The Speaker Epithet Thread

Lazarus Short

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#1
I woke up from a nap a few minutes ago, thinking of this - how to describe a bad speaker. I'm tired of breathless, gushy praise for speakers in audio magazines. I'll start, so you can see where I'm coming from, and please add to it.

First, the superlatives: Source output and speaker output - NO DIFFERENCE.

Then, a very, very close second: My Speakers.

So much for the good - now the bad and ugly.

These speakers left flakes of surround all over the car trunk (boot if you're a Brit) just getting them home. It happened to me.

These speakers are shooting bits of speaker fill out the port, and all over the room.

Voice coil resistance is so high, the speaker cables melted through the carpet.

The voice coil rub is louder than the music.

The neighbors' dogs are howling...

You get the idea...?
 

mlucitt

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#5
I built some speakers once. The low frequency drivers were no-name, steel frame, rubber surrounds with huge magnets. The tweeters looked like the speakers you would find in a small Japanese AM radio. I used some plywood I found on the side of the garage to build boxes about the size of a washing machine because bigger is better, and louder, right. I built them mirror-imaged or maybe one was just upside down. The wire I used was special - it said, "For all sizes of electrical fencing"
The sound was awesome - the lows were thick; like dirty, muddy water. Yes, they sounded like they were underwater. Probably out of phase, too. The paper excursion was noticeable, and sticking out from the frame likely due to some DC on the guitar amplifier outputs. The tweeters were remarkably flat in frequency response, beginning at 3Khz and and topped out at about 3.5Khz. Overall, the buzzing at 60Hz was not as distracting as the amazingly lifelike screeching, dying animal sounds. The speakers started to get loud, then suddenly everything went quiet. I was 12 years old.
 

nakdoc

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#7
My audio pal Brad inherited a pair of newer JBL L100s. He asked me to go through them to deal with x-over issues. After I was done he took them home to listen. I warned him he would not like them (I know his tastes in speakers) An hour later he called and asked "Are you sure these are speakers?"
 

nakdoc

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#9
I had a pair of Infinity 2000AXT speakers in college. They had a midrange honk coloration that sounded like a nasal saxophone. When I sold them, I demoded them with a horn band (Chicago?) "Only good for horn bands"
 

laatsch55

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#10
I heard some L200's , I'd find room in the house for those if I came across a decently priced set...
 

orange

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#11
I had a pair of Infinity 2000AXT speakers in college. They had a midrange honk coloration that sounded like a nasal saxophone. When I sold them, I demoded them with a horn band (Chicago?) "Only good for horn bands"
We need a rimshot emoji.
 

Wheel-right

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#12
I heard some L200's , I'd find room in the house for those if I came across a decently priced set...
A good friend gave me his L150's ,needed new surrounds and these set me on the quest for more power, that brought me to Phase Linear. Powering them with my Nikko Alpha II until the PL is rebuilt. Heard them for a little while using the PL 400 but really want to hear the 700II ASAP. Same guy has a set of L100's in his storage room, yes I keep hinting...
 
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mlucitt

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#13
JBL anything "L"is good in my book. I had some L66's for awhile and they were nice. I settled on some L36's, in oak, as my in-wall home theater speakers and they were great. I think they helped the house sell.
 

mr_rye89

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#15
Agreed on the JBL "L" speakers. I have a pair of L15s and they are great! My co worker has L100s (4 I think!) And they were awesome too. I also hung 8 JBL Control 65 pendant speakers in the main room at work, powered by a Crown CT8150 and a 12" Behringer sub to fill in the lows and it's as good as a PA system gets IMO.

Now for terrible speakers, I'm building this big bluetooth speaker with 8" speakers and the bass is pure mud, the box volume is correct, ports are the right size, but I think the cabinet material is too thin.......
 

orange

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#16
And I missed out on some Eminence 8" woofers for CHEAP locally that might have been fairly interesting in some cabs I have sitting around...might still have a shot at another pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4s though if they are still there in a few daze...
 

J!m

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#17
I’ve heard som bad car speakers that sounded like a hornet nest that just took a direct BB strike...

But home speakers, other than the Bradford particle board stale-air filled boxes with console TV reject speakers hidden behind cheesecloth, sounded pretty good.

I remember the Snell C4 rather fondly... never owned them.
 

orange

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#18
If I'm lucky I'm going to get another pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4s in a few daze. Minimus-7 stuff is thin and hard to deal with when you are trying to monitor recordings. Be nice to get the Sansui 5050 back up to snuff again. I have a 3300 as well which is a back killer to move.
 

Lazarus Short

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#19
If I'm lucky I'm going to get another pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4s in a few daze. Minimus-7 stuff is thin and hard to deal with when you are trying to monitor recordings. Be nice to get the Sansui 5050 back up to snuff again. I have a 3300 as well which is a back killer to move.
"Back killer" is one reason I parted with that Yamaha DSP amp. Its replacement, a Proton, is much easier to heft.
 
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