Has anyone else auditioned something that really was terrible?

Well I hesitate to say “terrible,” because audio is so subjective.
But, since you bring it up, one of the oddest and most eye opening auditions I’ve ever done really drove that point home to me. 

The speakers were Klipsch La Scala (the new ones within last year) and they were being driven by high end amps and source (I forget which), and were being played LOUD.

But to me they did not sound good at all. I couldn’t really bring myself to hang out there for the duration. But the eye opening thing was that there was another dude there just digging the sound, and I could tell by his reactions that to him they sounded magical.

Different strokes for different folks.... probably the stuff I like he would have hated, and that’s cool too

@bob540:
Don’t worry too much about the inexpensive gear thing.

Yes, oftentimes (but def not always) more expensive stuff can sound better, but it is never generally linear and I’d almost say it’s sorta inverse exponential, which probably is meaningless scientifically but hopefully you get my point.

If you have a solid low cost system you often have to spend WAY more for a sound improvement that most normal people (eg, everyone in my family but me) would say is not at all worth the upgrade cost!