If cost and availability is no problem, what's your dream speaker(s) and "why" do you want it?
I'll start. My dream speaker is the Magico M3. After auditioning the best speakers I could find through dealers and audio shows, the speaker sound that rather consistently connected with me emotionally were the YG and Magico. The Magico M6/M9 are great for larger spaces, but the M3 is perfect for my use.
I haven't quite nailed down the speaker for my 2nd system yet which will be driven by flea watt amps. Horns for bass are larger than my space can accommodate so must determine compromises I'm willing to settle for.
when I started I bought a $4k set of speakers and thought I was a boss. At that time I didnt realize how expensive audio systems truely were. I thought those speakers with generic cables and a $2k avr would send me to musical nervana and that I would be the envy of my neighbors
After a few months I realized that the system sucks.
I started looking at stuff like the martin logan ESL13a and couldnt imagine paying that kind of money. Some how I ended up with speakers costing much more
Fancy gryphon amp, top flight dac, fiber optic streaming, ext. Now just the platform that my speakers sit on for isolation cost as much as my old avr. After about 85k worth of equipement (if all new) i would say i have my dream setup with the big kef blades.
I could easily list some 500k speakers and say they are my "dream" but it has to end somewhere. and for now i say i have what I'm looking for. Even if I won the lottery i dont think I would be looking for more
I don't know how I could ever say what would be my dream speaker since there is absolutley no way to listen to practially anything these days and haven't heard a whole lot of different ones.
On paper and from things I've read it would be a higher end Totem, ATC, PMC, Salk, Magico, Legacy.
Back when I was audtioning some speakers before I bought a pair I DID get to listen to Dali, Vandersteen, B&W, Monitor Audio, Sonus Faber, and Dynaudio.
Ended up with the Dynaudio but never really warmed up to them that much and traded them off and few years later.
I sell them because 8 years ago dreaming about a headphone audio system for my desk, i go all along this road buying 8 different headphones...
It was an error....
I came back to speakers...
The Tannoy could not be put on my desk, i stupidly sell the 2 pairs who needed refurbishing anyway ( 1000 bucks each)
Frustrated by headphones limitations i come back to speakers seriously...
After 3 years of intensive listening experiments in acoustic with my Mission Cyrus 781 ( good speakers) i realized that i never listen to my Tannoys during these 45 years because they were never installed mechanically, electrically and especially acoustically in a room acoustically controlled and designed for them....
Acoustic matter more than the branded name speakers you have, any acoustician can make ANY good speakers extraordinary good....
I dream now about my Tannoy like a grown man about his divorced wife....It is not a nightmare but an erotic dream....
The Mission Cyrus speakers luckily are very good.....Even if with less potential than the Tannoy for sure....
Vandersteen Model 7. Incredibly coherent because everything but the subs are made of balsa wood cladded with carbon fiber. Amazing bass response in any room without DSP because the subs have 11 bands of analog EQ.
Zellaton's are also amazingly coherent due to the indentical drivers. But they don't have enough bass for me nor is it tunable to the room. https://www.zellaton.de/en/statement.html
Though not terribly expensive as far as high end audio goes, Atohm GT-2’s are my current “reasonable” dream speakers. Cost no object would be something high up in the Legacy Audio line.
I haven’t heard them, hopefully someday so going on aesthetics and specs only. I might as well shoot for the moon here. Probably need another $100K for amplification…
One of the best moves I have ever made as an audiophile - this will
apply to a certain percentage of frustrated hobbyists - was to abandon
the search for "the One", the purported speaker that would sound
perfect, and seek variety. I have found delight in the speakers of
different genres I have used. Audiophilia was fraught with frustration
until I made variety the key of my system building.
I've gone the same route. Having more than one speaker to switch in tends to scratch the itch for change, and when listening to one I'm not "worried" about the characteristics it doesn't have that another speaker has...because I have that other speaker too :-)
Not saying that ultimately The One wouldn't be nice. But I think I had to admit after many years I'm always going to get the itch for new sound.
Right now (among other speakers) I have probably my two favorite "sounds" - Thiel and Joseph Audio speakers. I'm thinking if I had one more trophy it would be one of the Devore O series speakers, then I'd have my 3 favorite speaker brands and be spoiled as heck.
If my listening area was a dedicated room I would probably still have Accoustat 2+2s, but in a room that is multipurpose their height cut the room up (bad feng shui). I also had Maggie 3.4Rs, but the visual issue was very similar, also the lack of seamless integration between the ribbons and bass panels was no bueno. I now have Emerald Physics 3.4s (12" concentric driver with 1" polyester tweeter), and while amazing, my room is quite large and the reinforcing back wall is ~ 25 feet behind the speaker faces and it's all glass, essentially no reinforcement. I have 2 @ ~ 10+ yo SVS powered subs, which were not designed for 2 channel, but have made do.
Soon the 3.4s and subs will be replaced with EP 2.8s, which is the 3.4s + 2 @ 15" carbon fiber woofers
@jacksky This thread is about owning the speaker. I’ll soon open another thread w speakers one would like to demo.
Austin Martin to know it’s my dream car.
I like Porsche for the performance, comfort as a daily driver, and lowered fear that people won’t mess with the car when parked in public places vs other supercars.
Best speakers I heard at Cap Fest in DC was Tidal. head and shoulders above the megabucks Von Schweikerts room . I u/stand with Tidal you can go all in on the electronics side to complete the set up. never heard ‘em but I have a hankering for German Physics. Is it possible to have a dream speaker even though you never heard em? I mean, with cars I don’t need t test drive an Austin Martin to know it’s my dream car.
I would get the monitor audio Platinum 500 II, I have the Platinum 200 ll and I absolutely love them.
I demoed the Monitor Audio Platinum 300 II and was on my short list to purchase.
+1 @douglas_schroeder
abandon the search for "the One", the purported speaker that would sound perfect, and seek variety.
I also like variety. I purchased a multi arm turntable to play multiple cartridges. After I get my neutral linear audio chain sorted out I will put together a flea watt amp+speaker system to primarily check out the 300b sound. I also like the Doshi Audio Evolution Monoblock power amplifier which allows “adjusting bias to tune the sound of the EVO monoblocks to your liking”. The problem with variety is it can be hard on one’s wallet.
My dream speaker showed up again last night. But just as before, just as I was about to get close enough to read the label something woke me up and I had to go pee. Why is it always the good dreams interrupted like this?
There is also legitimacy, though limited advancement, to grabbing on to a speaker and pushing it to perform better over the years. I have done this with the King Sound King Tower omni. When I first obtained it, the sound was respectable but not stunning. Now, with continued development ( I do not use the term "evolve" to describe system building, as I feel it is entirely inadequate to describe the process) the speaker is moving into the rapturous realm. It doesn't make it magically a far superior transducer, but it does make it a much more enjoyable one. :)
One of the best moves I have ever made as an audiophile - this will apply to a certain percentage of frustrated hobbyists - was to abandon the search for "the One", the purported speaker that would sound perfect, and seek variety. I have found delight in the speakers of different genres I have used. Audiophilia was fraught with frustration until I made variety the key of my system building. That is when I realized that I am a System Builder, a particular breed of audiophile like the Mediaphile. :)
For those who have longed for big gun dynamic or hybrid dynamic speaker systems, but feel they are well beyond your budget, I offer you Aspen Acoustics, a fledgeling company in Colorado with some sonically very capable designs. Legacy Audio has the OB/quasi-line source thing down, and Aspen Acoustics does what I call in my review of the Lagrange L5 MkII, the DLT (Disproportionately Large Tweeter) design. It's a wonderful experience that fuses the panel/ribbon and dynamic genres together. It has a unique sound signature that is appealing to me.
If you are seeking a formidable speaker with BIG performance, but at a fraction of the cost of a Wilson or JM Labs, you may wish to speak to Scott Kindt of Aspen Acoustics. I own the Lagrange L1 prototype shown on the website, and will be having it replaced by the production version of the L1. I will be conducting an owner's review of it for Dagogo.com. Though a different genre due to DLT, I put the performance/sound quality level of the L1 prototype near that of the Wilson Alexx (I have not heard version V, so I exclude that model from my assessment). Note that I am not claiming the L1 or prototype to outperform these others, as I have not conducted a comparison in my room. Such claims would be unsubstantiated and unwarranted. However, dismissals by partial owners or those with vested interests in these others would also be unwarranted. :)
Several models of Legacy Audio speakers also reviewed by myself for Dagogo.com over the years.
fred6059 posts07-16-2021 6:18amRaidho
D 3.1. To my ears, Raidho's do it all. Of course Borresen is the
genius behind it. Haven't had a chance to hear his new line, so maybe
the Borresen 03. At $66K, unfortunately can't go there!
I agree with each and every statement fred60 made above. My 20.5 ft wide by 17ft deep room x 10ft avg ceiling (two large openings) won't support more than that size. I run older D2s now and am more than satisfied since I no longer have house parties. I still lust after the B03 for it's newer design and performance.
I'd need to keep my DSPeaker unit of course to tame the mid-bass hump but I think Michael's a genius. I'd still want four good but modest subs to low-pass at 40 or so for a DBA bottom-end. That would probably be nirvana to me, in this home.
As I was waiting on the paperwork for my new Magnepans at my dealer, I heard what honestly sounded like a live jazz trio around the corner. When I poked my head in, it was a pair of Wilsons, not the largest but good size. It was enough to make me reconsider my purchase until I asked the price, which I think was in the range of my first house. I haven’t auditioned that many pricey speakers, but those were just outstanding.
I heard a pair of Avalon Isis speakers in colleague’s home. He is a very serious hifi guy and a very good amatuer musician too. The sound of those speakers were very realistic and effortless. He played classical, jazz and blues music. They were driven by Audio Research monoblocks not sure which model exactly, and he was using a SME turntable. Their cabinet quality was incredibly nice. They are probably a dream speaker for me.
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