Most harsh/shrill sounding speakers (vintage)

Anything with a CV badge on it?

@teo_audio. 
 Some of those were yes.

  The ones I have owned and absolutely loved! :
CV - AT-15
CV - D-9- amazing!
CV - 380-SE

 Listened to for over 4 hours, the salesman was actually starting to get rude with me, walking away for extended periods, I guess 4 hrs is a long time to be in an audio shop? these were just the clearest, best soundstage, loudest, enveloping pair of CV’s I have ever heard, I so badly wanted them, 3 weeks before , I purchased a new CD player and tuner, so My funds were not there, I was so mad at myself!,!

 Look these up, I went back to the same stereo shop about 1-2 days a week, and a few saturdays just to listen to these. 
CV-2000-15 speakers.  The sound has bested %90 of every speaker I have ever heard, with a few exceptions.

    Been praying they would do a anniversary pair with current parts, crossovers w great resistors, caps, air core stuff, etc etc. 

been looking for a nice pair, but most are in so so cond. 
and replacing the drivers, crossovers would be more than I want right now.

 Damn, WWAAAAA OF TRACK, SORRY. 

klipsch horns circa 1990-1993?- 1994 ?   Powered by the largest adcom monoblocs, 555, or 565’s? Whatever it was in early 90’s.
   Posted another message about these, I lasted 20-30 seconds and I had to leave the room, it was so searing and bad, tinny, it was painful, not nice at all.

 That was the worst, never been a fan of those horn tweeters, but tha folded woofer was chest hitting and wicked.  
But, to give some good words about them, the sound signature did a 360 when carver silver 7 (the black ones w/out tubes)
mod squad amps were used, the searing sound did go away a little.

Anything on the end of a Cyrus ll amp.

You may find this interesting (TP & PT tests/measurments of NS10M's).

http://www.bobhodas.com/examining-the-yamaha-ns-10m.php

DeKay

Sears Silvertone all-in-one record player circa 1965!

JBL.
Save your money, jam an ice pick in your ear.

I got the speakers I have now, which blew me away in the store.  I took them home, purchased a new Adcom amp and pre to go with them, and it was absolutely the worst sound I have ever experienced (great detail, but so harsh certain types of music were unlistenable)--took them back, found I couldn't live without them, went back and re-bought them, figuring I'd find a way to tweak or live with the sound--after a couple of years, I bought a cheap tube amp on a whim.  Those speakers went from the the worst to fantastic and I haven't touched that system in more than 25 years.   I have no doubt that the tube amp 'degrades' the signal; but whatever it does, my ears are grateful.

I had some Klipsch Khorns.  At high volumes the highs were harsh, and the bass made you sick it was so boomy.

@jdane What are these speakers?

Yes sorry for not making it clear in the opening, this topic is dedicated to hifi speakers. Hence why I mentioned the Yamaha NS-10. They do sound fantastic in a well treated room though. I wanted to see if other speakers in that category and in the vintage zone might be available at a low price given that people dislike their sound out of the box so much. Studio monitors often are disliked for their sound because people don’t know how to use them. But the Yamaha NS-10 horizontal studio monitors sound absolutely great. No mistake. I mentioned they sound like crap because it’s their reputation. :)

1983. Omega Z7000 Speakers.

Most late 70s and 80s Japanese Speakers. Few exceptions. 

Klipsch speakers 70s and 80s.

1965 Wharfdale W70D. The paper tweeter sizzled.

@noromance ....then, how did you come to own a Cyrus if it did that?  A youthful exuberance that, like some, went from 10+ to -0 ?

...curious minds, y'know....*G*

Funny CV speakers got mention 1stish thing....I just got gifted with a single BIC-Venturi speaker with dual horns (one horizontal, one vertical) with a 12" woof....

I remember running into pair of them in a smallish living room...

Don't recall how 'good' they were, but loud?

damn...*L*

Bowers & Wilkins 685's being pushed through a Rotel integrated. Ouch

Some of the old Boston Acoustics "A" series could be a bit bright, especially if they were aimed right at you, but they weren't as ice-picky as the Klipschs of old.  I think it had a lot to do with trying to get the absolute most volume out of those speakers at the time, which didn't help.

I dont know which Klipsch you are Talk in about. My CORNWALL ll sound damn good with  quality electronics, Old Adcom, Cyrus. Hahaha. Please, try something decent. Maybe,, Blaze Linear or a Technics receiver. Joking.

Plasmatronics...

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hill-plasmatronics-type-1-loudspeaker

By J. Gordon Holt

@asvjerry 

....then, how did you come to own a Cyrus if it did that? A youthful exuberance that, like some, went from 10+ to -0 ?

I had a dealer. It was hyped in the press. Dealer loaned it out. Dealer took it back. ;-)

Those speakers went from the the worst to fantastic

The reason I mentioned a harsh amp rather than speakers is that it's often the accompanying equipment that can make a speaker sound bad. Remember: Source > amplification > speaker.

noromance, well at least that episode ended acceptable....’cept for said dealer. *G*

You can’t always not get what you don’t want, sometimes....or something like that....

BTW, good morning...another miserable day in Paradise. *L*

Ears are not technical instruments.

They come with *generally similar design* in the physical sense, and *generally similar* connection to the brain, and then *uniquely hand built as one individually grows* interpretation and design/build-out of the FFT filtering and signal recognition system. Then the point about how neural wiring is complex and also tied to general intelligence and differences between individuals, where ’ear-Q’ is a thing, akin to ’IQ’...and the range of differences in individuals.

And it’s all about our emotions, the rocking out to the tunes.. so to disparage the other person’s choices and hearing becomes a deep personal insult, either being cast or received, whether meant to be -or not. To the point that some to many require some sort of external validation from others (and suffer forms of emotional rejection and further emotions), as we are wired that way.

Which is what makes uniform agreement impossible. All due to the above realities written of in this post.

Which means that hardcore argument is the least one can expect in high fidelity audio gear discussions.

Technical discussion has merit, great or high merit, critical, no less ...as it is the only figure that offers a channel for transferable repeatability and thus improvement via testing and build.... but it is not the arbiter of discussions on how things sound. It simply cannot be, when any form of logic in analysis is applied to the entire data package.

NHT 2.9 – They were hailed as a High End speaker for a budget price, in the early ’90s. The closest rival, sonically, cost $6K at the time.
But the metal tweeters are like a dentist’s drill. Two minutes is all I can take.
I’m told I can get silk-dome, drop-in replacements for peanuts – but I’ve been lazy.
It’s a slick-looking black-lacquer line-array floorstander rated from 26Hz–26KHz, 87dB @ 6Ω — and I only paid $225 at a thrift shop. Mint.
I should at least try, right?

Well I have heard a few speakers that were very very shrill but not the worst speakers ever.

Old Thiel and Triangle were that for me.  OUCH!!

Worst speakers ever though?  Perhaps the B&O system in an Audi.  Despite 4 different tone controls this was a problem impossible to overcome.

motown-l94 posts03-30-2021 5:55amBowers & Wilkins 685’s being pushed through a Rotel integrated. Ouch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
haha i had a  B&W /Rotel combo, 
Lousey, just aweful.

Old school Klipsch spf series. Those things were pure ear rape.

Any Infinity POS speaker, yes, that was the model.

@bimasta

The NHT 2.9s are NOT line array speakers.

Gale 301?

Late 1970s Klipsch LaScalas. Ouch. 

As mentioned above, many old school speakers were heard being driven by cheap receivers, but the fault is laid at the feet of the speakers.

JBL Century L100.The worst sounding tweeters I have ever heard.Sizzle?More like the sound of somebody with a severe case of the shakes doing some arc welding.

I think alot of Klipsch speakers were just hash due to the horn. I think they were made for low powered, warm sounding tubes so anything else solid state or toroidal really overpowered the highs and delivered the harshness "efficiently". 

The Klipsch horns everyone hates are the K 401 metal mid horn, they are horrendous. How do I know, I have circa 1989 Klipschorn, had that horn stock. Thing rings like a bell, tried damping, got damped sound, gave up on that horn real quick. You've got to put a decent horn on a horn speaker to get anything close to proper timbre.

maybe not THE worst ever,, BUt I really  hate Klipsch sound

 

 

Coincident

Just after I posted above,,I aferwards read the post above 

Just funny

I am interested in the LM amp,, and brought me to the K speakers, man so I am not the only one thyat hates the L house sound, 

yuckkkk