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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 musicaddict

musicaddict
370 posts
 

Pluses and minuses in all designs; pick the flavor that suits.

I was lucky to meet and spend an evening with John Dunlavy in the mid 90s when he was in Colorado Springs (thanks to a local dealer) and have heard all models from small to huge. They could be magic, but only ever for one listener at a time.

For good or bad, those configurations were the largest one-person speakers I ever heard. They were off-the-charts fabulous sounding when you were exactly in the sweet spot. Move an inch right or left and it was gone. Not kidding, gone.

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