Worst speaker you have owned?

[BWG707]

Some type of no-name speakers bragging of being "air suspension".

 

[TjMV3]

Paradigm Monitor 9 v3.

Sheesh, I shiver at the memory.

Even my $200.00 a pair, mid to late 1980's Yamaha towers embarrassed those pieces of trash. Silly embarrassed.

 

[Seth=L]

Paradigm Monitor 9 v3.

Sheesh, I shiver at the memory.

Even my $200.00 a pair early 1980's Yamaha towers embarrassed those pieces of trash. Silly embarrassed.

That's strange. I wouldn't have fathomed any Paradigm speaker making it's way on to this list.

 

[TjMV3]

That's strange. I wouldn't have fathomed any Paradigm speaker making it's way on to this list.

I wish I had fathomed a lot more, prior to wasting my money on that junk.

You think you're surprised?

imagine my surprise and dismay.

Truely awful. Worst speakers I have ever heard and owned.

 

[Seth=L]

I wish I had fathomed a lot more, prior to wasting my money on that junk.

You think you're surprised?

imagine my surprise and dismay.

Truely awful. Worst speakers I have ever heard and owned.

Have you owned, listened to other Paradigm speakers and had similar or contrasting impressions?

 

[ski2xblack]

Bose 301 series II, early/mid 80's vintage

They were cheap, found at a pawn shop. Used 'em on the back patio outside. They made sound. Hooked 'em up to a crown pro amp once, and they actually seemed to like it, but they still sucked. Amazing how much power they took without bursing into flames. Fortunately, at the time we were living at the edge of town on a 2 acre lot, so the neighbors never complained.

Second worse, probably my Optimus Pro-x4AV speakers, some micro sized two ways that Rat Shack used to sell for $40/pair. They had a aluminum cabinets, ported, ~3" woofer and 1" dome tweet. They can't be too bad...still have 'em hooked up to a frankenstien computer-desktop system, but never really use them anymore.

Having nightmare flashbacks to some white van speakers roomies had back in college. Big, painful, ugly.

 

[Seth=L]

Second worse, probably my Optimus Pro-x4AV speakers, some micro sized two ways that Rat Shack used to sell for $40/pair. They had a aluminum cabinets, ported, ~3" woofer and 1" dome tweet. They can't be too bad...still have 'em hooked up to a frankenstien computer-desktop system, but never really use them anymore.

Optimus Pro-X44AV, the failed reincarnation of the Realistic Minimus 7. It's downfall?, being ported.

I forgot about the crappy white van specials I bought for a laugh; Theater Research sub sat configuration. That thing sounded like garbage trying to cover garbage.

 

[3db]

worst speakers were the plastic cubes that came from my cheapy sears record player when I was 10. Found some old 4" speakers which I built wooden boxes for and tehy sounded much better than the plastic crap. As I look back at it now, even those sounded horrible but not nearly as bad as the plastic stuff.

 

[GO-NAD!]

The worst speakers I went out of my way to buy was the Bose Acoustimas 3 system. Has a passive woofer and two cube sats. I thought the cube sats sounded nice for their size, however the woofer was aweful. I returned it to Circuit City as soon as I could. I was young and didn't know any better.

I had a similar system - can't remember the series. They were not the absolute worst speakers I ever owned though. I had a Candle stereo when I was a kid, which came with its own speakers, that would've been worse. But I put the Bose at the top of the list, because at least the Candle speakers didn't pretend to be something they weren't - high fidelity, that is.

 

[TjMV3]

Have you owned, listened to other Paradigm speakers and had similar or contrasting impressions?

I've heard many Paradigm speaker models.

I thought the Studio 60's and Studio 100's were much better than those crappy Monitor 9 v3.

But not my preference.

Also spent some time with the Paradigm Signature S8. That's the best speaker I have ever heard from Paradigm. But not enough to inspire me to buy them.

 

[Whitey80]

RCA SP4100T towers. Bought from a pawn shop when I was 18 to hook up to my Aiwa reciever.....very boomy, but flat everywhere else, but I was 18 and they had dual 8" drivers, 4" and 3/4", they were big and black and kinda sleek looking, so I thought they were gold! I have tried to find info on them, but there is absolutely NOTHING out there...seems they weren't that well loved by others either.

Later hooked up to Pioneer Elite VSX41, thinking that maybe it was the Aiwa that made them sound that way.....nope....somehow they sounded even worse.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Interestingly I really have few complaints about the speakers I've owned over the years. I've had some that were turds but I'm still pretty happy with their overall performance considering their price. Such as the pair of Insignia 4" speakers that I bought at Best Buy for $20. They're mounted in my bathroom for when I'm in the shower and I'm very happy at that price with their limited performance for that use. It's unrealistic to compare the performance of a $15 speaker to that of a $1500 speaker.

 

[popotoys]

I had one I didn't like but it was mounted in a transistor radio.

 

[its phillip]

probably the bose 501 series v that i still have gathering dust somewhere

 

[ski2xblack]

Optimus Pro-X44AV, the failed reincarnation of the Realistic Minimus 7. It's downfall?, being ported.

Funny you mention that. Solution? Rubber corks, baby! Makes 'em roll off a bit higher, but able to crank a little harder. The POS passive sub in use (the bass module from a Polk RM3000) goes pretty high, so it actually works well.

Come to think of it, I don't really think these deserve mention in this 'worst speakers' thread. The Optimus system pieced together with parts that would otherwise be collecting dust or at the curb sounds better than those crappy 301's ever did.

 

[zepper]

The no name 5.25" speakers I installed on my scooter. Worst part is the amp drains the battery every time it sits. I asked my local bike shop and they said, well they all do that, just plug your scooter in with a battery tender each night. *sigh*

 

[j_garcia]

Polk R15 and the PS202 sub. They weren't the worst things on earth, but of the speakers I've owned, these were easily the weakest. Got the sub free for buying some LSis and got the R15s in a trade.

 

[bigbassdave]

Kenwood HTIB. Thought it was amazing...... for the first week. By week three I sold it and bought an Onkyo HTIB which was a huge upgrade.

 

[Cristofori]

and my neighbors were selling some large, and very heavy Sony 3 way bookshelf speakers and they sounded ok, outside on their deck, so I bought them for $75, with the intention of buying new woofers or redoing the surrounds on the old ones. The Sony's were nicely finished, with 10" woofers, a fairly big midrange, and a dome tweeter, and they had tone controls for both the mid and tweeter. I have no idea what the model number was, but Pioneer sold a suspiciously similar looking speaker about the same time, with a different grill.

These sound suspiciously like the Sony's I wrote about on this thread above your post. I said they had 8" woofers, but they could have been 10"s. I can't remember.

No matter, as they might as well have been 3" woofers considering how well they handled some bass!

Does the model U-60 or something similar ring a bell? These were the only "Sony" speakers I've seen that had midrange/tweeter controls. Was there a square metal screen over the tweeter?

If these were the same thing you had, then my pair wasn't just a fluke, and it absolutely confirms the crappiness of these speakers!

 

[septim]

The Pioneer 360 HTIB. It had overwhelmingly positive reviews, even at respectable places. It was passable for gaming, unusable for most movies though. No amount of fiddling could get the dialogue to sound right.