The best speaker you ever heard?

I am intimately familiar with the Wisdom 75's, both in their original and second generation. They are not an easy speaker to find an amp for. The woofers are very current hungry and the planars are quite revealing of amp character. Well set up and properly driven, they can create a huge layered stage and be quite dynamic with thunderous lows, at least above 30 hz. Having said this, I have yet to hear a pair that has the delicacy, immediacy and transparency of a well set up pair of Quads being driven by a good tube amp. This does not mean that the Quads are better or worse, only that they have very different strengths and weaknesses and that neither is perfect.

With the disclaimer that I have not heard all the candidates in listening situations where I am familiar with the entire system and room, I continue to like the Crosby modified Quad 63's paired with Entec LF-40's crossed at 50 hz driven by tubes; however, I did hear a speaker at CES that I thought, while different from the Quads, was doing some nice things, the Acapella Campaniles driven by tubed electronics from Audio Aero. I was intriqued enough to order a pair of the Campanile "Highs" which have more internal bracing, better crossover parts and silver internal wiring. The speakers have been shipped but have not as yet arrived in North America. Would be curious with respect to comments from others that have heard not only the Campaniles but also the larger speakers from Acapella. I will not be selling the Quads until after I determine that the Campaniles suit my tastes better.

You inadvertently raise an interesting point. The original Wisdoms had a much simplier crossover ("brain") which did significantly less processing of the signal than the current unit. The reason for the change was to allow the speaker to sound good in almost any room. In gaining flexibility, it no longer ever sounds great in any room; too many IC's, too much processing.

I owned a pair of the original (read extremely large and heavy) Apogee speakers and still feel that in a number of areas (detail, transparency, speed, low level rtesolution) they are the best speaker that I have ever heard; however, I did not find them them to be conducive to long term listening enjoyment using either matcjed ML3's, 2 pairs of ML2's or the largest of the then current Krells. Perhaps, I just never found the right amps.

At this point, clearly the Acapella Triolons driven with Audio Note electronics, Jorma cabling and EMM Labs digital. The Triolons significantly extend the dynamic envelope with excellent microdynamics and crescendo's capable of rattling walls, all with a vanishingly low level of distortion. Detail retrieval, particularly low level ambient detail is phenomenal. Even though the speakers utilize three very dissimilar types of drivers (ion tweeters, horns and dynamic woofers), they are very coherent and seamless, with an effortlessness reminiscent of the Goldmund Reference TT. Images have a solidity and three dimensionality. The bass is tight, well controlled, goes low with great authority and speed. More importantly, by pushing the horn technology down to 200 hz and dividing the range between 200 hz and 5000 hz so that it is handled by two horns, there is a significant lowering of intermodulation distortion that effects the entire range. Acapella has been able to do this in such a manner that the two horns act almost as a single unit. You cannot pick out the crossover point and there are no discontiuities as the sound moves between the horns. Bells and other percussive instruments have a steep leading edge with a with a natural reverberrant tail. Voices are a joy on this speaker, both male and female. The plasma tweeter remains the best high frequency driver that I have heard and that includes the superb diamond tweeters used in the Martens and Kharma's

Detlof, I am assuming that your friends have the Excaliburs with the 15" woofers. Listening to my Triolon Excaliburs and comparing them against the Campaniles that I previously owned, I assume that a horn loaded bass would be the ideal way to go with these speakers (Spharons?). Do your friens biamp their Excaliburs? If so, what amps do they use?

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

Sir Speedy,

Would you say that Sid's system is "tuned" or "tweaked" for particular types of vinyl? I only ask because I have found that I have inadvertently tuned my system for older RCA Shady Dogs and English Decca's. Other formats sound good but the system especially shines on the older classical records.

Also, would you discuss the significant changes that have elevated Sid's system lately?

Thanks

The more world class speakers to which I am exposed, the more certain I become that there is no one best speaker or for that matter even a best that I have heard. Let me explain, there are certainly speakers that represent the best in a particular frequency range or with respect to a particular attribute. For instance, from 5000 hz to the limits of hearing, nothing for me approaches the Acapella ion tweeter; for the dead midrange, the original Quads float my particular boat; for bass below 100 hz, the 21" Cabasse Saturns are phenomenal; for dynamics, some of the better horns are unbeatable. Although I could go on, I think that you see the picture. The problem is that no commercial speaker that I have heard does it all. That means that what you perceive as best will ultimately be determined by your priorities and the tradeoffs that you are willing to accept. I think that Detlof has already said all this, probably with more eloquence, but it bears saying again.

Past experience leads me to question whether you can separate the performance of the amplifier driving the speaker from the speaker. Case in point, the substitution of the balanced Audio Note Kegons for a pair of Parasound JC-1's has led me to re-evaluate how good the speakers are.

I will only comment that the reason that some names do not appear frequently is not that they lack in quality but that no one ever gets to hear them. This would be the case for the top of the line speakers of any company who primarily operates outside the US.

For many years I owned Crosby modified 63's with two pairs of Entec LF 40 subs. The sound was in many ways as good as it gets, particularly with respect to low level detail and dynamics at the soft end of the scale. Sadly, the speakers did have some limitations, dynamuc range at the loud end of the spectrum, bass extension without a sub, top end extension and most importantly reliability. Still one of my favorites. Note that Richard Lees is currently modifying the newer Quads and says that they surpass the 63's.