I’ve heard a lot of things in my years, but truly awful....
So, please keep in mind my experience with McIntosh is very limited, and they do like meters, but one of the worst high end systems I ever heard was in the late 90’s. A triangle speaker pair with a big McIntosh stack. My goodness, ear drills. OUCH!! Since then the only similar experience I’ve had was while trying to audition DAC’s. The dealer tried to demo the GE Triton One and I knew nothing about them, but I thought he was trying to hurt me. The treble was awful and screechy. He switched to some Paradigms which I had more experience with and all was well. To be fair the demo room was way too cramped with the sofa up against the wall, but there you have it, my absolute two worst experiences listening to gear. But wait, there’s more!
I did get to listen to the NAD Master's DAC. Maybe it was cold, but the Parasound ZDAC totally outclassed it. Could the main issue be very bright room, or bad/bright interconnects that made everything sound brigher and harder than it had to? OK, maybe. I don't know, but I went with an ARC DAC 8 which I was only a little happy with, before landing on a Mytek Brooklyn.
Over the last 2 years I stopped by to listen to McIntosh speakers, the dealer just thought I’d enjoy listening to them, as an experiment, and they had some weird plastic resonance they could not shake. For speakers aspiring to the high end, that was pretty bad. I was really disappointed since I thought the McIntosh line array methodology was onto something, but um, no, not these.
Again, I’ve heard McIntosh seriously twice, if you come at me wanting to debate the relative merits of Mc I am not your guy. I’ve never claimed to know them well at all.
I’ve heard some systems that I could not really get into. So, those of you who are my anti-fans, take careful note.
Goodwin’s High End in Waltham, MA? Heard a Spectral system with Avalon Acoustics. It was an all or mostly ceramic speaker. Whip sharp transients. I think the sound could have cut my belt in half if it was any louder, but was it fun? No. Really was not. Got introduced to Patricia Barber though, that was very much worthwhile. My fascination with ceramic drivers would be completely crushed much later, having heard a 2 way with Mundorf tweeters. Bleah. I liked the Tweets though. :) Composite textiles are the way to go for mid-woofers I think, based on what speakers I like tend to use. Focal’s W construction, multi layer paper and resin, fiberglass, love them all.
I got to hear the original B&W Nautilus concept speakers with a full multi-amp Krell stack and custom crossovers at the B&W/Rotel distributorship. Perhaps Burlington, MA? I think they had to wake me up. Had the Snell A/IIIs I heard in my youth spoiled me to so many modern high end speakers?
I’ve also had a few curios things. When I went to audition an integrated amp, the speaker cables were out of phase, and the Wilson Sashas (probably) sounded bright as could be. Perhaps the speaker crossover settings or something in the DAC set up but wow, the treble was so exaggerated I had to turn the treble on the integrated down by a lot to get it to neutral. Fortunately, thanks to @Musiclovers in SF I knew what those speakers sounded like. Thinking that I could tell what part of the problem was speaker, and what was amp I bought the amp and brought it home, and it was perfect. Paying half off for a new Luxman was also irresistible.
Another curious event was my time at a show near the San Francisco airport. It was sponsored by ASC whom I have a lot of respect for, but it seemed all they brought was the tube traps and honestly they sounded awful. Every room had one note bass. Like no matter what was playing it had exactly the same bass signature. The best rooms used generic and modest room treatment. I don’t think the issue is with ASC products, but the reliance on just this one type of product throughout the show.
As always, please, enjoy whatever brand you like. :-) But if you ask me sincerely what unpleasant experiences I've had listening, there you go.
