"Giant Killer" The things legends are made of.

Giant Killers IMHO must be reasonably affordable, have had an serious impact on the market and/or been outrageously good for the bux. So here are a few...

Speakers: Spendor BC1, Quad 57, Quad 63, LS3/5A, Vandersteen 2, Infinity IRS, Tannoy Concentrics, Wilson WATT

Turntables: Linn Sondek, Goldmund Studio, EMT, Garrard 301, Rega Planer

Phono Cart: Koetsu rosewood, Grado Sig, Grado FT+1, Shure V15, EMT, Decca

Tonearm: Goldmund T3, Morch DP/UP, Rega 300, SME 3/4/5, Sumiko "the arm"

Preamps: Audio Reserch SP6 series, Dyna PAS, Dennesen JC-80, Marantz 7, CAT, Hovland HP-100, Audible Illusions 3

Amps: Marantz 8/9, Mac tubes, Dyna ST-70, Audio Reserch D-79b, Adcom 555

Wires: Monster, Audioquest, Kimber (they made the market for better or worse...)

CD players: Errr...

Regards, Kevin

LFT-8's slain in midrange by 50 year old Quad 57's. Now where are we? (smile)

Kevin

Well, respect right back, but there is nothing nostalgic about my assesment of the Quads. They still make the majority of speakers today sound deficient in the midband. Not to say that it isn't possible to better them, just that so few do! Most of the technological improvements today seem to me to be applied to making speakers cheaper, more profitable, smaller or more visually appealing.

If you want a shock, compare the test results from Stereophile and from the Soundstage! site (NRC measurements) to the measurements of the best of the speakers available in the late '70's/early eighties (found in publications like HI-FI news from England and Audio magazine in the US). Especially in the area of Harmonic Distortion above 100 Hz, there has been only modest improvement in these measurements in the last 25 years.

The AVERAGE speaker is better today than the average speaker from the 80's due to the influence of available computer simulations etc., but the best of the stuff form those days holds up remarkably well. Frankly, I would think that with all the alleged advantages of technology even average moderately priced speakers today should just massacre even the best speakers from the 70's/80's. But using either "objective" measurements or just one's two ears, this does not seem to have happened in my view.

As to the LFT 8's, I had a pair and thought they were quite good. Certainly the bass extends deeper that the Quads and the treble is more extended (for better or worse sometimes). And the taller soundstage, while probably not correct technically, is very appealing. But, at least going by my memory, the very good mids of the LFT 8's are bested by the legendary Quads. Of course, the LFT's are currently available new and are quite reasonably priced in the world of what's available these days. I can certainly understand prefering the ET's overall for their balance of attributes. But for midband performance the Quads not only hold a candle, they light the way.