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Last night playing cards with friends I asked to hear some music not remembering they had the dreaded Blose Acoustimess Shreikers.While these speakers always sound bad ... it seems that the wife of the house had forced her (p-whipped) hubby to "hide" all five Acoustimess cubes next to each other BEHIND the large screen TV set!
The result of these horrible shreikers and the bizarre locations of the five speaker stands created the worst sound quality I have ever heard, especially when the wine flowed and the volume was gradually increased.
Do you have any horror stories about hearing awful speakers in someone else's home or store?
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Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
Follow Ups:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLRj5erjhP8
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My brother took me to his friend's house to listen to his expensive home theatre system.This friend is a medical doctor and he had splurged on this.It was a big room all done up with new interior,large whole wall screen and speakers of all sizes all over the place.I was seated in the middle of the sofa and he turned on Eagle's Hotel California live video.My Goodness!The sound was shreiking from all over I just could not hide my expression.I told my brother it was no good on our way back after consuming couple of larges of,if I remember right, Tamnavulin.I couldnt do that to the good doctor after the Single Malts.I am sorry I cant mention the speaker brand.Perhaps it was setting up problem,not speaker problem.
Regards
along with the bass module. I tried the "Kyrie" from the old Davis recording of Mozart's Requiem, which I expected would reveal some prominent faults--and it did. Most god-awful harsh choral sound!But really, I can't think of any real unpleasant audio in someone's home--I've heard some pretty low class systems but they haven't been unpleasant. Some cousins had an old big box player with very mushy, indistinct sound, but it wasn't harsh and would be OK for background music. Take an EQ, cut off all the bass and put in a big wide dip centred around 2K and cut off all highs above about 4-5K and you can get your speakers to sound like that, too!
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"Nature loves to hide."
---Heraclitus of Ephesus (trans. Wheelwright)
My neighbor next door bought a sony HTIB $500 for everything to go with his new big screen tv.. 5 small, silver plastic (ugly counts here too) speaks that he piles all on top of the tv, probably in total disregard to even l/r or f/r.. nasty subwoofer sitting on the same cabinet with the nasty Sony receiver and dvd player. He is stymied about the rear surrounds because he doesn't want to run wires back there. The thing is, the guy has money and enjoys music. I just can't see how a person could tolerate such a mess. He likes listening to music at my house, so he's not clueless. Priorities, I guess. He has nice vacations, bikes and cars.
One Halloween night while in college we set up a pair of big outdoor type public address speakers in a friend's dorm room windows. We played the most bizarre music we could think of and broadcast it out across the dorm campus. We all went outside to check out what it sounded like and were amazed at how loud it was and that you couldn't really tell where it was coming from. The dorm was at the long end of a double row of dorm buildings and the effect was like a giant megaphone; you could hear it easily for a two block area. We played an assortment of music until we saw the flashing lights of a police cruiser heading towards the campus and shut it down and carefully hid the PA speakers away and went for a walk. Because you couldn't tell exactly where the sound was coming from they never did figure out who was responsible. Or should I say, irresponsible. Ah, the fun of youth.
Observed while helping my daughter and son-in-law with house-hunting:(i) The guy who had one Martin-Logan unit in one room and one in an adjoining room. The rooms were connected by French doors. He assured me he listened from one room or the other with the doors almost invariably open. The rest of his equipment was equally expensive as I recall.
(ii) The guy who had one expensive Pro-Ac floorstander on a stand in the middle of his lounge and the other sitting on the floor behind a large, soft sofa. He said the bass sounded better that way. I can't recall what rubbish he was using as an amp, but he was feeding it with a $99 DVD player.
I tend to nod sagely at such atrocities and to move on to the task at hand.
Although I've heard some really sad audio and even sadder choices in music, I used to work P/T at Rat Shack around 10 years ago. This isn't so much about the gear as about one of my co-workers; a "kid" about 23. You know the type; dressed gaudy-cool, had a 1/2 Farad cap in his all woofer car stereo, and thought he knew everything.Everytime I came into work he'd have the loudness circuit engaged and the tone controls maxed on the receiver (over)driving the then new Pro-LX5 Linaeums. I would immediately walk over and set things flat. He would say that it, "sounds better" the other way, I would say, "no it doesn't, now it sounds the way it should". Finally one day in response to his disdain I said, "if the artist wanted it to sound that way, don't you think he would have RECORDED it that way"? The really sad thing was that he replaced an older British guy that moved back to the UK ... and took his Quad system with him! He knew his audio.
Oh yeah, there was the friend, 30 odd years ago, that mounted his speakers between the ceiling joists of his living room and used his 10-band stereo EQ as an amp amplifier! Shudder, it was aweful!
Now you're making me feel bad.Last weekend, I set up a low-budget (read: Vintage eqpt - thrift store finds) sound system in my garage. I hung two of the speakers between the rafters, spaced 12' apart with front elevation at bottom-of-rafter. These are older (very early '70's vintage) Magnavox speakers ($15.00), great bass and high end, but poor mid-range.
I bought ($7.99) a well preserved set of Realistic minimus-5's 40-255B speakers (Tandy Radio Shack 1970's) to fill in the mid-range. These were centered on the rear wall, spaced 8' apart.
The amplifier is old Fisher Studio Standard, pre-suck rack system. They are the early 1980's CA-273 amplifier, EQ-273, FM-273... etc... . The receiver and equalizer blow, but the amplifier was well worth the $30.00. Say what you want about Fisher Studio Standard, their early amplifiers aren't bad.
It looks like it would sound terrible, but you'd be suprised. I tested sound quality with CD's of Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Van Halen and Led Zepplin. Not too bad for a low-low budget system.
My daughters will use it mainly for Justin Timberlake and Fergie. I just wanted a simple, low cost fixer-upper that images well and fleshes out music that's worth experiencing.
...sort of 'audiophile-like' to suspend speakers from the ceiling corners with wire or fishing line; one in each corner for best effect. Sort of a psuedo (or, in some cases, real) quad system.So, there'd be a big speaker in each upper corner beaming down into a 9' x 12' dorm room with concrete block walls and a linoleum floor. Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Stix, ... . I think we thought it sounded good at the time ; )
I also remember some of them falling, some of the hanging jobs were done by impaired people.
yes exactly, along with Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, and Deep Purple.
At my wife's house, long story.......,,anyway...., I came home after work & could hear Bob Seager blasting from inside my truck,, I came into the house in horror, I fipped my work ear plugs in & after 20 minutes my wife screamed what the hell do I have my (f........ear plugs in for,. I screamed that is the worst sounding sh..I have ever heard..Sony reciever in effect mode with MB Quart every where.. source & reciever were at fault.. It was bad man, real bad, she balmed it on the cd, later in the evening.. truely the worst I have every heard, one note screaming compressed crap.....ruined my mind for a hour or 2!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the early 80's when I ran a stereo shop I had a friend that shopped with me for little things like tapes accessories etc. He had recently had an insurance law suit paid from an on job accident he had so money wasn't a big object to him, therefore he had bought his amp and speakers from a higher end shop than mine. He kept wanting me to come hear his system. One day I finally had the chance.He lived in a small(maybe 900 sq. ft) house with a very small living room. He had 4 Bose 901's one in each corner hanging from the ceiling. I don't remember what the amp was but it was a biggie! I think he was really trying to impress me because he turned it up to afterburner levels with Black sabbath or something similar on it. I couldn't tell you if it sounded good or not because it was "scary loud". I think the front door was open also! I was expecting the law and EMS to show up at any second. I actually liked my music at realistic levels but this was sheer torture! I think a lot of guys were like that back then. They percieved loud dynamic sound as quality sound. I may have been guilty of that a little myself but that experience cured me forever! Till this day I appreciate my music at a reasonably dynamic and accurate level but not so loud as to cause heart failure! The character of the music is lost when it is so loud that it becomes distracting from the performance! Many live concerts are guilty of the same thing as far as I am concerned. Best, Franksta
Advent Legacy II. Not the original Advents which still sound good to me. But the ones that Jensen cranked out like plumbing fixtures after they took over the company.
No bass, shrill and pure EVIL sounding.
Cruel and unusual punishment.
The guy asked "whadda mean ya don't like em, are you deaf" ?
I said "I am now" .....
While I know there are those who like them, I do not. One
of my worst experiences with so called hi-end speakers
was a club I frequented while in college. Imagine a dance
floor that had 2 LaScalas at one end and 4 Hereseys
suspended from the air, one at each corner of the dance floor
pointing downward. And all of these being powered by about
400 watts of Crown PA amps. This setup redefined the term
"ear-bleeding" to me. No wonder I drank too much when I
went there.... ;-)
It was more likely the LaScalas.PWK designed the LaScala during WW II when he worked at the Army Ordnance facility in Hope Arkansas. The idea was to design a speaker that could be used to force diehard Japanese out of their caves and bunkers. But the Joint Chiefs thought it's use would be inhumane so we used flamethrowers instead.
Thank God that though Soviet spies did infiltrate the Manhattan Project they failed in their attempts to steal the LaScala Secrets, thus The United States was spared the spector of Russia launching LaScala armed planes and missiles at us.
The LaScala's are horrible speakers, just about the worst i have ever heard.
And yes, I have heard em with SET, and every amp known to man.Belle Klipsch's suck too IMHO.
Wasn't nuts about Klipschorns either.I did like the original Forte's, and the CF 4's under certain circumstances.
The Cornwall 2's are supposed to be decent ....I have heard heresy's sound bass shy, but OK.
...$4K on electronics (V.P.I. Scout/Grado Platinum > > > Rotel pre > > > 380 watt Rotel) only to have 2 (!) pair of 901s waiting downstream.I'm not making fun of them, maybe it's possible for them to sound better, but it sounds BAD. "Muddy" would be the first adjective that comes to mind. Soundstaging isn't important to me, but the speakers draw complete attention to themselves. Zero ability to put up a phantom mage. Maybe something is wired incorrectly, dunno.
I have a feeling there are sentimental reasons for him to employ these, but it seems like such a waste...
Well, after you've heard and bitched about that particular set-up a few more times, maybe you'll remember to bring some Bose QuietComfort 2 Noise Cancelling Headphones to your next social engagement so you won't have to be subjected to such horrors, you poor, suffering audiophile, you!Did "the wife" (doesn't matter whose wife, it's always "the wife") serve you men the wine properly, or was she too busy pussy-whipping?
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
Richard,You know, I alwatys enjoy listening to other enthusiasts' systems and purposely avoid getting too judgemental - just far too many variables and preferences and a different point on the journey to map read - far easier I've found, to relocate to the kitchen or patio but in any event out of harm's way, quoff the red wine, nibble at some eats and if all else fails, move on...
That said; I am totally intolerant (sp) when it comes to listening to a poor hi-fi show dem. These dems rooms are supposed to be set-up by industry pro's... they do this for a living(?) and I find it unacceptable when my ears are being assaulted and I feel compelled to pass comment on the dem and the host starts excusing his p-poor sound on the 'hotel room' etc etc.
The worst dems I have heard to date were of Avantegard Trios... what a waste. It was a relief to get back to my own music room and hear these speakers sing. The other thing that I find great these days, is that I come away from most hi-fi shows, and remain on the balance, content with my own system.
Awww, just getting too old...
:-)
FW
(nt)
I don't know what the speakers are in his kitchen, some home depot in walls I guess, 70 ft of micro speaker wire fed into a sony receiver sourced by direct tv receiver. Makes the wine go down fast.
Nasty beyond belief.And I say this as a Klipsch (Cornwall) owner.
Two Altec A-7, driven by ? SS amp, I think Crown DC 300, forgot pre, maybe a SS one, and a poorly maintained DD table (Technics?) playing rock, Moody Blues, Wagner and Saint Saens Organ Symphony and sound effects esp. locomotive and thunder. Huge amount of mistracking on some of the badly maintained vinyl.In a small home, room perhaps 10 ft by 12 ft by 8 ft ceilings. Peaks about 105 db or more. Those of us in the group, many used to Magneplanar Tympanis driven by ARC tube gear and fed by Linn LP 12 with Shures or MC's, were given an "education" about how loud a system could play. It did have a unique kind of attraction. But it took a day or two to get our hearing back.
An acquaintance had acquired a new amp and invited several audio/music lovers over. Small apartment, small room, a pair of Klipschorns, and a new Crown DC-300 cranked well into clipping.On a related topic, I once saw an electron microscope picture of the hair cells on the inner ear of some lab rodent that had been deafened with too much noise. (Yes, science is gross!) It looked exactly like the forest that was flattened when the Mt. St Helens volcano blew up - not a single stick was left standing. Terrifying!
was an ICK-150, right?Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
nt
nt
I've finally assembled a system allowing me total enjoyment listening at 60-70 dB average range.Concert-level realism, no more, thank you.
The days of waiting a day or so for the ringing to subside are way over.
Best LOUD concert I ever attended: The Police, Capitol Theater, Passaic NJ, circa December, 1980, 10th row. The memories are well worth a bit of hearing loss!
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