Has anyone else auditioned something that really was terrible?

Denon and Marantz - awful.  I used to think Onkyo was a better budget A/V receiver, but after using Anthem - no contest for Anthem.  I A/B'ed Dynaudio Special 40's with Martin Logan Motion 40's - Motion 40 smoked the Dynaudio - that surprised me.  I was surprised that Classe class D amps (Sigmas) smoked both Moon and McIntosh.  Parasound Halo P6 was pretty rank, the phono preamp was worse than $29 Behringer.  Lost $500 to try that unit.  The $1.09 a foot KarmaKable still some of the best sounding speaker cable to my ears (10 guage tin coated copper).  I tried the PS Audio BHK250, sounded good, but underpowered - then I tried Jeff Rowland - ummm - no contest.

No not this week.

I wouldn't say terrible, but I simply didn't enjoy the sound of some Paradigm 5Fs I listened to at the local shop a while back. It just sounded harsh. Source and amplification were McIntosh. I simply wasn't impressed for the price. The B&W I tried next were more to my liking.

Auditioning for "pirates..." counts on any of my worst lists, even bicycles.

I demoed some bookshelf Martin Logans at Magnolia in Atlanta and thought they were terribly directional and lacked power all around. The entry B&W’s they had sounded much better though not my taste either. 
Also heard a pair of DynAudio specials as previous reviewer and the seller at a specialty store here in ATL raved about but I thought the Monitor Audio Silver bookshelves sounded better for a fraction of the price playing the same track. Couldn’t believe it!

i gambled on a pair of Sonus Faber Principias without hearing prior acquired through here and have been an excellent value.