Do your family and friends' audio setups drive you bonkers?

[KevinP]

Hope this comes out as good-natured as I intend it to.

I'm sure a lot of people here have been consulted by family and friends to help set up their audio systems, but the ones who didn't ask....

My folks. Rear speakers both mounted on the right wall, and the left (front) speaker is a foot away from the center speaker while the right is about seven. And no matter what's coming through the speakers, be it a CD or a newscast, they got it set to Pro Logic so they can hear it in surround sound. And because stereo sound does get dematrixed to come out the rears, I can't convince them that it's not actual surround.

Good people, but man I thought I brought them up better than that.

Anybody else have friends or family whose house you're tempted to sneak into so you can rewire their system?

[PsychFan]

Well, there's my father. He's been a musician for most of his life (he's a fantastic guitarist), and he's had his own home-studio setup for a few decades now and everything ... but he has no real interest in quality audio. And he has always taken a dim view of audiophiles.

He's been systematically downgrading all his equipment, in his home studio and in his home audio/video setup, for years. He has become virulently anti-analog. He has no concept of or interest in things like room setup and speaker placement (he built both his home studio and his A/V room to be L-shaped), and he's a classic "crank up the subwoofer so y'all know I have one" kind of guy. :)

He's had the left/right front speakers in his Bose A/V setup wired backwards for years now. I told him about it once, and he rolled his eyes and said, "Only you would notice that." He declined to fix it, and I have never mentioned it again.

Still, he's my Dad and I love 'im. I don't really give him any flak about it ...

[Russ]

I fixed my in-laws, reversed polarity, wrong speakers, 1 RCA jack....a friggin' mess.

[shokhead]

Yes but its there business.

[Vinophile]

My fathers setup- 200 wpc "mini system" with 5 disc changer and 2 hideous speakers with three woofers, two tweeters and no mid. This setup has one speaker about five feet higher than the other, both speakers are in the corner of the room with things directly in front of them, and the glorious graphic equaliser is set to a HUGE smiley face. The "groove" and "auto EQ" buttons are enabled as well.

[benintune]

I know several people who have those mini speakers hanging from the ceiling or sitting on bookshelves or something like that and a subwoofer and they think it sounds wonderful. I've even seen this set up spread out to reach other rooms.

[TONEPUB]

Its a 50/50 split for me. Half of my freinds and family have good systems and the other half don't care. For the ones that have decent stuff, they all have pretty good sound in all different shapes and sizes, so it's always fun to hear what they've cooked up!

[scotto]

My dad! Yes, he drive's me bonkers.
He went from serious audiophile (Mac, Klipsch, etc.) when I was a kid to a make-do music curmudgeon.
Maybe aging hearing loss has something to do with it (just turned 79), maybe it's just his generation's penchant for saving, maybe it's just that he prefers convenience at his age. Or maybe he's just plain contrary. But these days he'd rather listen to a crappy tape he made himself of crappy records on a crappy turntable, than to invest in any new equipment.
This drives me absolutely nuts: He burns CDs of his favorite records, but doesn't want to bother with getting up and changing the LPs. So he makes a CD-length cassette of all the sides he wants, then burns the cassette copy to the CD.
Yes, I know it makes absolutely no sense, but he's more proud of his "ingenuity" than he is concerned with sonic quality.
And this is the man who taught me the difference between lousy sound and high fidelity.

[WVK]

The aerobics room at the gym I attend had a cheap reciever with 2 speakers hanging in the corners. It sounded off, one of the speakers was blown out and made a flapping noise. Upon closer inspection I found that both speakers were connected to the right channel terminal. No one but me seemed to notice.

WVK

[fjhuerta]

My mother in law has a 5.1 setup.

Every speaker is on top of the TV.

[turniton1181]

My mother likes to boost low mids on speakers that already have an exaggerated range down there. Sounds wretched.

That said I also have friends who request that I come down and help setup their speakers and cables. :) So if I get annoyed at their setup it's because they changed it after I was there, lol.

[Vinophile]

My mother in law has a 5.1 setup.

Every speaker is on top of the TV.

:laugh:

[LesPaul666]

Yes. Once at a friends house, they had a mini system with the surround speakers hooked to the front outputs, and vice versa. Worse with some crappy surround preset going, and the speakers hooked out of phase. The worst thing I ever heard in my life.

[vinyl anachronist]

It drives me crazy to see someone with a turntable that clearly isn't being used, you know, because there's a bunch of crap sitting on top of the dust cover. One of my relatives actually has a doily on top of their 'table with a bunch of porcelain miniatures sitting on top. Every time I see that, I want to open up the dust cover and let them all fall behind the entertainment center!

Sell it on e-bay already! Let someone else get use out of it!

[Grant]

My sister. One speaker way up on a bookshelf, and the other one on the floor, somewhere in a far corner. The EQ has a frowning face (she's getting hard of hearing but won't admit to it), and the turntable is never used.

[BeatleJWOL]

The bigger question is how many of you actually take the time to FIX it (preferably right in front of them so you can chew them out while you do it) for people?

[DjBryan]

Yeah my Brother in Law, he is a "know it all" I recommended for his budget Athena AsF2, on sale real cheap and discounted for around 300.00 bucks out the door. He went bought Bose 301 speakers for more money, and had me come over listen to them and the are reversed so no "sweet" spot, and no wall behind the other. He told me I should sell mine and get these, because he was told, that a Dj wont know home audio so buy the best.

I try to never listen to other systems, and it get hard not to try to eq the mud I'm hearing.

[jkauff]

My wife. She hated my 70s era ADS speakers 'because they look so 70s", and banished them from the living room along with all my other audio equipment. She bought a $250 JVC mini-system and put the whole thing on a shelf in her home office in the dining room and pointed the speakers out toward the living room. She can't understand why I now always listen to music in my home office in the basement, or in the car. I bought a pair of Athena bookshelf speakers that sound nice enough, but she still complains that she can hear the bass coming up into the living room when she's watching TV (my home office has concrete walls and ceiling, and I play everything flat at low volumes). :realmad:

We're getting divorced in the near future, however, so then I'll only have neighbors bugging me.

[MBERGHAU]

Oh man I have a story. One of my best friends thinks his system is the cat's meow. I tried to talk him out of it but he just had bose speakers mounted in the ceiling facing straight down as part of a home remodeling project. He can crank up his system and you can hear music all through the house. Sounds like a friggin grocery store or shopping mall. Bad thing is, he got rid of his bookshelf Advents (mounted on stands) which were sonically superior. The wife wanted them out of there along with all his equipment which is now on a shelf in the front coat closet. His record/CD collection is also in boxes in the garage as most all his stuff is on IPOD. He used to have all his CD/LPs on a large shelf in the living room. It is such a sad fall from past glory when we would sit and have records spread all over the floor listening to music and drinking beers. When I go over there now he has some mix going on his IPOD and we go in the den and watch sports with the sound turned down. So sad.

[LesPaul666]

The bigger question is how many of you actually take the time to FIX it (preferably right in front of them so you can chew them out while you do it) for people?


I have, and some people get angry about this, even when you try to tell them them in the most non-offensive manner possible...:D

[Vinyl-Addict]

My mother in law has a 5.1 setup.

Every speaker is on top of the TV.

She either has a HUGE tv or TINY speakers. ;)

[Vinyl-Addict]

I have, and some people get angry about this, even when you try to tell them them in the most non-offensive manner possible...:D

Ditto, I just don't bother giving my 0.02c unless I'm asked, even then I'm hesitant to help.

[rene smalldridge]

No. Some of my friends and family don't even have audio systems of any kind. Music is not the only way I relate to other people. I share my love of it with several friends but even they(and myself) are not audiophiles to the degree many on this Forum are.

[leopoldstotch]

Oh man I have a story. One of my best friends thinks his system is the cat's meow. I tried to talk him out of it but he just had bose speakers mounted in the ceiling facing straight down as part of a home remodeling project. He can crank up his system and you can hear music all through the house. Sounds like a friggin grocery store or shopping mall. Bad thing is, he got rid of his bookshelf Advents (mounted on stands) which were sonically superior. The wife wanted them out of there along with all his equipment which is now on a shelf in the front coat closet. His record/CD collection is also in boxes in the garage as most all his stuff is on IPOD. He used to have all his CD/LPs on a large shelf in the living room. It is such a sad fall from past glory when we would sit and have records spread all over the floor listening to music and drinking beers. When I go over there now he has some mix going on his IPOD and we go in the den and watch sports with the sound turned down. So sad.

Sounds like you need a new best friend :D

[Dave G.]

Ha, ha...
My father's drives me nuts too!
He has a decent Denon A/V receiver, but major problems with the speakers.
He has ceiling speakers at the worst possible spots and then a giant subwoofer.
He got the subwoofer because it was the only one that fit in his furniture properly and it was really expensive. Because it was expensive, he thinks it is the best, but all I hear is THUD THUD THUD. It is really unpleasant.