What's the worst speaker or stereo set-up you've ever seen?

Maybe 25 yrs ago.  A good friend of mine at the time had me over to listen to his brand new Legacy Focus.  The speakers were visually stunning.  But he had them running with a pair of HK 100 wpc monoblocks that made them sound like there was a mattress between the speakers and me.  All I heard was a giant midrange.  No highs, no lows.  Totally sucked, which was a shame because he had the right room size for those speakers.  Needless to say, he got some real amps for those speakers after that, but he moved to another state.  So I never got to hear them again. 

At another and more recent gathering,  the wife and I went to her friend's house with whom she had recently reconnected.  The friend and her husband hosted a pretty nice party in the back yard.  Pool, outdoor kitchen, covered patio, the whole sha-bang.  They had music playing that was so loud and distorted that i had to see what equipment was hiding in the racks and what speakers were hanging from under the patio eaves.  They were Bose outdoor somethings being pushed by a decent Yamaha receiver.  The funniest of all this was that the guy who designed the patio and chose and installed the audio gear was there and was bragging about how long it took him to get the sound just right and couldn't believe how good "it still sounds".  Wake up doooood.  Complete garbage sounding. 

I read about Fabio’s system being that, almost 20 years ago. All of the components are at least that old, some older. If he was that much of an audiophile to own all that top-line gear back then, he’s absolutely certain to have upgraded (or at least significantly swapped out components) by now. And how did Fabio's system end up in a thread of "worst system you've ever seen", anyway. His system, quite frankly, seems "Fabulous"

My brothers system is pretty bad.  He’s got some nice stuff with horrible set-up.  Kef LS50w’s with a pair of sumiko subs.  On speaker is smashed right into a corner of the room, both are 2 inches from the wall behind them and his entire living room, kitchen and dining area are hardwood.  Huge leather couch.  Nothing to absorb sound and the entire area is incredibly reflective.  He has a water feature that is usually on so the ambient noise is around 30-40 db’s. $7000 couch,  $4000 in audio equipment and too cheap to pay for tidal vs spotify.

Then we go over to our buddies house who has the same speakers, 1 rel t9i and he can’t believe how good “his stereo” sounds in comparison 🤦🏻‍♂️

I've heard the same pair of speakers in the same room with the same gear go from embarrassing to addicting just by getting the placement right. That said remember the first bose 5 channel satellite systems? My tone def buddy must have reversed polarity and forgot to connect the subs, or somehow sourced the highs to the cubes and lows to the satellites because. woof. the sad part was he and his wife were so excited about how great their new system sounded I thought it rude to offer to fix it.