Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?

As requested, these are just speakers that lived in my home. I've plenty of opinions on metal domed and diamond tweeters as well as horns in general (and that's ignoring brands that never did it for me).


Genesis II+  (1978, not the known Genesis co.) first speaker, still have.
McIntosh XR-240 (early 90s) so-so, poor choice, traded for 2.5i's.
NHT 2.5i  mid-fi (used with other NHT's 1.5's, 1.3's) for video purposes.
Martin Logan SL3   (1995-2011 main audio) picky but good, still have.
Thiel 2.4s     very nice, not so dry (had my brother's pair 6mos).
B&W DM-302   (2000) tad bright, a gem at $199/pr, still have.
Dynaudio Sapphire (2012-2016) replaced SL3 as 2 channel, traded.
Dynaudio Excite X-12   (2014-2016) nice with small R.E.L, traded.
Scansonic MB2.5   (2015-2016) fabulous, w/sub even better, traded.
Raidho D2   (2016-present)  Possible last speakers. Stunningly beautiful sound,   aided by DSP and R.E.L. B1 sub rarely (if desired, not needed).

Pretty much any Klipsch for me. Yes, even the Klipschorn.

At every price point, there are speakers that are more accurate, more detailed, better imaging. The Klipsch's good dynamics are not nearly enough for me to overlook everything else they don't do well.

Back at the beginning of the summer, my cousin had a new pair of Hersey IV that he loaned to me while he was out of town. I had them for almost a month.

At first, I was taken in by their excitement and dynamics. But it didn't take long for all their warts to take over.

I noticed one major speaker brand that has not been mentioned in this thread of infamy and that is Sonus Faber.  I have only heard them twice in stores but they sounded very good to me in the store.  I also like Wilson speakers.  I have heard Wilson speakers in someone’s home and I liked the sound. True story:  I had a work buddy in the late 80s who had Thiel 2 2s with Spectral gear.  They sounded very good.  I was using planars at the time and his Thiels were the first box speaker that didn’t sound like a box to me. 13 years passed before I bought my first Thiel speakers and I bought them used because every time I auditioned them in a store they were too bright, strident and sometimes I thought they would drill a hole in my head.   I wanted something more dynamic than planars but I couldn’t find the right speaker.  Based on my buddy’s system I finally bought some used CS3.6s to try.  It took a couple of amp and cable changes but they finally made me very happy.  A few years later I got the CS6’s.  No fatigue issues here but they are finicky about source components and cables.  

I have Thiel CS6's and never could get them dialed in, after  a bunch of amps and cable I pushed the against the wall and moved on.  They are my biggest audio miss-judgement and costly mistake.  The last two days have been rainy so I set them up. Incredible mid range and detail in the upper frequencies.  As always with these speaker the bass is OK but seems like it was an engineering after thought. Some mistakes have a silver lining. My current system is Endgame!

Hi vegasears,
I understand what you are saying.  The CS6's do not have that chest thumping bass if that is what you are looking for.  I grew up in the 70s when we played hard rock loud and fuzzy and the drums kicked you in the gut.  These days if I play Black Sabbath or some hard rock record it is almost comical because the music is so clear and refined.  The Pass amps make for strong bass but it is still not like Wilsons, for example.  This may be heresy to some but I added subwoofers which takes the lows down deep and adds some oompf but still not that sharp kick in the gut.  I don't think subs go high enough for that.  If I crank it up real real loud the bass can get strong but I'm scared something's going to blow and I don't like it that super loud.  86 dBa average is very loud to me these days.  I would say that the Thiels are not the best hard rock speaker out there but they excel at Jazz, vocals and are good with classical.