Aside from Bose, speakers you would never buy? (1 Viewer)

[ChrisArmour]

Well, a higher quality name that I would never buy would have to be Boston Acoustics, I just dont like the sound they produce.

 

[ChrisHeflen]

Ok I'll bite, even though my "self" is telling me not to.

H/K
M&K
Krell
B&K
SVS
Sony
KEF
NHT

 

[JamesDB]

Darren, ChrisArmour and ChristHeflen

Why would you not buy those brands?

 

[ChrisHeflen]

I think it would be too big of a risk for me to say.



(and then somebody says "you'll be ok this is an open, non-critical forum").

 

[JeremyR]

I'd have to say Axiom, HTD, Swan and any of the on-line speaker companies that don't sell their wares in a B&M. I'm sure they're excellent quality, and I'd have less of a problem buying a sub online, like a Dayton, SVS, or HSU because those aren't going to have sound that differs as significantly as speakers. Boston's are great speakers, I'd never own a pair. But SVS's reputation for bass would make me comfortable enough to buy it online. I mean.. bass is bass isn't it..


(Jeremy smiles and waits for the onslaught of SVS owners who intend to tell me otherwise )

 

[Jim Rakowiecki]

Well, I would never buy speakers I don't like.
I would never not consider a speaker from a reputable manufacturer but I think I would hesitate to buy Klipsch simply because I don't like the way they sound. I've listened to them and tried to like them but they just don't work for me but I would never say never.

 

[David Galindo]

Never anything from HEB. Yeah, HEB sells a "family 5.1 surround sound" system. I forget the name brand, though...

 

[Dustin B]

I'll never own anything from Krell, Wilson Audio or any other manufacturer in that price bracket. The obvious reason for this is I can't afford them, but even if I could afford them, I think they represent products that have gone well past the point of diminishing returns. It's that opinion that would prevent me from purchasing them even if money wasn't a concern.

Now to get myself in trouble. Unless I could hear the Axiom VP150 center in a store without having to go through the hassle of return shipping, I'd never buy one. From my understanding of speaker design that center makes no sense.

 

[alan halvorson]

Wilson Audio, for one. Not that they are bad speakers, just that they are so grossly overpriced and overhyped.

In more affordable speakers, I would never buy anything from Magnepan. This goes against the normally favorable opinion of these speakers but in planar speaker technologies, the Magnepan driver comes up well short of electrostats and ribbons. It's even inferior to a great many cone drivers. I'm only speaking of the Magnepan driver itself, Magnepan's original claim to fame, and not the ribbon driver, of which I have no opinion.

The Magnepan driver is a push-only affair with horrible damping characteristics - look at any review that includes a transient response chart. This thing keeps on speaking long after the input has been removed. Furthermore, because it is not a force over area speaker (as are electrostats and ribbons) and because it has to support the wires glued to it, the membrane has to be quite a bit heavier. The membrane of an electrostat can be breathtakingly light.

Magnepan gets away with it because that big launch area is attractive to a lot of people, and because Magnepan is one of the darlings of the audiophile world. That is, no matter its actual performance, a Magnepan speaker will receive a passing or superior grade. Not by this kid, though. The Magnepan driver is a hunk of junk that didn't advance the audio art when it was invented, and should have been shelved years ago.

 

[Nathan Porteous]

I wouldn't buy B&W personally because Is it just me or do they sound hollow or something funny i just can't stand. Not all b$w's just the 600 series. I would also never buy Nuance if anyone ever heard of these and actually listened to them they would know what i'm talking about, they sell this on set in fact for $3000 at a store in my area, I personally know a gut who works there and told me that the replacement drivers on them cost $7, now of course i didn't believe him until he brought a reciept straight from the store for 3 replacement 8 in drivers for $6.74 cdn
NOW THATS A RIPOFF!!!! and they also sound awful

 

[DanaA]

I would never buy Wisdom's top-of-the-line speaker system because they stand around 14 feet tall, weigh over 5,000 pounds, and cost around $600,000 dollars.

 

[alan halvorson]

Wisdom, Dana? I have never heard of these until now. I found their website: Wisdom Audio. My God! It's the ultimate in overkill. I love this spec: Required Channels of Amplification - 24 channels minimum for system. Better upgrade your electrical system.

 

[DanaA]

Yep, something, huh? Magnets for low frequencies weigh over 450 pounds each!!!

Stated frequency response = 8-35,000 Hz + 3dB.

 

[John F. Palacio]

JamesCB Says:

I'll second that!!!!
Maybe we can add France to the do not buy list?

 

[Shane Martin]

I'll third that but I would say "Buy North American". There is alot of good products made in Canada.

 

[aaron campbell]

I would like to know of an American company that builds everything in the U.S.A. If there is, I bet it's a very short list.

 

[JamesCB]

That would be a short list, aaron. Even the smaller spekaer maufacturers use drivers like Vifa and Scanspeak, which are European at least. The only big company I know of that uses purely American made drivers/cabinets/crossovers is Phase Technology. They even wind their own voice coils and crossover parts.

 

[Tim Ranger]

Just to be argumentative, I'd probably never buy another pair of speakers from a B&M outlet. When you get the speakers home, they rarely sound anything like they did in the store. You have to pay them for their part of the deal, and from my experience, a lot of B&Ms make returns into a bigger hassle than if you go mail order. And, I've had such good results buying direct from ACI. I liked my previous Sonus Fabers, but the ACIs just plain rock!

 

[Rory Buszka]

I remember the H-E-B back when I lived on the south side of Austin, TX. A fairly plain store, I remember. The guy's last name was "Butts" or something. Some permutation of butt.

Anyway, enough OT babble.

I will never buy $10,000 speakers that have only $500 worth of drivers in them. Instead I will buy the $1700/pr VMPS RM-2. Now THAT's a speaker. If anyone is looking to break into the high-end, there's your speaker.

 

[Derek*C]

I never cared for Polk or Boston Acoustics. They're missing something.

Rory, I ordered a pair of RM2's. The first one was delivered last night and the second will be delivered on Monday. Damn UPS. This could be the longest weekend of my life...