Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?

kenjit –

Your extreme bias against GMA and the late Roy Johnson, and ludicrous attacks against them, have been well-exposed on this forum. Any readers who think that I am being hyperbolic should refer to this thread, on which Johnson himself exposed kenjit's claims for what they are:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/warmest-sounding-green-mountain-speaker

The fact that the manufacturer no longer exists is completely irrelevant. GMA had a strong following, and for a small, boutique manufacturer, did well enough to make owners of its speakers happy for ~20 years, prior to Roy's unfortunate death.

Nobody on this forum will take you seriously on this topic, and for good reason.

@whipsaw 

you are completely wrong I'm afraid. The green mountains don't even exist anymore. Theyve just disappeared as if by magic. They all used a cheap 6 inch car woofer that cost about 5 dollars and a cheap tweeter too. They never did good bass because the cabinets were too small for the woofers. They also used badly designed crossovers that were too shallow to protect the tweeters. They never achieved much success because they sounded so bad. I read in another thread that many customers paid green mountain audio for speakers which never arrived before the company suddenly disappeared, leaving these poor folks with losses of several thousands of dollars. They are the worst sounding speakers I have ever heard. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a speaker you can turn right up and continue enjoying clean pristine treble?

Is there even such a thing?

Of course. If you dont custom tune to your ears speakers will sound bright. Now stop complaining and start enjoying the music

Any with poor treble.

Basically all of them have crossover issues, sibilance issues, beaming issues, dispersion issues, distortion issues.

Some of them are quite unbearable. Some are more tolerable.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a speaker you can turn right up and continue enjoying clean pristine treble?

Is there even such a thing?

The Cabasse Farella 401 speakers hit on all cylinders when paired with a quality SE or PP tube amp but hook a SS amp up to them and they would drive you from the room. Bright, fatiguing and light in the bass although the bass was always tuneful. Even pairing them with the class A SE SS Pass Labs Aleph 3 was a huge step in mitigating their bright signature but they are a real Jekyll and Hyde speaker if there ever was one

i agree with the statement above... one of my ventures into high efficiency speakers years back... don’t remember which model of cabasse... they were bright and otherwise grim and unruly

So many 'hi end' speakers need careful setup that A speaker I sold, the revel salon 1 and 2 for not coupling with my room are much loved by their new owners, but they weren't bright, just boring. The speakers that gave me fits for 15 of the 25 years I owned them were the Kef R105/3. I bought them when my new bride was 8 months pregnant and a week before we were to move into our 1st home and I knew the party was over. I eventually did enough side jobs to find a partnering amp that brought out the best in them.

“And of course the worst speaker of all time, the Tekton Moabs. Could there be a worse, more cheaply built, crap speaker? Oy. (Just kidding. Just having some fun with their fanboy.)”

Derailed in 3...2...1...

Green Mount Audio Europa. Bright and fatiguing describes the perfectly.

@bdgregory I consider your claim to be dubious, and if accurate, almost certainly related to your associated equipment.

I had the Europas, followed by the Callisto, and while the latter was certainly a step forward, I would never have characterized the former as "bright and fatiguing". I was using a Jeff Rowland Concentra integrated amp, and Electrocompaniet EMC-1up CD player.

There is a very detailed review of the Europas here on Audiogon, entitled "Review: Green Mountain Audio Europa Monitor". That user's experience is far more in line with most, I would say.

There are many more opinions on a thread entitled "A few questions for Green Mountain Europa owners", and the words "harsh" and "bright" are never used to describe the sound.

To many to mention.

I have low ceilings, so I really don't know if this is indicative of anything but my room, but:

Focal 936s. Even with burn in, they were really too bright. Fantastic soundstage, though.

ML Motion 60s XTi. Also too bright, but a lovely airy quality too.

And of course the worst speaker of all time, the Tekton Moabs. Could there be a worse, more cheaply built, crap speaker? Oy. (Just kidding. Just having some fun with their fanboy.)

B&W 703s with Rotel front end. My first system. Upper mids shredded my ears and they had to be cranked to open the mids up.
Sadly I feel the current models have the same issue.

In my home:

Focal (demo), Klipsch Palladium (owned), B+W Diamond Series (demo)

In someone else's home:

Tekton with the Be upgrade, Wilson with the Focal tweeters (no shocker, however I DO like the Wilsons with the new Soft Dome tweeter)

Demoed in multiple stores:

Paradigm Persona, the entire line-up.  The ONLY time I thought they sounded good was a pair of the 7's with McIntosh Electronics, using Vinyl as the source.

Green Mount Audio Europa. Bright and fatiguing describes the perfectly.

B&W 803 matrix, that was a good double mistake as i bought them having heard only 804 and not in my room. Before that a DIY project with Audax drive units.

G

The Cabasse Farella 401 speakers hit on all cylinders when paired with a quality SE or PP tube amp but hook a SS amp up to them and they would drive you from the room. Bright, fatiguing and light in the bass although the bass was always tuneful. Even pairing them with the class A SE SS Pass Labs Aleph 3 was a huge step in mitigating their bright signature but they are a real Jekyll and Hyde speaker if there ever was one.

@millercarbon 

Wilson use some of the best drivers on the planet and use thick rigid cabinets. There's nothing to criticize there. The only possible explanation is that the crossover may not be tuned to your preference. But that doesn't give you a reason to write them off. Perhaps fix your room? That's probably the other reason. 

In my home? Well the worst by far was JBL L7. This was back around '90 or '91. They didn't last long. Very hard on the ears. The day I sold them, after getting used to their replacement, the JBL were like an ice pick in my ears. Can't believe I ever liked that JBL sound.

Next worst one in my home were Von Schweikerts. Forget the model, but they were highly hyped at the time. By hype I mean reputation far exceeds performance. They were okay, but rather drab, like everything was there, except life and vitality. Not the best detail either. Not fatiguing though, not that I recall. Just disappointing. Heck even the cabinet construction was disappointing. Oh well.

Never heard Wilson in my home. But you hear them so many other places, hooked up to so much other stuff, after a couple decades I just don't need to get them in my room to know they will be a disappointment. Any of them. All of them. 

wilson watt puppies w spectral amplification