Maybe it's always been this way and I just never noticed but at some point in the last ten years or so Samsung became synonymous with bottom of the barrel quality, while still charging premium prices. I won't buy anything with a samsung sticker on it, even used, because it's inevitably going to have failing electronics, stupid design decisions, too many half-baked features, and horrible buggy software/firmware. Your typical no-name alibaba whatever is likely to be at least on-par with anything Samsung puts out while costing less.
Even ignoring price, I can't think of a mainstream brand I consider worse from a quality perspective than Samsung. The only other brand I consider as bad is Sony, and that's more ideological than quality because of their shenanigans and contempt for their customers -- at least their hardware isn't almost across the board destined for the scrap heap. I've seen too many nearly new samsung appliances just die due to bad electronics and they want to charge nearly the cost of the appliance for a replacement circuit board.
On topic for audio -- I got a samsung receiver for $20 from the thrift store and while it sort of does the job of being an amplifier, everything else about it is horrible. Worst interface of any receiver I've used since the 80s, its easy to change a setting accidentally while being difficult to change it back, and it doesn't power back on after a power outage requiring me to manually press the (capacitive/touch) power button on it. Also that (TOUCH!) Power 'button' is right next to the volume knob so you accidentally touch it while changing the volume, shutting the receiver off. But booting it back up requires holding the (capacitive) button. A quick press makes it flash so you think it is booting but the joke is on you, you need to hold it. Also you have to hold it properly, because sometimes it simply fails to register so after holding it for a few seconds and it doesn't boot, you have to take your finger off and try again.
It's a receiver and you can't even select an input -- you need to cycle through all of them one at a time. So the one connected to your TV starts blasting erectile dysfunction audio at boosted commercial volume through your speakers when you're just trying to switch to bluetooth so you can listen to some lo-fi. You can't even make this stuff up. It's a joke and I don't believe anyone involved cared one bit about making a decent product.
Same boat. I made the unfortunate mistake of buying Samsung kitchen stuff.
The fridge ice maker had to have been designed by a troll. One piece of ice every 10 seconds or so. It took a minute to fill a simple dinner glass!
Then the microwave handle just...fell off the door. In all my years of owning bottom of the barrel to top end brands, I didn't even realize it was possible. The repairman said it was common, but because of all the plastic, they had to replace the entire door as the handle wasn't serviceable.
My current phone is a cheap Samsung. It's awful. The usb-C connector has never worked for data and only barely works for power (the plug sits at a funny angle and doesn't charge unless it's "just right"). There doesn't seem to be any debris in the connector and I've tried a couple different cables, so my best guess is just the connector came from the factory misshapen.
Phone reception is terrible where I live, but I'm not sure if that's the fault of my phone or the carrier.
Over time lint and dirt builds up at the end of the USB-C port. It gets compressed there so you won't immediately notice it. Try to find something small enough to put in there and carefully scrape over the backside.
That reminds me of the WinPhone days. The Moto Q was an awesome device built like a brick.
Samsung knocked it off with the BlackJack, which itself was an obvious copy/knock on Blackberry. It felt like such a downgrade - cheap plastic, hollow, and really buggy. Sounds like not much has changed since those days...
I have a Samsung plasma TV from 10~15 years ago. The picture quality is and always was beautiful, I had to have the power supply replaced once, and the software experience is and always was terrible.
I eventually factory-reset the TV to make it forget my wifi credentials so it would stop interrupting me to claim my internet connection was down, when actually their update server was down. (I was trying to watch a DVD, so it would have been fine even if my internet was down!) Now it's just connected to a PC and I completely avoid the samsung software.
Also agree with you about Sony and their contempt for their customers. I went through 3-4 pairs of linkbuds because they kept failing in ~6 months. I loved the idea of the design ("open back" earbuds with a hole in them to allow in outside sound, instead of using microphones), but the build quality just wasn't there.
B&W is first and foremost a speaker brand, as used for mastering at Abbey Road Studios and a huge number of top recording venues. Their headphones are midrange at best.
