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Nominations for a PFM list of 25 top speakers of all time.

Having owned all three, (1) Shahinian Hawks (2) Naim SBL .. Love them or hate them!!.. And lastly the original Epos S14
 
Wilson Sophia 3 or Active Isobariks.

I recently bought some 26 year old Isobariks on eBay for circa £1k and preferred them to some serious modern speakers (Wilson Benesch ACT C60s, PMC Fact12s) costing many thousands more. I only bettered the (passive) Isobariks with the Sophias which were a five-figure purchase. Second hand Isobariks have to be the best value buy on the planet and if you can stand all the electronics, active has to be the way to go.
 
I'd have those on a list of the 25 worst examples of high fidelity replay in history. Maybe you read the thread title wrongly?
 
merlin said:
Unlikely I would say given the results of Harman's repeated blind listening tests. It would seem we prefer technically good sound when we can't see what we are listening to.
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I can't think of any particularly good speakers to come out of the Harman program, though, apart from maybe the limited production big JBLs. No trickle-down...
 
Yank said:
I can't think of any particularly good speakers to come out of the Harman program, though, apart from maybe the limited production big JBLs. No trickle-down...
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Quality sadly costs money -it's engineering at the end of the day. The Revel range are IME outstanding examples of modern loudspeaker technology producing superb results. Top JBL's are IMHO remarkable but also very expensive in Europe.

The range of studio monitors these days is very good too.

I can't think of many bad loudspeakers that come out of Harman if I am honest although it's unlikely their product would appeal on first listen to those brought up on a BBC dip or copious amounts of tailoring.

The Harman tests are blind and involve a number of manufacturers' loudspeakers. The finding is that the least coloured and most linear device is almost always preferred when it's identity is hidden.

David put it very well I thought earlier when he suggested that linear speakers with low levels of distortion end up as keepers.
 
davidsrsb said:
You COULD make a very good speaker with modern drivers (likely a 3-way, 10"+ bass in a big, wide cabinet)
Unfortunately most modern designs choose to go for too narrow cabinets, a "smile" frequency response and 3 Ohm impedance in places
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Yup.
 
Adam Tensor Alpha
Naim DBL active
B&W 800 matrix the ones with twin 12 inch bass units
Stacked Quad ELS 57
Naim SBL active
Naim IBL active
Linn KAN active
 
As an aside, possibly the most influential loudspeaker designs have been (unfortunately IMHO), the LS3/5a, the Klein & Hummel OY, and the Acoustic Research AR-3.

It's a great shame, from a sonic POV, that the likes of the Quads or large Tannoy DC's were not more influential in terms of their technologies taking over the marketplace.
 
merlin said:
As an aside, possibly the most influential loudspeaker designs have been (unfortunately IMHO), the LS3/5a, the Klein & Hummel OY, and the Acoustic Research AR-3.
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I know what you are getting at, but I don't think those are the right three speakers! For a start all are infinite baffle and, sadly, one has to search high and low for such speakers these days, especially chunky three-way ones like the AR3. Sure there are a small number of LS3/5A types (sealed box 5" bass two-way), but they are very much at the specialist end of the market. The OY lives on as the Neumann 0310, but I can't bring to mind another sealed-box three-way active at all, let alone of it's size and price. FWIW these are all speakers I like a lot.

The mass market is absolutely dominated by two-way ported shoe-box speakers and two-way slim ported floorstanders, many with arrays of <6.5" drivers. I can't bring to mind who kick-started this trend, maybe ProAc or Mission, but the BBC and Ed Vilchur designs you mention are as much a thing of the past / collector/specialist market as huge Tannoys and Quads. Even more of a shame IMO. I'd have no issue at all with a market dominated by descendants of the three speakers you list!
 
Over these 23 pages the Linn Kan gets quite a few mentions; is it the winner?

Some one will crunch the numbers.
 
Shahinian Obelisks

I do like Kans but they don't come anywhere close to Obs for me.

There's no way SBLs would even feature in a top 100 list for me.
 
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