The best speaker you ever heard?

I think the Ohm Walsh line is still the best.

Ultramanhero,

You were my favorite super hero as a kid!

The electronics do matter a lot in the equation but the cost of individual components is not always a reliable indicator of resulting performance.

The best sounds I've heard recently have come from Magico Minis, the latest and greatest large Maggies (20.?), PSB Synchrony, MBL 111s and my own OHM Walshes.

Not to say these are categorically the "best", only the best sounding I have heard recently. Much of that is likely due to proper setup and matching to room and other components.

The best should excel at all kinds of sound and music. No exceptions.

Given the cost is no object approach, I'd expect these to be the best:

Exotic Speakers

Start saving your pennies people!

Or do a Goodle search on worlds best speakers and find these:

Worlds Best Speakers

The room heard in has to play a big part in allowing the best speakers heard to reach their potential.

How many of us have rooms like the ones that these larger best speakers in particular were heard in?

So just a word of advice to focus on getting the speakers matched to your room and system rather than on what you hear in somebody else's room. You can reach you own optimal sound a lot faster and likely for less as well that way.

I would expect any speaker worth considering as the best to be able to do all types of music pretty darn well otherwise I would question how it can be called "the best".

Regarding expectations, the trap to avoid is expecting a system to make recordings sound better than they are. If you look for a system that makes everything sound perfect, you will find yourself on a never ending and costly quest to achieve the impossible and never weaning the satisfaction that most recordings in fact have to offer.

Yes, ability to pass a square wave is also a claim to fame for full range walsh drivers like those found in original OHM Fs and As.

That was their strong point. They had other weaknesses, mainly reliability and ability to go loud.

Newer OHm Walsh line speakers address those weaknesses however their 2 way design using the wide and not full range Walsh driver also now compromises ability to pass a square wave to some extent as a tradeoff from what I have read.

Is there a full range speaker that can pass a square wave without other significant compromises available today?

mbls have to be set up right in the right sized room and with the right amp and electronics running them to demonstrate their distinctive charms appropriately.

I've heard the exact same system set up this way at the dealers and not as well at a show. You would not have known the performance at the show was lacking unless you heard them set up just right. They can do a wide and deep holographic soundstage with very accurate placement of individual instruments within it like no other I have heard when done right. And all other aspects of the sound were spot on as well.

I consider the Dynaudio line in general to be a gold standard in speaker design and sound, even if not necessarily the most unique or distinctive sound out there.

I think personal taste would be a big factor as always, but it would be interesting to hear the latest 901's in comparison to others at their price point. I have no doubt they will sound different, and perhaps even distinctive.

How good? I think technically, there is only so much the design can do but that is true of most speakers at that price point, so you never know just who might prefer what and why.

OVer many years, I've never heard a home audio Bose setup that sounded even marginally good to me.

Maybe some tube or very good other modern amplification would help? Possible.

One thing I'll say about the 901s, having not heard a pair outside of commercial setups in quite a while, is that their price point relative to the high end is probably more attractive than ever. They used to be one of the more expensive speakers out there for enthusiasts to covet. Now they pale in comparison probably in most ways to the current "high end".

They seem to garner a lot of positive ratings on various sites that measure these things though, no denying that. So someone out there is dropping decent money on them and liking it.

Jack,

If you can tout horns and I can tout OHMs, and others tout their favorite expensive toys, then nothing wrong with someone taking up the Bose cause I suppose. Bose is the underdog in this venue, right? Ha!

Maybe Bose should horn load those suckers in their next version? That'll fix'em.

Hifiguy,

If you want to have a prayer of convincing others here the new 901s are in teh same league as some the best out there, I think you need to offer up some details as to how you reach this conclusion. What are you comparing to and what similarities or differences are you hearing that leads to your conclusion?

My gut tells me it might do pretty well in the midrange as you indicated if set up well, but am hard pressed to understand how it can handle frequency extremes as well as better designs in that regard.

Not everyone cares about those things though, so with that caveat in place, I might see where some think these are the cat's meow, but one should really offer up some facts or details to support one's conclusions, especially when perhaps as surprising to many here as yours.

horns versus Bose.

Battle of the century!

David versus Goliath?

Both so misunderstood by others! So under-appreciated!

Hifi and Macro, you two should be able to find some solace with each other although I doubt you'll ever come to terms on what good sound is.

In my first real component audio system, I had a pair of Lafayette Criterion short floorstanders with HEil tweeter in an all Lafayette system built around a 40 watt integrated (I worked at Lafayette at the time as a poor college kid and got a good deal).

They were my favorites from lafayette at that time due to the unique clarity of the heil, but teh rest was questionable. Also, the heils had a tendency to fry quite easily in that rig. I changed everything less than a year later.

I would like to hear a good modern heil design running off my current system. What I heard back then was probably not indicative of what is possible.

"it had an amazing impact basically removing the sidewalls and the speaker walls"

So you are saying these treatments essentially turned your room into an anechoic chamber?

I don't doubt they have a positive effect used properly, but that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration?

I've heard a bunch at a wide range of price points that I could probably live with pretty happily if I had to but none to date that make me think any less of my OHM F5s, series 3 as the best sound day in and day out to me.

Part 1 and 2 seem like a fair review/assessment.

The thing is years ago 901s at their going price were the cat's meow.

Nowadays, $1400 is nothing on the grand scale of things. IF these fit your bill, perhaps not a bad value there.

Screwing the Jetsons-era stands directly into the speaker in this day and age is pretty cheesy though!

"Magnepan Tympani IVds driven by Mark Levinson. Those and the Klipsch Horns made the biggest impression anyway."

Funny, I first heard both of these at a single visit to a local dealer as a teen. I can remember the sound of Fleetwood Mac's self named album playing on these and what a revelation it was. Though I was a music lover and had a modest $200 Sanyo compact stereo system prior, I think that was the day I could have first been dubbed an "audiophile".

I caught them briefly and liked what I heard.

I am a fan of the BC gear's ability to help bring things to life in a high end way for fairly reasonable cost.

I caught them briefly and liked what I heard.

I am a fan of the BC gear.

I am not a hybrid fan generally but i liked the gts alot based on a limited audition. Maggies on steroids is nit an unreasonable description.

I heard ths voltis also. I loved the looks. The sound wasquite nice at lower volumes i heard these at. Not sold on the value but maybewitha more extended audition. I liked the cathedrals as well and these come in quite a bit lower in price and also had klipsch heritage/vintage altec horn aesthetic appeal.

I coud easily see any of these serving an owner well.

I did not hear anything that even remotely look or sound like Maggies at CAF. High efficiency and retro designs did seem to rule FWIW. I heard a more decent mix of "modern" versus more retro sounds though despite physical appearances. So it seems a new trend is retro looks and approaches to deliver that more modern sound. There were a lot of speakers using larger drivers than is often the norm these days there which I thought to be a good thing in general.

I worked at Radio Shack for 5 years or so back in its hifi heyday. Those were my least favorite popular RS speakers. Tried to talk people out of buying them, except maybe when a good sale ran. They always sounded like all the bad stereotype things you hear about horn speakers, boomy bass, shouty and shrill. Maybe with the right tube amp that RS no longer sold. That was the heyday of the SS receiver/amp, mostly made in Japan.

The ones that you continue to go back to and listen to for hours on end and hate to quit.

Magico is a good product if you seek ultimate build quality and good sound. But you will pay for it. Also for teh gear to drive them well and make the investment pay. ANother investment there. The question then becomes can you get essentially the same sound for less? that will depend but I suspect it is possible.

Typical high end audio questions and scenarios. It all depends on ones budget and know how in putting an end to end system that meets your needs together. No speakers alone will do it, though some might more so than others.

The magicos I have heard set up well are in the top tier of systems I have heard in regards to overall sound quality. The down side is that you will pay a lot to get it.

Not sure which is "best" but my all time favorites I have heard are my current OHM F5 series 3, mbl 111e, and Magico Mini II, Totem Mani 2, or most any model Dynaudio for smaller monitors, if not smaller OHM Microwalsh as an option to those.

How about "jump on Best Buy before they are gone"?

Radio Shack had a few gem audio products over teh years by most standards. That was a long time ago though. Still sad to see RS finally succumb to the times. If not for radio Shack and Lafayette as a kid, I don't know if I would have ever become as interested in this stuff. My first real johb was At Lafayette back in high school. I was on cloud nine. Then Radio Shack for a few years, before going to Grad school and eventually landing a real job. Those were good times!

Ctsooner, 

How does new Thiel sound different than old and what specific newer models are we talking About?

Thanks.