Haha are you talking about my off topic Photographer album game!
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I believe so lol
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I guess that’s a HiFiMAN thng then, as the HE-560’s cable is not that great either. It kinks easily and is even a bit stiff. There are much better cables for $40, so I really don’t understand why they are insisting on these terrible cables.
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This kind of thread can be fun, though I’m sure it’ll ruffle some feathers.
The first thing I think of when somebody asks me “what is the worst headphone you’ve had” I very quickly gravitate towards the Stax SR-507. It’s not the worst headphone I’ve had strictly speaking but if we’re talking price to performance this thing is an absolute dumpster fire.
Non-existent soundstage, mediocre imaging and sounds so thin I seriously wonder if anybody at Stax listened to it before the release. In its defense it is pretty detailed though. The fact that it also cost substantially more than the previous Stax lambda flagship makes the whole thing even worse. The price jump from 404 to 507 was something like 50%.
I could have ENDLESS fun with this thread.
And no doubt garner a few more death-threats.
But let’s start with something that already went down that path … the “fortunately quickly discontinued” Audio-GD “Singularity” 19 DAC. Something that has been, sadly, a merciless harbinger of their discrete, R2R, DAC products to come (don’t need to take my subjective word for it, check out the measurement-centric reviews).
My original review is here (SBAF link).
(For those that want a shorter version/are allergic to reading, just go here).
I wish this was the last product I’d heard that sucked, but I’d be lying.
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stuff that i think sucks:
- cables by hifiman, focal, fostex TR-X00 series.
- cost of Woo Audio power cord
- The shozy V33 (@Fc-Construct , small poke at you) my review caused some in the HeadFi community to be angry that I didn’t shill it and instead gave it the worst rating possible.
- The Fiio FA7
- The PortaPro headband
- products in 2019-2020 that still don’t adopt USB-C (lookin’ at apple here…)
- my subaru’s CVT transmission
- beats by apple
- skullcandy
- keurigs
- non-mechanical keyboards
- campfire io. sorry, i just dont like it.
- RHA tuning unless you like 3-5KHz blasting into your neocortex.
- ATH-M50/M50X
- more to come.
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LOL! I remember the S19 drama. It’s a product described as being so truly horrible, I wanted to hear it exactly for that reason.
I never did get the chance, unfortunately / fortunately.
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Well, that’s surprising to me: the T20i are still among my favourite IEMs of all time. I just find them entertaining and fun while still being relatively accurate. The CL1 were horrible though and yes, they were piercing…
See what I mean about ruffling feathers? I really like your Subaru’s transmission and don’t think you should give it a bad name!!! 
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Haha I’ve had three recalls and one paid repair where they had to take apart the transmission on my impreza already. Not super thrilled.
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Here’s another one …
L.K.S. MH-DA004 DAC …
I think this was $1,500 or so at launch, though occasionally available from Massdrop/Drop for only a couple of multipliers of what I personally would be willing to pay and about half what it was originally going for.
The “usual suspects” promoted it as a giant killer.
Reality was a bit different … it’d literally crash if you fed it high-rate DSD (thermal issues apparently … later revisions fixed this), which was supposed to be one of its forte … and, as far as I could tell, didn’t sound any better/different to the $250 Topping D50 (which had no such issues, even if I am not its biggest fan).
Of course … many of its most vocal proponents immediately took to recommending various nonsensical mods for it to make it even better. Which is a clear sign that the stock unit is a giant killer.
Or not …
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I had a pair of M&J “electrostat” headphones, the build quality on them felt so cheap I was scared to use them much. I decided to donate them to the Goodwill and the volunteer saw them in the box and was like “oh, these look like some good headphones” the picked them up and was like “oh…”. I couldn’t stop laughing. Fortunately they weren’t very expensive.
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I bought a Maverick Audio D1 Plus 7 years ago when I didn’t know any better. Specs and components seemed decent, and I liked the idea of an all-in-one unit (and still do), but even with the op-amps replaced it’s noisy AF.
Do not buy.
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oh, wow… I used to have that on my “wish list” years ago but felt like I didn’t know enough about it to buy and then got distracted with other gear. Sounds like I may have dodged a bullet on that one.
Since someone already brought this thread back from the dead, I will add my two cents. The cables from my Elex are an example of a product that is just all bad. When I first saw them I thought thick, stiff, hella unwieldy, but they look pretty good, and given how stiff and stout they are, at least they should be pretty bulletproof right? Nope, thanks for playing. Both were dead within 6 months. And I am very easy on gear; they never left the house, were never folded or rolled up once they came out of the box, and the SE one was barely used. And in maybe the ultimate indictment, my stock Sundara cable (a flimsy rubber tube kinda thing which i assumed would be dead shortly) is now being used as the SE cable for the Elex. 2 years later. From Focal there is just no excuse for that. Rant over.
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Alas, you’re not alone:
I don’t understand Drop replacing the headphones because of the poor cables. They did the same thing for my Massdrop Plus IEMs a while back. Seems daft to me.
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Some of the worst thing I’ve ever heard, can’t agree more. Not an example of “design follows function”.
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- IMR Acoustics. The owner previously held a company that was involved in scamming people. I have the IMR R2 Aten, and for the price I really questioned what in the world were they thinking. First of all, there is a horrible smell coming from the case, clearly cheap Chinese cables were used, low-quality stuff. I’d still call it a scam, some people never change…
- Strauss & Wagner. Also seems like a scam and that the parts are sourced from China, but it is low-quality Chinese parts - that’s the problem. Not only did I receive a scuffed up (as though it was used) headphone, but have also seen how unprofessional people from the company are.
Either way, I don’t see these two companies ever getting mentioned, so that’s a good thing. They don’t deserve any attention (good or bad), that’s why I haven’t decided to waste my time writing a review for neither of these products.
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Not exactly an uncommon opinion, but the IE300’s cable.
It was built for durability, which it probably achieved handily, but as an IEM cable it just sucks.
Comfort: The memory-wire ear loops are too stiff and uncooperative to ever really sit right for long. I had issues with the seal breaking when I moved certain ways that ended up being almost entirely because the ear loop just wouldn’t let the IEMs seat themselves well, and if I managed to bend them in such a way that it felt secure my ears got sore from the stiff wire very quickly. Even soreness that I thought was inherent to the IEM bodies themselves was actually from the cable weirdly pushing the IEMs against parts of my ear.
Microphonics: The material they used to sheath it, while durable, transmits sound from every little brush and tap far too well.
Versatility: It has no controls. I realize most people here don’t really care about a microphone or controls, but I do, and whether you care or not, the stock IE300 cable does not have anything.
Honestly, the IE300 cable is not a poorly engineered solution, it’s just that the problem they chose to solve had nothing to do with the problem they should have solved. Looks like they’re using the same cable on the IE900, so I hope that we see Fidelity+ MMCX compatible cables popping up soon.
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