Worst speakers at Stereophile show


Here's what I thought were the worst sounding speakers at the Stereophile show. The Eggleston speakers that list for 100,000 dollars. I heard them in the Nagra room, with the Nagra 845 tube Amps, Nagra Preamp and Nagra digital reel to reel player. The cabinet on the Egglestons looked gorgeous. But let me tell you, these speakers were horrible. I was shocked how bad they sounded. They were so bright sounding. Eggleston has got to change midrange drivers. Those Morel midbases just sound to bright. Egglestons should use the Dynaudio 3 inch dome mids. Krell came out with a new mini monitor. It cost like 6000 dollars. These Krell Speakers sounded so edgy and the sound could get out of control. I didn't like them. Silverline had the Silverline Sonata speakers there. These speakers had to have the worst crossover. I played a track with a nice beat to it. It sounded horrible on these speakers. Then I put my ear to the speakers and I couldn't believe it, 80 percent of the midrange and bass was coming out of the tweeter. Silverline has got to change the crossover. How could you have the midbase coming out of the tweeter. That's why the bass sounded so edgy. A tweeter cant handle bass. Now another speaker I heard, that I didn't like. I heard the Merlin VSM se speakers. Merlin had 2 rooms with the VSM se speakers. One room had the Joule Electra Tube amps and Preamp. The other room that had the Merlins VSM se was the Sim Audio room. The Merlins in the Joule Electra room sounded not bad. It had nice detail. The same Merlins VSM se in the Sim Audio room sounded so average. The Joule Electra Tube Amps, sounded so much better on the Merlin speakers, then the Sim Room, which was using Sim W5 Amp, Sim P 5 preamp and Sim CD Player on the Merlin VSM se. The Merlins in the Joule Electra Room sounded very detailed, but didn't have that bass impact and large sound that I like. Then I heard the Verity Parsifal speakers on these Tenor OTL Tube Amps and the Audio Aero Capitole 24 bit CD Player. The Veritys didn't sound good. Someone said it perfectly to me, the Verity's dont have a full body sound. I then heard the Meadowlark speakers. I think they were the Herons. The bass did not sound good. It sounded way out of control and to boomy. I was also dissapointed with the Totem designer. Vince is a nice guy. But he kept playing these Totem tower speakers. They used a 5 inch midbase and the tweeter. They didn't sound to good. Then there was these nice looking Totem speakers in the room. They were called the Totem Wind. There's a pic of them on Totemes website. www.totemacoustic.com They used a 8 inch woofer and 2 dynaudio 3 inch dome midbases and a tweeter at the top. Vince played these speakers for like 40 seconds and they sounded really good. The bass and the midrange sounded nice. I wanted to hear more of them. Then Vince stopped playing them and went back to the Totem speakers, with the 5 inch midbase and the Tweeter. Everyone in the Room wanted to hear the other Totem speakers. But he wouldn't play them. He said he would play them later. Every time I went in the Totem room, he was playing the speaker with the 5 inch midbase and the tweeter. The 3rd time I was in the Totem room, another guy wanted to hear the Totem Wind speakers, but Vince said the same thing, he'll play them later.
doug99
I live in Memphis Tn and have a unique view point of eggleston speakers. I have driven around downtown several times looking for their manufacturing facility, today i found it. Any eggleston owners out there should crack open their cabinets amd look for roaches. The facility pictured on the website represents some of the best digital photographic alteration i have ever seen. If this is a high dollar high dollar company where are the facilities to attest to this. I am not commenting on the sound of these speakers; oddly enough i cant go any where to auddition them here in their home town. Just something to consider.
Another speaker i didn't like, was the Linn 40,000 dollar speakers. They sounded to edgy to me. The design of the speakers, the way the drivers were installed, looked awkward. Here's a pic of them. http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hifi2001/chrisb/
Doug I agree with most of your observations. But you are in the wrong forum man (amp-preamp) AND 'too' spells with two o's.
For the people who say that a single occasion to listen to a product should not determine our opinion I want to remind them that you get one chance to make a first impression. There are tens of loudspeakers in my target price range and I have a daytime job. So, if manufacturer A selects the wrong ancillary equipment or does not soundtreat his little hotel room right, he failed to impress me and that's it. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not apply. It is not golfing after all.
My first experience of Verity was in the Nordost demonstration room, with GamuT electronics, and I voted it in my top 3. Hard to imagine the Parcifal (which I've not heard) being a bad speaker. I understand though that as you move up the Verity line, they become increasingly revealing and demanding of the quality of the associated gear. Tamino is supposed to be warm and forgiving compared to the others.

I don't think I have a "worst speaker" of the show. As usual I admired the Wilsons more than I enjoyed them. Similar with Audio Physic. Thiel 1.6 were not very good on day one but by day four they had broken in and were quite impressive. Heron's sounded great to me, as did Legend, Joseph Audio, JMLab...

Art
So DOug, did you like the Merlins or not? First you say that you didn't like them; then you say that the Merlins with the Joules sounded 'not bad', 'nice detail', etc., which sounds like you maybe.....liked them? The Merlins in the SimAudio room sounded average--maybe the difference is in the electronics, not the speakers? Practically every review of the Merlins emphasizes their ability to reveal characteristics of the upstream electronics; of course, any good speaker does this, but Merlins are often noted as being exceptional in this regard.
The Merlins did not project a big sound or have enough bass slam for you; OK, that's legitimate, considering that they're a 2 way system with a 6.5 inch woofer. I would just ask, though, what do you expect from a speaker with this design?
Off topic--Hey Will, if you read this, whatever happened to the Berning/Atma-sphere shootout?