Most Disappointing Speaker You Have Heard?

[tom67]

Boston CR8s.....15" tall with 7" woofer and Kortek tweeter....highly touted by Consumer Reports at time...got them for $89/pr at end of model year...Cherry finish looked like contact paper....sounded like small "isolated bricks" no matter what placement or amp....Among the last Bostons made in US and the company still had a mystique at the time....They had a metal grill that was impossible to remove and replace....These things originally retailed for $400/pr.....Pitiful to say the least...put them out at curb to make sure no one else offended or wasted their time trying to make them sound good...

 

[just listening]

I had a pair of B&W DM602 S3 bookshelf monitors (ones with the 7" midbass) and I was and still am stunned at how they sound. My longtime friend, who posts here under the name "yettitheman" has then now and he feels the same way about them as I do.

I can't expect everyone to share my taste in speakers or sound, but I'm surprised that the 600 series is the most disappointing thing you've heard. What conditions did you listen to them? What was the source material?

I'm convinced a lot of people don't like B&W because they struggle with the laid back European sound. Most people looking for speakers in this category desire a more forward, punchy sound. The 602 S3's IMHO don't try to do everything, instead they sound like they perform very evenly across their rated frequency spectrum. That to me explains why the term "non-fatiguing" is mentioned quite often with B&W speakers.

As for most disappointing to my ears it goes to the Axiom M60v3. I found them to be very thin-sounding and lacking in musicality. I've chatted with people who attended the Oregon Coast GTG last fall and they didn't sound as good as the EMP E5Ti's.

 

[walter duque]

I agree. I feel the same way about Sonus Faber as well to be quite honest.

I like the Sonus Faber Stradivari. If you compare some speakers at full retail it does get a bid disapointing. With the right contacts some of these highend speaker can be picked up at a fraction of their retail price. Wilson Watt Puppies 8 can be had around 8K and the Sonus Faber Straidivari retail 50k for under 12k. BTW I wouldn't take the Wilsons for 2K.

 

[rded]

I like the Sonus Faber Stradivari. If you compare some speakers at full retail it does get a bid disapointig. With the right contacts some of these highend speaker can be picked up at a fraction of their retail price. Wilson Watt Puppies 8 can be had around 8K and the Sonus Faber Straidivari retail 50k for under 12k.

I am extremely pleased with what I have at the moment. But please do tell where I can buy audio watt pups for 8 k so I can use them for surrounds

 

[rded]

I'm convinced a lot of people don't like B&W because they struggle with the laid back European sound. Most people looking for speakers in this category desire a more forward, punchy sound. The 602 S3's IMHO don't try to do everything, instead they sound like they perform very evenly across their rated frequency spectrum. That to me explains why the term "non-fatiguing" is mentioned quite often with B&W speakers.

As for most disappointing to my ears it goes to the Axiom M60v3. I found them to be very thin-sounding and lacking in musicality. I've chatted with people who attended the Oregon Coast GTG last fall and they didn't sound as good as the EMP E5Ti's.

I am an advocate of the laid back "European sound" however B&Ws are NOT laid back to me, they sounded more dry and forward.... I felt like they we're screaming at me during my multiple auditions at different dealers and rooms. But I guess to each his own.

 

[yepimonfire]

honestly any speaker that has the term "laid back" "front forward" "warm" "bright" etc, is not accurate, speakers should sound flat and transparent. how someone could prefer any of the above mentioned terms is beyond me, basically thats saying you prefer inaccuracies in speakers which totally ruins the idea of "hi-fi" which means exactness in copy. to me the laid-backness of british speakers is more of a restrained sound, restrained dynamics, restrained transients and restrained high frequency response. this is the same non-linear issue with shelf stereos etc, they sound "laid-back" rather then open and transparent.

 

[Seth=L]

I'm convinced a lot of people don't like B&W because they struggle with the laid back European sound. Most people looking for speakers in this category desire a more forward, punchy sound. The 602 S3's IMHO don't try to do everything, instead they sound like they perform very evenly across their rated frequency spectrum. That to me explains why the term "non-fatiguing" is mentioned quite often with B&W speakers.

As for most disappointing to my ears it goes to the Axiom M60v3. I found them to be very thin-sounding and lacking in musicality. I've chatted with people who attended the Oregon Coast GTG last fall and they didn't sound as good as the EMP E5Ti's.

The 602 S3 sounded weighty and punchy to me, I certainly wish I could have kept the pair because not only did I feel they matched my sonic requirements very well, but they met my appearance standards as well (that kevlar 7" midbass just looks sexy). Not to mention, they were in prestine condition, not a mark on them, they may as well been new.

 

[Seth=L]

Boston CR8s.....15" tall with 7" woofer and Kortek tweeter....highly touted by Consumer Reports at time...got them for $89/pr at end of model year...Cherry finish looked like contact paper....sounded like small "isolated bricks" no matter what placement or amp....Among the last Bostons made in US and the company still had a mystique at the time....They had a metal grill that was impossible to remove and replace....These things originally retailed for $400/pr.....Pitiful to say the least...put them out at curb to make sure no one else offended or wasted their time trying to make them sound good...

No wonder, look at the face of the speaker. WTF?

Most pathetic excuse for a waveguide I've ever seen. The CR57 at least sounded good when it wasn't hitting those certain frequencies that made the tweeter buzz and crackle. The small waveguide combined with that huge flat surface is bound to cause serious issues. It's like they tried to put the tweeter as close to the middle of the baffle as possible. I guess their hope was that it would have outstanding bass performance. *BUZZ*, try putting the reflex port on the front bottom and the tweeter up higher with a better waveguide and get rid of that stupid Kotex crap, it's garbage.

The grills are certainly a pain, even on the CR57s. I imagine the larger speaker would be much more difficult, although not as bad as the old realistic/optimus/radioshack speakers with metal grills (Minimus 7). If you take the grill off one of those good luck getting it back on without bending the crap out of the darn thing.

 

[Seth=L]

BTW I wouldn't take the Wilsons for 2K.

Hell I would, turn around and sell it to one of those Wall Street saps. I'd be doing the world a favor.

 

[Seth=L]

I am an advocate of the laid back "European sound" however B&Ws are NOT laid back to me, they sounded more dry and forward.... I felt like they we're screaming at me during my multiple auditions at different dealers and rooms. But I guess to each his own.

I get this feeling as you go up the B&W lines. While the cabinet construction and driver quality are excellent, without heavy equalization they sound more forward and in your face as you spend more money. The 600 series speakers sounded pretty mellow to me, of course, to each his own. The only other series in the B&W lines that holds any interest for me are the CM series. The 802D doesn't hold much interest for me because it requires too much work to make them desirable, I prefer to plug the speakers in and enjoy than to have additive components to force a desirable sound from my speakers (even if I have to deal with those pesky cabinet resonance issues).

 

[Seth=L]

honestly any speaker that has the term "laid back" "front forward" "warm" "bright" etc, is not accurate, speakers should sound flat and transparent. how someone could prefer any of the above mentioned terms is beyond me, basically thats saying you prefer inaccuracies in speakers which totally ruins the idea of "hi-fi" which means exactness in copy. to me the laid-backness of british speakers is more of a restrained sound, restrained dynamics, restrained transients and restrained high frequency response. this is the same non-linear issue with shelf stereos etc, they sound "laid-back" rather then open and transparent.

Not exactly true Johnathan.

If a speaker sounds foward and bright without being harsh that is indictative of a neutral speaker, unfortunately this doesn't always mean that the user will enjoy the sound because of how that speaker interacts with the room and probably more importantly, how unforgiving a neutral monitor would be of an unfaithful or poor grade recording.

I think you'll find almost no one would like to have a perfectly neutral monitor play back perfectly neutral sound for all source material, because it wouldn't necessarily sound "good". Neutral and good are not the same thing to a subjective panel.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

honestly any speaker that has the term "laid back" "front forward" "warm" "bright" etc, is not accurate, speakers should sound flat and transparent.

Or those of US who TERM those speakers are the ones who are NOT accurate in our DESCRIPTION.

The only DEFINITE way to determine whether a speaker is FLAT, NEUTRAL, and ACCURATE without human BIAS is to ACCURATELY MEASURE the speaker and get a FLAT on-axis and off-axis frequency response!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Not exactly true Johnathan.

If a speaker sounds foward and bright without being harsh that is indictative of a neutral speaker, unfortunately this doesn't always mean that the user will enjoy the sound because of how that speaker interacts with the room and probably more importantly, how unforgiving a neutral monitor would be of an unfaithful or poor grade recording.

I think you'll find almost no one would like to have a perfectly neutral monitor play back perfectly neutral sound for all source material, because it wouldn't necessarily sound "good". Neutral and good are not the same thing to a subjective panel.

I agree 100%.

I prefer a speaker that SOUNDS GREAT to my own ears.

 

[rded]

I get this feeling as you go up the B&W lines. While the cabinet construction and driver quality are excellent, without heavy equalization they sound more forward and in your face as you spend more money. The 600 series speakers sounded pretty mellow to me, of course, to each his own. The only other series in the B&W lines that holds any interest for me are the CM series. The 802D doesn't hold much interest for me because it requires too much work to make them desirable, I prefer to plug the speakers in and enjoy than to have additive components to force a desirable sound from my speakers (even if I have to deal with those pesky cabinet resonance issues).

That's exactly how I feel about the B$W 800 series.

 

[rded]

Not exactly true Johnathan.

If a speaker sounds foward and bright without being harsh that is indictative of a neutral speaker, unfortunately this doesn't always mean that the user will enjoy the sound because of how that speaker interacts with the room and probably more importantly, how unforgiving a neutral monitor would be of an unfaithful or poor grade recording.

I think you'll find almost no one would like to have a perfectly neutral monitor play back perfectly neutral sound for all source material, because it wouldn't necessarily sound "good". Neutral and good are not the same thing to a subjective panel.

Good post! I appreciate a speaker that is more accurate in its musicality. However I do agree that there is NO perfectly neutral and accurate speaker.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

...The 802D doesn't hold much interest for me because it requires too much work to make them desirable, I prefer to plug the speakers in and enjoy than to have additive components to force a desirable sound from my speakers...

That's exactly how I feel about the B&W 800 series.

I subjectively think the 803D, 802D, & 803D are very "flat", "laid back", & "warm".

I guess that's a good thing to some folks, but not to me.

If we are just talking about sound quality without talking about cost, I don't think I would be "disappointed" in the B&W 800 series. They are just not "lively" enough for my personal taste.

I consider the Infinity P362 & RBH T2/T3 to be "forward" & "lively" sounding.

I consider the MartinLogan Vantage & Dali Euphonia to be "warm" and "lively".

 

[yepimonfire]

@ seth by bright i meant harsh. and my preference is neutral, i hate bright speakers, i can't stand warm speakers, and i really dislike the sound of laid back speakers. i don't want the speaker to have a sound that effects all things i listen to to the point that i can tell it's the "sound" of the speaker not the material. one if my favorite tests to determine this is voice and classical music, while i don't actually listen to much classical i have been to many live classical concerts and know how it is supposed to sound. to me voice and classical music are very revealing of deviations in flatness. if others prefer certain "sounds" to their speakers thats fine but i honestly don't. one specific thing i look for in speakers as well is the ability to image width and depth, those small subtle details that are just there enough to give a sense of the actual instrument being there. one of the reasons i like the polk speakers i have even though they are a slight bit bright the sound stage they create is very convincing, everything sound like it's "right there" in front of me. klipsch has that same sound, but they are exceedingly bright. keep in mind by neutral i mean the speaker not adding it's own "boost" on certain frequencies, such as many speakers i would call warm seem to have a strong 100-300hz preference. when we start throwing around terms like "warm" we are speaking subjectively here so one persons "warm" is different from another persons.

 

[Stripes]

I bought some Sony's from BB to replace the front three Onkyo's from a HTIB system. Wow! now those sounded horrible, within a week I was back trading them for the F1 series by Klipsch. So Sony has my vote for some of the worst sounding speakers out there.

 

[3db]

Wilson Audio Watt Puppies. What a waste of 22K! It was connected to Classe monoblocks and Pre/pro with Classe CDP(can't remember model) with Transparent Speaker wires and a Michell Gyrodec SE TT.

It was totally unengaging without any sparkle in the highs, dead midrange and soso bass. The only good thing it did was play music really loud. This was actually in an acoustically treated room in a HiFi store here in Chicago(I dare not mention its name).

It wasn't the speakers.. but the Transparent speaker wire thats to blame!!

 

[rded]

It wasn't the speakers.. but the Transparent speaker wire thats to blame!!

Perhaps if coat hangers were used, the Wilson Pups would have yielded a more life-like soundstage