Walk-around the musicians in your living room. Real palpable imaging with great dynamics and real bass. |
Heard some top-end ATCs yesterday. $16K per pair is a little out of my price range (although that does include a power amp in each box). That said, these were the most incredible speakers I've never heard. I mean "never" heard. I felt like Count Basie, the Roches, Leo Kottke, were playing in the room for me. Astonishing! (thanks, Chris, for the audition!). |
I dont really have alot of experience listening to higher end systems, but from my experience wihtout a doubt the best sounding speakers are Definitive Tech's BP300TL. |
Analogous to best wine/beer/food/etc.. you ever tasted! I don't think it's worth an answer because it depends so much on personal preferences, atmosphere, mood, occasion, etc...
The best speakers I ever heard was a cheap pair of bookshelf Fisher speakers on top of my old bed while I was making love the 1st time to my then-girlfriend! I can't repeat the same experience with the much more expensive MA Studio 6 with the same person anymore ... Sad .. |
The Wisdom Audio M-75's with the Parasound JC-1 amplifiers (4) Monos make a very serious statement in High-end audio. Another very impressive speaker line is the Acapella. These speakers are made in Germany. They utilize the Ionic Tweeter that produces the most extended, open, and natural highs that I have ever heard. |
VMPS RM40. VMPS' New RM Elixir is probably the best sounding speaker I have never heard-yet! |
B&W Nautilus...my vote sounded so "right" |
JM Labs Grande Utopia Beryllium's are the best speaker on the planet. I just returned from an audition in NY and all of the hype is warranted,they have outdone themselve once again. |
Shahinian Diapason- sounds like live music - can play unstrained at live levels - motivates you to listen to all of your recordings again so you can hear how they were supposed to sound- reproduces the lowest frequencies effortlessly- motivates non- audiophiles to compliment your system- priced very reasonably |
The best speaker I have heard is the Alón Exotica Grand Reference System. While it excelled in virtually every audiophile parameter, the bottom line is that it provided the most realistic presentation of recorded music I've experienced.
Larry |
db design oris 150 horn speakers ,the best speakers you can get for the cash ,plus you can build then to fit your tastes and budget . |
original mirage m5 not to be confused with mirage m5si
punchy bass sweet,very detailed mids and highs and affordable |
NHT 3.3. I wish I had written down the amp that was
powering it.
I am not a long time audiophile so I haven't listened
to a lot, but my next speaker purchase will be a set
of 3.3's, without a doubt. |
It's got to be the old JBL Paragon horn speaker from 1960. Incredible warmth and balance. Now very rare. Anyone else familiar with these? |
Avantgarde Unos. I'm still saving up to be able to buy a pair someday. |
I have heard the Paragon several times and sought one for almost a year. To be at its best I am told, it needs to be on a very solid platform 18 inches high.
I would not say it was one of the best speakers I have heard. At various times in my life I would say the Infinity ServoStatic 1s and 1As, double Quad ESLs, the Exemplars, and the Beauhorns were. I have also had the Fulton Premiers, the Linn Isobariks, the Sound Lab A1s, the Infinity QLSs, the Altec VOT, the Avantgarde Trios and Duos, and the Duntech Sovereigns and Black Knights. |
Nearfield Acoustic PipeDreams they're six foot tall line arrays. The imaging and transparency is truely incredible. Beginning at$50,000 and up they should!!! |
for sheer dynamics and holisonic presentation of the movie soundtrack , I would { believe it or not} go with the Polk srt s . I owned 3 sets in one system and the impact is nothing short of astounding. I have just sold all 3 sets and I know regret will settle in soon. Audition these before buying , they can be had cheap on the used mkt. For 2 channel , the ML statement but I have not heard everything. Aerial 20 t and Vandersteen 5 currently have my fancy. I am purchasing the 20 s from a super dealer I found in Columbia SC . A-V . These guys are the reason we stay interested in this stuff. Happy hunting. |
TBG...right on about the Servo Statics 1-A's! |
What about ProAc's top of the line? |
The best speakers in the world are the Nearfield Acoustic Hemisphere's.
No other Speaker can recreate a live performance like the Pipedreams... |
B*W Nautilus 801 with Mark Levinson Bi Amps....pure as gold!
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How about Mirage M1's? They might be the best I've ever heard and nobody mentions them. I have not heard Dunlavey's or BW 800 series either but would like to. I don't particularly like stereo stores as there is always pressure to upgrade to something very expensive. I have enough trouble with that on my own, buying used equipment online.
Anyway, it's probably been ten years since I went shopping in a stereo store and that was when I heard the M1's. They had great clarity and everything seemed to be there without having to crank it up. If I were going to spend $5000 on a new pair of speakers, I'd go listen to the Mirages again and probably buy them. Would welcome anyone who can compare these speakers against others and let me know their feelings. Thanks
Bill |
Audio Limits, I'd love to hear them. My Scintlla does the thunder and whisper exceedingly well too. |
B&W matrix 801 or Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy combo. Easy. |
I just got back from CES where Quad Classics had a double pair of stacked Quad ESL 57s from their new production. It made me wonder why I had sold my double Quads. They had one of the best sounds at CES. |
Von Schweikert VR5-HSE. I've had mine almost five months and have not once missed my daily listening session. Truly amazing. |
While i thought that the Pipe Dreams had some very distinct advantages over other large designs that i've heard, i thought that the soundstage lacked depth. The imaging that was produced was rock solid, but it all seemed to come from a few feet in front of the speakers. I've noticed this on a few other line arrays, so it is probably a problem that comes with that type of design. If you are in a big, long room, the Pipe Dreams can "throw" sound much further than more conventional designs due to the fact that the sound does not "fall off" nearly as fast due to the geometry of the drivers. As such, they really DO play louder than most designs if you are away from the speakers. As i mentioned above though, every design has trade-off's and flaws and this one is no exception. Sean
> |
Quad 988's were very impressive in the 1/2 hour I listened to them. I'd go with the Shahinian Diapasons for the overall best with the Quad 988 best for lower level listening. Both of these speakers try to emmulate a point source. Both of these speakers are the best I've heard in terms of ability to recreate the sound of real musical instruments. |
Piega C10ltd New ribbon technology with 2 active and 2 passive woofers |
Martin Logan statement run by VTL wotans, cj preamp
$15,000, Wadia cd player.Cardas wiring.Then the Avant
garde speakers. |
jbangelfish the Mirage M1 Si are clearly inferior in every sonic parameter compared to the Dunlavy 4 speakers I previously owned both sets in the same listening room. |
Montana WAS speakers at a friend's house in Fla. this past summer. But at $55K retail a pair it was way over my budget. I settled for the Montana EPS's at $8K retail a pair and don't regret the change a single moment. The B&W 802's and N805's went out the door. |
Beveridge Direct Drive Electrotatic 24" Hartley System
This is the dream system over 20 years in the making.
The first set of Bevies were found at a local junk shop, after looking for ten years and cost 1,000$ (totally-toasted). Starting out with 70-watt class"A" Krohn Hite amplifiers. YES...
The sonics were first rate but not the ultimate.
The imaging was "PURE ENLIGHTENMENT.
Going to a pair of modified Altec 1570B's was impressive and powerful with a loss of detail over the KRON's, but an unparalleled acoustic triumph!
Pure chance brought a 150 watt OTL Home Brew amp into the store for repair.
!!WOW!! I told the owner that if he ever wanted to sell the amp that it had a home here. And life was good.
Always thinking of Direct Drive Electrostatic amplifiers eventually we found a pair of Acoustat amps in Hawaii.
Adapting to the Beveridges took several hours, But after 15 minutes we were so far beyond being stunned the imaging and sonic effectivness of the system was and is a revalation.
The advantages of a lo-mass panel with ultra accurate imaging and punishing transient response. They also have the line characteristics of a ribbon source without the coloration of a low impedance interface or transformers of any kind!
There is a final pay off of this topology and that it is what we call a MONOPOLE Acoustic source.
After listening to thousands of systems half way across the globe no....I REPEAT NO OTHER AUDIO SYSTEM CAN COMPARE.
REPEAT........FORGETABBOUTET............
NUFF SAID
HOPE YOU MADE IT TO THE END OF THIS RAMBLING..
Take care.
mike |
Mejames: Thanks for mentioning the Mirages, it's been at least 5 or 6 years since I heard them but they impressed me at the time. I'd like to hear the Dunlaveys and some of the other big names. Anyone else ever heard the Shahinian Diapasons? |
VMPS RM/X at 2003 CES late Saturday afternoon. |
My Sharp boombox makes my Britney Spears CD sound so real , that I could almost feel her breasts. |
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Besides, live, unamplified acoustic concerts that I attend I would have to say The Wilson WAMM with Halcro was incredible,
The Von Schweikert VR-4 with BAT was also stunning ! |
Swans 2.2 Ultra High-end Loudspeaker System without a doubt. My previous favorites were the Montana's...
The Swans 2.2 won all of the speaker awards at the 2003 CES show 2 weeks ago and every dealer, manufacturer or rep in the industry I spoke to at the Swan's booth agreed that they were by far the best sound they ever heard.
Of course!!! 16x2 midrange ribbon drivers, 32x2 ribbon tweeters and 4x2 8"woofers were a wall (or should I say 2 walls!) of the most exquisite sound for $68,000 a pair! |
Linkwitz dipoles: Pheonix
http://www.linkwitzlab.com |
Check this web site for the CES awards. All of the cream of the cream were there and this company got the award as the best sound and engineering. http://www.techtv.com/news/ces2003/story/0,24195,3413910,00.html |
Though I haven't heard most of the above listed
speakers, based on what I have heard, my choice would
be Silverline Audio Sonata's.
I would dispute your thesis being that your speaker
selection is the most important component of your system.
I submit that a system with good speakers and a killer
source would sound better than a good source with killer speakers. |
Quad 988 for $6K retail. Out of the 20 speakers Ive auditioned, utterly involving. Like live acoustic music. Need a sub woof. And romor had it not for punchy rock and roll. |
QUAD 57 ESL met QUAD mkII krag-versterker.
Verseker die beste klank! |
I own Quad 63 USA Monitors, and love them, but do have to say that a pair of Quad 57s properly refurbished by Wayne Piquet had the most midrange clarity of any speaker I have listened to. My friend's Innersound Eros MKIII also gets a big nod from me as one of the best speakers I have listened to. As far as dynamics go, I had Northcreek Rhythms, liked them very much. Though the Quads stole me away from them, I probably will build Northcreek's budget Borealis speaker (or the new monitor kit they have) just to have a dynamic speaker for some heavier rock stuff. No one speaker does it all for me, but if I were to stay with one, it would be my current Quads, or another electrostatic (like Innersound, etc) |
The VMPS RM40 w/TRT caps and dual LARGER subs can meet or beat anything I have ever heard. |
EFE T-60s. $5K buys you $20K-sounding speakers.
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First off let me just say that their is no one "best" speaker. We all have different ears, hearing and music types that we listen too. We all also have different expectations of what we would like to hear. As well, we all are using different electronics, some with Tubes and some with Solid State. That being said we all are entitled to our opinions. I personally have not heard all the speakers listed yet I am sure they all have their own special sonic qualities. I personally am in love with Dynaudio speakers and their uncanny ability to reproduce just the music with no real masking of anything artificial. The Esotar tweeter in my humble opinion is the finest tweeter to be produced. Why else would SO many other manufacturers be buying that tweeter to place in their boxes? If you ever have the chance to audition the Evidence Master, Evidence Temptation, the new Confidence C4 or C2 with the proper electronics, you all owe it to yourselves. You will not be disappointed. I personally own the Dynaudio Craffts which is a studio monitor produced and marketed in Europe. What a fine piece of craftmanship. Oh, one more thing; for those of you who think that the speaker or the amp or the pre-amp is the most important piece of equipment in your lineup, you are HIGHLY mistaken. The absolute most important piece of equipment bar none, is your source!!! All music starts at the source and works it's way back to the speakers from their. If your source does not reproduce the sound in the most accurate and purest form, everything else down the line is most inconsequential. Great thread by the way.
Happy listening,
Steve Bachman
Phoenix, AZ |
Before you spend to much time on discussing which speaker has merit or this one is better then that one, spend a little more time on the right amplifier, consider also that nearly 100% of all professional recording studios use the B&W Nautilus 801as their reference for the best quality sound, ever wondered why??? I own a pair of B&W nautilus 805's the bookshelf variation, the 801's I found to expensive, the 805 really come into their own with an excellent valve amplifier, I have compared most of the speakers, and really Quad is just crap and sorry, so is Dynaudio, you get better flatness and sound accuracy from much cheaper Infinity or Sony speakers, Sonos Faber are for people who do not understand music or have an ear for proper intonnations, I found then highly annoying.
happy listening
Tom Gorman PHD |
