Vote

Yet another subscription to a "niche" audio magazine.

A tuner, or radio as they would call it.

The Starland Vocal Band Complete in SACD and vinyl. But then I could use them as frisbees.

A CD called Mood Music that Dogs Love.

Anything Bose.

A Bose home theater in a box.

Blows (Bose) home theater in a box.

The last lousy gift I got was some flaky record sleeves.

Wal-Mart's "best quality" speaker wire.

A CD player.

Bose. Hey, I'm old school.

Getting a vinyl record would be just as useless to me as receiving an iTunes Store gift card last year. I listen to music on CDs and music server, but I don’t want low bit-rate digital music purchases with DRM.

Bad music.

An LP demagnetizer.

One of those crappy $200/$300 surround systems with the amp/so-called subwoofer and bunch of crappy little speakers that are sold at the big box stores. But it might be fun to sell it on eBay as soon as I could.

Bose Wave radio

One of those expensive iPod docking music players. Bleck.

A guided tour of "The Mountain" in Framingham, MA, with the honcho himself, and then free samples to be given out at the tour's end. After the things I've said...how awkward.

Anything spelled B-O-S-E.

An iTunes gift card. Last year I almost cried.

Any Bose product or an iPod.

A Michael Bolton CD

Music I can't stand, like klassik rawk.

A Dancette record player.

Any of those audiophile recordings done with close-up microphones and zero musical message.

I could find a use for almost any audio product, but a couple come to mind as having no value to me. The iPod would be the runner-up. It may not be the worst or least reliable MP3 player, but it's part of an unacceptable closed-loop system. I would have a hard time selling one in good conscience, but I probably could get close to retail value for one on eBay. That would make Bose speakers the champion of useless gifts. I've never heard any I could listen to for more than a minute.

There's no such thing as a bad gift—as long as it doesn't blow up or make a mess on the carpet.

Bose Wave radio. But I guess that I am not alone on that.

SACD player. Another piece of hypnotizing marketing of low (not high) resolution (but high copy protection) wrong format

The Chante CD or any commercialized, fragmentized form of liturgy and/or classical music. Fortunately my environment knows that I am extremely picky so they won't even consider giving me hardware of any kind.