Great Post! And timely as well. I was recently whiling away time at LaGuardia airport waiting for a flight when I saw an actual Bose display booth. They had those cute little Wave Radios which actually didn't sound so terrible although they are overpriced. But they also had one of their sub/sat setups there with the little cube speakers. It was very close to the worst sound I've ever heard! Granted, the acoustics weren't the best in an airport but shouldn't the manufacturer be aware of those limitations and take his crap elsewhere where it won't offend those of us with taste? The shopkeeper seemed genuinely befuddled by my lack of excitement and said I must be someone who is cursed with excellent hearing! Yeah...sure...poor slobs with less than perfect hearing must enjoy a combination of blatty screech and subwoofer flatulence...
The worst sound system
Our group from work went to a bar here in Chandler AZ for beers and wings and they had their the music (sic) cranked upwards of 90db, it was hard to talk over. The speakers were "kick boxes" like designed for between the back seat and the rear cab of a pick-up truck hung on the wall about five feet up, piezo tweeters and all. The sound coming from these things was enough to cause mental distress, boom, boom, screech, screech, lord only knows what kind of crappy electronics provided the drive to these things. I won't even call them speakers and nobody seemed to mind the terrible sounds in this bar except me. I mean, this was so bad I wanted to leave immediatly but I did stay for a couple of beers and the wings. But, that got me to thinking, who put this crap together and why do all of these people sit in this place and either enjoy or put up with this sound? I will never go back to this bar just because the sound is the worst I've ever heard.