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Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?

Should say "hype vs. reality" in the headline. 

 

Coaxial speaker design has been around in one way or another for a long time. I often think I’ll be absolutely blown away by them, but in practice traditional vertical layout speakers often have sound as good, or have other features that make them sound better.

Thiel, KEF, Monitor Audio, Tekton, Seas are among the many players attempting such designs, but none has, by the coaxial drivers alone, dominated a segment of the market.

What are your listening experiences? Is it 1 coaxial speaker that won you over, or have you always preferred them?

erik_squires

Showing 1 response by mirolab

mirolab
208 posts
 

One sound quality I rarely see mentioned is how a speaker sounds all around the room. While the "listening" position is important, I also demand that speakers sound good as I walk around the room, and also around the house. I’ve had multi-way speakers whose sound falls apart as soon as you stand up.

My 15" Tannoy’s fill the room, and sound natural all around the room, and while I’m working in the kitchen. This is very important to me. I also use an 8" Tannoy driver as a center channel (in a DIY cab). It makes an ideal center, with no off-axis "phaseyness". No my Tannoys are not perfect, but this is a quality that they excel at, over non-concentric speakers.

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