Have you ever noticed the same brands of equipment and speaker manufacturers being debated over and over again in most threads ? I am curious what are some of the most little know speakers deserving mention you have heard ? With the lone caveat that they must still be currently in production.
I am curious to hear from some of the more research oriented audiophiles like myself. Those who don't just buy it because someone else liked it but listen for them selves.
Remember this hobbie is allot like choosing a mate there are no wrong choices as long as it works for you and suits your personal taste !
I recently became a dealer for Vmps so I could get myself a pair of RM 40's. This is actually my third pair of their speakers in the last decade. Little known but great sound per dollar. Vmps has a forum at audiocircle.I've not heard Rick's speakers of Selah Audio, also a forum at audiocircle, but when you hear people describe how they sound it's typically on the order of incredible. In both cases these brands I feel will offer more performance by a significant margin than the latest and greatest of the audio magazines or the big advertisers.
Don't get me wrong. Priced right I like the B&W's and Thiel's. There are others that also sound very good and like you said there's no right or wrong. Also it's smart at you to look at some of the smaller companies as many small companies have been in business a long time and have made it because they offer so much value. Vmps has been in business for 28 years. Frank Van Alstine has also been around since the 70's and offers a high quality line of electronics and I think he also sells a speaker he designed. Very smart engineers that aren't trying to get rich, just make a living doing something they love. I've no doubt there's lots of them I've never heard of. Best of luck in your research!
Intuitive Design Summit speakers. Almost every speaker the designer has produced, (Dale Pitcher of Essence fame) has become a legend and has been so far advanced in performance that it is common for his designs to stay current for 10 to 20 years. (not an exaggeration)
His speakers are so good that Stereophile won't review them. (politics) I can speak from a lot of experience since I have been a high end dealer for 25 years and a lot of what I carried over the years became legends.
Examples for knowledgeable audiophiles:
Acoustats with direct drive tubes Futterman Townsand David Berning Goetz Rapparort Black Widow Zeta Grahem Marantz tubes Dynaco Hafler VSP Labs Convergence Audio (CAT) Thore Essence Wadia DCS Celestion Mordaunt-Short Snell (when Peter was alive) Electro Compienet Hill Plasma Dayton-Wright Michalson & Auston AR table Thorens Sound Labs Kinergetics Entec New York Audio Labs Quick Silver Sequerra Studer Quad Vanderstien Unity Audio NRG Bedini and so on ........
I second Green Mountain. Their designer, Roy Johnson is truly one of the great guys in Audio. They just sound right, I've owned many other "famous" brands of speakers and I still can't believe what my Callisto monitors can do.
I like what I've read about the Zu line of speakers - especially the Definitions but with 4 10" drivers handling the bottom end, I'd imagine that they would only thrive in a large room. The smaller Druids seem too compromised in the bass to do the trick but the fellas at Zu offer a matching sub (2- 12" drivers) and are working on a smaller version (2-10" drivers) that would better serve smaller rooms. As with all systems with powered subs, integration is key and typically quite difficult to achieve.
Marten Design I traded in my Kharmas for a pair of Coltranes. These speakers have the beautiful transparent mid-range of the Kharmas, with the tight defined bass of the Wilsons. Their entire line of speakers is really exceptional.
I don't know if these are the best..don't think that speaker exist. I also don't own them but the Veracity HT3a active speaker looks like a work of art with a smart crossover design. The regular HT3 is also nice eye candy.
KCS AL2 http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/realitycheck2/kalinoksi.html if you want alot of performance and the best in parts for your hard earned cash.
Thank you for FINALLY asking!!! I am NOT an easy to satisfy customer when it comes to loudspeakers!! You can ask Duane, who posted above. I never pulled the trigger with him for YEARS (except for a 4K car audio system with ADS two ways in the front). He has had Hales, Dunlavy's (SC IV), Totem Tabu, etc. He finally sold to me a loudspeaker (after I had just a few months earlier bought Paradigm Studio 100 V 3's, which are a pretty darn good speaker) the Intuitive Design Summits: After hearing them I became upset, and finally had to have the Summits. My wife was appalled.
They are SO good, that I felt OBLIGATED to write a review, and was NOT asked to do so, either by him or by Dale Pitcher. The review sounds waaayyy over the top, as if it were written by some high school kid who'd never heard good speakers before, and if I were reading it I'd probably be rolling my eyes, but I swear to you, every last word--every last stinking word!!!--is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I actually called Dale Pitcher and ASKED HIM WHY HE HAD PRICED THESE SO LOW, RELATIVE TO THEIR PHENOMENAL PERFORMANCE. He stated that his company had decided to price them based on production costs rather than what the market will bear. That is true integrity.
I've been posting like a madman at every opportunity on this site to maybe prompt even ONE PERSON--somewhere in the United States--to at least give these things a LISTEN.
If anybody thinks I'm shilling, send me an affadavit. I'll sign it. Duane is right about the Summits. I tend to shy away from generalized superlatives in high end audio parlance, simply because I have not personally listened to everything. Duane, on the other hand, is much, much closer to that status.
My only complaint about the sales experience I had with Duane is that he undersold them to me. I already told him that, and he just gave me his famous smile.
The Usher RW-729. I have been using for about six months and love everything they do. My MG1.6QR are now collecting dust. Very smooth with great imaging and soundstaging. They also have a fair amount of bass for monitors. I thought that my opinion was biased until several other audio lovers with more expensive systems came over to listen and they were really impressed.
The best strategy is to contact Intuitive Design, either by phone or via email. If you email, put something about wanting to audition the Summits in the subject line, so that they don't think it's spam.
============================================================ Personal anecdote, optional reading--->{{{{{I firmly believe that a person should listen to speakers, if at all possible, before purchase. For all you know, I'm an idiot with a tin ear. I remember a certain speaker that looked great on paper and which has garnered lots of positive reviews, even here on Audiogon, where you'd think people would know better. I went to listen to these "flagship" speakers and really thought they stunk, plus they were expensive. Perhaps not good ones to listen to after auditioning the Audio Physic Calderas (the OLD ones, NOT the new ones), but I thought they were horrible, not even close to the Paradigm 9 SE's that I owned at the time. So, the point is to listen first, at least for stuff that's expensive, although sometimes it's possible to get lucky, like I did with the Dodson 217 Mark 2 D DAC, which I didn't audition first.}}}}
Most any kit based speaker from any of the reputable small, single owner companies out there who work out of their garage or small work/store space. Best bang for the buck for sure. Some are truely giant killers.
I haven't actually heard them, perhaps that's a demonstration of how "undiscovered" they are, but, I suspect the "Huff" loudspeakers with their German Physiks sourced DDD drivers and their dual cone sealed cylinder boxed sub-woofers might be something special.
Dale's giving a seminar in Connecticut over the next few days (he left today, 12/15), and I don't know what their phone and/or email contact arrangements are while he's out of town (his company is based in Wyoming). If you send an email, it's important to put something in the subject line that identifies your query as non-spam, i.e. "Question about the Summits: Where can they be heard?" or something to that effect. He seems to travel a lot, so the response time (at least for my emails) has been variable. He's extremely helpful over the phone when you do get a hold of him, however. I personally think he's a genius. (Ralph Dodson, too)
I don't know if they qualify for undiscovered, but the Energy Veritas' are so good it's almost unbelievable you don't hear them mentioned all the time, but you rarely do.
I have used speakers by this small Canadian company for the last 25 years or so.They have a line called the Reference Series in which they offer three models.I own the Reference TWO.Their website is WWW.SPEAKERDIRECT.COM. Pricing ranges from $1400 to 4000 Canadian.Quality of build and sound rivals speakers costing much more.They used to sell factory direct,but are now establishing a network of dealers in Canada and the USA.
Selah user reviews are extremely positive. Do a google. Also Selah has a forum at audiocircle.com. I've not heard them but after reading so many super rave reviews of Rick's speakers I'd suspect they do well especially for the money.
You should add SALK Veracity 3's to the list also. I do not own them, but i had the pleasure of hearing them at the designer/builder's home and they are quite impressive -- especially for under $5k.
Incredible cabinetry, ribbon tweet, magnesium mid, & perhaps the best non-powered bass I have ever heard from the non assuming-looking 10" aluminum woofers.
I believe they were voted "best of show" at one of the Rocky Mountain Audio shows also.
Definitely worth looking into and auditioning if possible. Also see the excellent review here @ the 'Gon.
I do love my Thor's, a kit i bought from madisound last spring, $2K/which included shipping. Had a friend solder the points to the xovers, not too difficult, but need a good/very powerful soldering gun + a little patience. definetly undiscovered jewel.
Daedalus Audio DA-1 in my books are one of the top performing speakers I have heard after auditioning many speakers. I own them and after braking in they are musical spks very dynamic, detail and warm sounding.
Decware Radial 1.5. There is so much this speaker does right. For the first month or so I thought I had made a mistake in gettting these. They take awhile to loosen up and break in. After going to the VTV show in Arcadia, I was surprised at how all the speakers I listened to sounded like nothing more than sophisticated, elaborate and refined PA systems. They were all simply too 'in your face' in their approach and had small sweet spots and it wasn't a result of the small rooms: I listen in the 'nearfield' in a room not much bigger than what they had and couldn't take it for the long term. I guess I'm spoiled by these Decwares.
I have the 1.5 WC and they are great. They are really under priced for their build quality and parts. The sound is fantastic with a smooth, laid back charater. The tweeter L-pad on the back should be standard equipment for all speakers.
Zu Definitions, but mainly they are just too new I think, forget it nothing close in the price range, Dual full range, no crossovers, powered array of 4 more 10's down to 16 hz... the Reimers as suggested above are somewhat close, so are VMPS... but then you gotta go to far more money Avantgarde Duo type money and those are killer un-known as well
They are in fact the show speakers that won Best of Show at the New York Audio show.About 4 years ago I sent them Back for new cabinet Rosewood Rather the the original ugly black.I have heard no speakers at any price I wold replace them with and I, heard speakers up to half a mil per pair. I;ve never heard the mythical RMX speakers, I,ve never seen them. They were perported nearly impossible to produce.I'd really like to hear RM 50s at this years Rockey Mountain audio fest.
>They are in fact the show speakers that won Best of Show at the New York Audio show.About 4 years ago I sent them Back for new cabinet Rosewood Rather the the original ugly black.I have heard no speakers at any price I wold replace them with and I, heard speakers up to half a mil per pair<
So is this some kind of riddle? Would you like us to *guess* what speakers you are talking about?
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