only the preamp section sucks wind REALLY bad. So if you have a good preamp the 1200 or MAYBE the 1060 maybe more valuable. I know the 1200 is worth it's weight in gold just for the amp section. The preamp should be used for spare parts.charles
I had a Lab 80 and after a few mods it worked great. The arm has a wood cover over a cast metal arm. The idea was to damp internal resonances. Worked best with high tracking force cartridges with fairly low compliance.How was yours set up? Low VTF?
Now the Garrard A70 was real POS. The arm weighed about 5 lbs. Forgot to put that one on my list.
Jerry
Naw- not low VTF - about 2 g
with a ADC-10 x little red brick cartridgeFlew just like a paper airplane 1 : <
Marantz 140 power amp. The stupid thing had no bass to speak of. Also in that category, a Carver 200 magnetic power amp. No bass there either.B&W 602.2 speakers. To this day I have no idea how I managed to like these in the shop. Aside from the muddy bass, the suck out in the 4 khz region, and the untamed woofer peak above 4 kHz they lacked detail and didn't image very well.
Bose 301 series IV speakers. Never could get them to sound right in my room. I liked the earlier models, but this one was bad.
KLH 355 "Baron" tower speakers. A 10" 3 way tower with Peerless 1" dome tweeter and cone mid. Ported woofer, series crossover, and a gorgeous tower cabinet. Sounded like crap.
Bozak B-401. 12" Bozak woofer, 6" metal cone mid and 2 x 2.5" metal cone tweeters mounted separately and high up in a way too small box. Bozak's feeble attempt to compete with KLH and AR. No bass below 60 Hz. None! Plus the crossover was fitted with polar caps. Nice mids, but no lows and nothing above 10 kHz. I gave away the Bozak drivers and used the cabinets for a DIY project.
Dynaco Stereo 80. Badly designed el cheapo version of the Stereo 120. Not that I was crazy about the 120 either.
Oddly, I had a Garrard Lab 80 and after some mods it worked very well with higher VTF cartridges. But i kept it away from open windows.
Jerry
ca. 1967....Every tape got recorded with its signature "hummmmmmmm". Total piece of crap.MAK
Turntables. I started with a Webcor with the astatic power point cartridge because it was what I could afford by lawn mowing and snow shoveling. Then the Gerrard Sl-95B and Empire cartridge which was a step up. The next TT was a Zero 100 which was a step down, what a shame, it was so interesting. After that was the Thorens 124 with the 3009 SME arm and Shure and Stanton cartridges, then the Rabco SL8 which was a step up but unreliable and using Decca cartriges. From there a Thorens 125 and an Infinity Black Widow with the Ortophon MC20 and the MCA 76 MC preamp then the Dynavector ruby for a big jump forward. The next arm was a mistake I changed to an AT arm and lost something. Somewhere in there I had a clear plastic turntable but it was all eyeball and not great. I guess the worst was the Power Point and the MC20.Heck that is just part of the turntables and I will stop there. How much depriciation did I take? Thats one reason I like vintage!!
Al
DB preamp, high end grit, Great bass.
Citation 12, the largest disapointment in my audio ever.
Heathkit UA2's.
Harmon Kardon CAD 5 cassette deck, returned for an Advent 201.
Did i mention the Citation 12?
Sony CD player, Dynaco ST 400 (love the company but this was a total bust) Crown IC 150 and amp (horrid), Koss speakers, Yamaha receivers.... to name a few.
finest Barbecue / Block Party amplifier ever made...not bad for garage sound, either...
very shrill and highly solid state sounding. I bet I had 3 or 4 thru the years (shows what I know) and a Stereo 416 with cap bank which also was crappy.For non-critical party purposes - OUTSTANDING.
I helped design a DISCO club in NH with 4 larger-capped versions
of the 400 - they cranked 6 hrs a night /6 days a week for
4 years - never - ever missed a beat
- but not for critical listening ...
Big long boat anchor circa 1980 or so. Terrible.
..
Harry
my garage that i am seriously thinking about gutting it and using the chassis for a couple of ucd180 amps/tx-102 tvc/dact selector/bugle phono/ade24.im just scared that its fugliness will hurt the music after all the effort. :)
If you turned it on you would be pest free for life. I tried one in the system years ago. It must have had Nurf Balls for feet, it bounced out of the system so fast.
I think it used horrible 4558 (like a dual 741) op amps and ceramic caps throughout. I never had one or heard one, but I saw it for sale at Tech HiFi when it was fairly new.
If money is tight and that's all you have you can probably help it out with some simple parts changeouts.
But I've been wrong before...
the worst sounding component ever produced on the planet. Despite its "unmeasurable" distortion. ;)rw
x
I haven't had much that I really disliked, but at the bottom of my favorites list were:BSR changers. Had a bazillion of 'em as a kid. Yuck. They didn't destroy my records because I had them set up properly (or at least as close as you could get) with mostly Shure cheapo cartridges. But not a great turntable sound-wise. They did always work, though.
Technics SA-370 receiver. (I think that was the model) Nice looking 80s receiver with pretty blue LCD display. Problem was, there was low-level tuner "swooshing" artifacts no matter what source the thing was set to. That, and every once in awhile the speaker protection relays would kick in & you'd have to unplug it to reset it. Annoying.
Fisher piece of utter crap cassette deck. HORRIBLE wow & flutter. Took it back & got something else immediately after bringing it home. I had a few 80s Fisher pieces and all of them were total junk. "Studio Standard", my ass.
Realistic plastic direct-drive turntable. Worked ok, but awful isolation from extraneous vibrations. This thing picked up everything. Even on a stable shelf on a concrete floor, you could fart in the house next door and it would pick it up. I paid $3 for it at a thrift, so no big deal.
Now I'm very happy with my gear. Listening to a Phil Woods LP on it now, in fact. Great music on a great hi-fi is a real joy.
Cheers,
Bobbo :-)
BSR- when I worked at Musicraft in the early 70s we used to called those "Bull Sh!t Rejects" :)
Fisher cassette desks - Their very first model the 80 used the same Nakamichi transport that was in the Advent 100 cassette deck. However it suffered from bad connection problems on the pc board connectors...
Dave
"Realistic plastic direct-drive turntable. Worked ok, but awful isolation from extraneous vibrations. This thing picked up everything. Even on a stable shelf on a concrete floor, you could fart in the house next door and it would pick it up. I paid $3 for it at a thrift, so no big deal."
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