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Worst speakers you've owned?


Ray Garrison

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Seeing as how there was a Bose thread running in this forum, thought this might be fun.

Looking back over your prior existances, what would you say were the worst pair of speakers you ever owned? That is, real, name brand speakers that at least pretended to be serious, not the no-name stuff from Korvettes.

My vote: B.I.C. Venturii (spelling?) circa 1974

Ray Garrison

------------------

Music is art

Audio is engineering

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The worst speakers I've ever owned, eh. That's a poser. Probably the worst speakers I've ever had afflict my sound system were Bose 901-IVs (I borrowed a pair while afflicted with morbid curiosity.)

Back to the question ... probably a pair of home-built Karlson couplers loaded with Oxford woofers and "?" tweeters. Of course, there were the AR-3as. Or the JBLs with the 14" co-axes jammed into ridiculously small cabinets. I could go on, but this is getting embarassing...

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Hi Guys,

I think I will vote for a set of Acoustic Research AR 2ax that I had while I was in the Air Force. Accoustic dummy loads! I have only had 3 set though. The ARs where relpace by Altec Lansing "mailbu". Which were big sectored Voice-of-the-theater horns and two 12 inch woffers in a bas reflex. I got rid of them for a set of Belles that I have had ever since!

Al K.

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A pair of big 1972 Radio Shack 12" woofer things that I can't even remember the models.They had 3 tweeters and 1 12" woofer in each that the cross over had to deal with,and adjustable high and mid controls.

Had them untill 89',that's when my X and I parted.Some months later I got my KG-3's.The Heresy I've got now I've had since 78',had to just about steal it from her.

My loving wife of present,Becky,lets me spend money on Klipsch.She knows what sounds great.

Life is great!

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Ahh yes, I remember Capt'n Bob's strange speakers in the college dorm room. He had them driven by nice Marantz tube amps - now that should make up for the strange speakers with the unusual curved cut plywood fronts.

Capt'N Bob was with me when I replaced my worst speakers with a pair of Heresy jems. I sold a pair of KLH speakers with 8"woofers to another college friend, got the Klipsch and never looked back. That was in 1971.

Funny thing is - the guy I sold the KLH to still has them and still uses them as his main speakers.

Mabee they wern't so bad after all... But then I wouldn't give you 2 cents for today's KLH junk.

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Regarding the Karlson enclosure reference, you might be interested to know that it was the Karlson design that was primarily responsible for giving Klipsch its company motto. I'm sure most of you know what that is, right? You wouldn't be diehard Klipsch fans if you didn't.

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You mean "A Legend in Sound"? Or is there another motto you had in mind? How did Karlson influence that?

On topic, perhaps I should also mention the Electovoice Interface A's (big bass from little boxes but sounded really, uh, weird), the Ohm D2 and C2 (not bad, but really peaky response), the Infinity Quantum 5 then Quantum 3 (competes for World's Most Inefficient Speaker®, driven by a 350 watt/channel Nikko reciever that Tech HiFi assured me was the Ultimate in Hi End Sound...), the VMPS Supertower II A/R Special Editions (sounded really, really good if you could back up about 20 feet from them), the Theil CS 3.5 (which, driven by bridged Adcom GFA555 amps would drill holes in your teeth at 3 meters), the B&W 801F original series (whose protective circuitry would SHUT THEM OFF whenver the climax from the William Tell Overture kicked in), the Acoustic Energy AE-1 (which sounded good from, like, 3 feet or so away but faded in the far field), geez, how much money did I spend? anyway, love my La Scalas, just wish I'd gotten them sooner...

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Al has the button I was thonking about!

My worst pair was a house brand from Dixie Hi-Fi (who knows who that is, now?). They were a 3-way with a 12", 3" & a 1". My brother and I bought them with lawn mowing money in High School. They made noise, I'm sure they sounded awful.

After the 3rd pair failed, we added more money and bought a pair of U.S. made Marantz (7s?) speakers. My sister is still using those, way more than 20 years later.

John

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I had a pair of JVC three way speakers for a few weeks that I bought at Tech HiFi in 1981 or 1982. They looked impressive with a 12 inch ported woofer. They sounded flabby and flat -- just terrible. I returned them for a pair of KLH 150s, which were actually quite wonderful (this was soon after KLH was bought be a California company and their stuff was still quite nice). I owned the little KLHs for about 16 years until the foam was completely rotted away. I replaced them with my KLF 20s, finally joining the Klipsch family smile.gif

There are an awful lot of bad speakers out there, huh?

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Hey John,

Nope, though I'd been there too. I bought these at the Tech HiFi in Framingham on Rt. 9 -- next to the Strawberry's and right near Fun & Games (both of which businesses survived the collapse of Tech HiFi to this day). I bought my first real stereo (or rather my parents bought it as a present for me) in 1979 or 1980 at the Tech HiFi in Waltham (which sold used/demo models at a discount). That sure was a long time ago, huh?

--JoshT

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I remember that I TRIED to buy some speakers of

some type from Dixie HiFi many years ago. The

salesman (clerk) fumbled with the speaker selector box trying to punch up the speakers I was interested in. He neglected to check his volume control on the receiver in use and when he found the speakers, the receiver volume was set to max and BAM went both speakers. I thanked him and left,now realizing he probably saved me from wasting my money on a pair of junk speakers.

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For me it was a couple versions of Knight Kits when I was a youngster. Of course, when you are young and broke, anything is better than nothing. One was a kit, the other I built from plans. They were not too bad but definitely not Hi Fi.

I have been pretty lucky over the years. Have owned Bozak, Klipsch, Audio Reasearch (Magnepan), Altec, Fisher, Heil to name a few. Based on these years I would own Bozak and Klipsch again, and maybe Altec.

My $0.02 ....

------------------

John P

St Paul, MN

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I have only been REALLY into audio since November last year, but I'll say what I started with was the worst. Sony SS-MF315s. Floorstanders, 6.5" woofer, something like a 2" mid, 1" dome tweeter. They have strong bass response until you get a little excited with the volume knob, then the "woofers" excursion out. They also have a sound like someone strapped a pillow over the tweeter. I despise the receiver much more than the speakers, though. Sony STR-DE435, supposed 100x5 Dolby 5.1 receiver, begins distorting with only two channels driven just before halfway. It would clip it's happy *** off trying to do 5, in my opinion, and I'm gonna get rid of it with the speakers...

I'm straying off the subject now, so I'll end this one. wink.gif

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