Whose gear do you AVOID like the plauge?

[jonnyc]

There is a lot of manufacturers that aren't great but it's almost a given that all of them have at least something that doesn't suck. I actually really enjoyed the tone of a kids Crate Blue VooDoo that was in recently. Behri's ada8000 is also fairly usable and the headphone amps are a decent bang for the buck. Nady has some decent cheap ribbons but their cheap sdc's are complete shit.

 

[MCI2424]

Any vintage stuff. Too much money, most of it shot, mainly sucked when it was new. Never could understand the collector mentality.

 

[warble2]

Based on my experience, I don't think Peavey is bad at all. I'm using an almost 20 year old KB100 keyboard amp that's still kickin' and has been used live - I don't even remember how many times. Also am using a old CS800 amp that has been used and abused - still fires up and still sounds great. We're also using a collection of stage speakers all with Black Widows, and Peavey subs and they work flawlessly at every gig and have for the past 8+ years.

Gear I wouldn't invest in would be any mixers made by Behringer. Already had bad experiences using them live. If they sat on a desk and were using in a budget home studio, maybe (but even you would do much better with a Yamaha budget mixer). We do use three of their Feedback Destroyers in our live rig (for the stage monitor system), and they have always worked great since purchase.

I wouldn't invest in Nady monitors and amps either. Their monitors are nice and light, but they sound like crap and I imagine if they were dropped would be done for.

 

[Ford Van]

I will effectively use whatever is there to record/mix with!

Brands I am very weary of:

Peavey!
Nady
Sampson
Mackie (every Mackie piece I have used had at least ONE problem with it. )

 

[treymonfauntre]

phonic
horizon
philips

i like peavey. everything peavey i own works fine. hell, i was actually blown away by how nice a peavey amp sounded once, and started hunting one down for myself..

 

[amra]

I had typed up a nice little list of brands I have never really liked...

Then I thought better of it and decided not to hate. Almost all the brands I had listed have at least one or two products that I have at least considered trying. The bottom line for me is, if it sounds good and is reliable I will use it.

One thing I have learned in life, is that if you close your mind to things based on one experience or just irrational dislike, then you are the only one who loses out...

 

[Ford Van]

i like peavey. everything peavey i own works fine. hell, i was actually blown away by how nice a peavey amp sounded once, and started hunting one down for myself..

Make sure you keep your Peavey power amps VERY clean. They are the most susceptible amps I have every used to overheating problems which come from filters not being cleaned regularly. While they provide okay power vs bucks spent, they do indeed sound pretty clean.

 

[scrubs]

Nady - I have some headphones. They're crap sounding. I use them to check the "harshness" of my mixes, though, since they seem to emphasize that special "suck" range of frequencies. They are pretty comfy, though. The RSM-2 Ribbon mic is pretty good.

Alto - I have their 2-channel toob pre. Noisy little fucker. Right now I'm using it for rack tom mics, since I gate out the noise anyway.

Samson - Don't own any of it, and don't really care to.

 

[kid klash]

Crate and Nady.

I'd like to add Samson and Phonic to my "I will AVOID" list too.

As someone else mentioned, Nady's re-branded ribbon mics are decent (same as everyone else's Chinese ribbons), if you can find a decent price, so this might be my only exception, although Shinybox's proice is comparable and their support is excellent (and they pre-inspect all of their mics before shipping), and the Cascade Fathead is about half the price as the Nady-branded equivalent for the same mic.

Sorry for the rambling...

 

[djc]

Crate amps, though the one preamp (yes, a Crate mic pre) that I have doesn't absolutely suck.
Anything made by a certain B-word company.
Line 6. Any.

Same here with the 'B' word.

 

[brodgind]

Berry, anything non-amr peavey (I have the vc/l2 and vmp/2 and the vmp1 and use them daily), over priced avalon crap, noisy vintage gear, mackie( all sound the same) samson, nady, drum mic pack's, marshall mic's... I could go on but.....

 

[Supercreep]

Behringer
Randall
Crate
Roland (customer service issues)

 

[Double]

Behringer - everthing they make seems to be crap

Peavey - almost everthing they make, there a few not bad items but their guitars and amps blow wads.

Crate - junk

Samson - crap

Phonic - cheap and nasty

Fender - all their newer amps including the solid state and hot rod amps.
- the newer American series guitars with those 2 post bridges and that crap that comes out mexico and the far east.

Marshall - all solid state and channel switching amps.

Epiphone - What a laugh, cheap guitar for cheap players.

PODS and every Modeling divice out there - Nice try but not even close.

Gibson - Nice looking expensive guitars that are not that great.

 

[cusebassman]

Behringer, although I have a Virtualizer Pro (haha) that I bought used a while back, has decent reverb for veeeery light vocal stuff.

Also have a Behringer T1952 Ultragain from about 7 years ago that sounds decent with some mics, and shit with others.

I also wouldn't buy from Nady again (maybe aside from their ribbons *ooh*), but the parametric EQ I have of their's isn't AWFUL... and since I can't afford better at the moment, if a track absolutely must have more than what my onboard can provide, it hits the chain (which isn't that often). More often it will be used for sidechaining from a compressor.

Other companies? Hmm...

Can't think of any at the moment. Usually even if I have some sort of aversion to a particular brand, if enough people here and on other sites offer a good review for a product, I could be talked into buying it (Like the MXL V69 that I am currently thinking about - I am looking for a darker mic for vocals since my voice is deep but has a high presence as well, and many have suggested that mic)