best speakers ever heard
- Thread starter sergiox
- Start date
Gervais Cote
Predator
Goldmund. Don’t remember the model but it was a stack of light gray boxes with around 5 drivers on each.
dave charlton
pfm member
Rega Ela mk1 (half fluted with Royd drive unit) which I owned and Rega RS10 which I heard on a dem night.
The best speakers I have heard were in large rooms with decent acoustics. The brands are probably not important because the difference in sound quality between listening in a small untreated room and large treated one is substantial. This obviously doesn't mean there aren't audible differences between speakers but with the room having such a large influence on sound quality it cannot be allowed to be a variable in a reasonably meaningful comparison.
poco a poco
I'm Jim
As I have mentioned in similar threads here before I still think the Apogee Scintillas (1 Ohm version) are the best speakers I have heard, but that is only in large and suitable rooms and with the proper amplification to drive them. I have never had a room large enough or suitable so in the real world where the room is as important as the the speakers the Dutch & Dutch 8c's that I have now as these can compensate for the room as well as being pretty much full range.
wiresandmore
pfm Member
Many moons ago, a huge pair of Apogees driven by Krell Monoblocks at Oxford Audio sounded astonishingly good to me. More recently, YG Acoustics (can't recall model but very expensive) and Raidho floorstanders at Cloney Audio. Couldn't afford any of them but the sound lives long in my memory.....
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
I’d always assumed his name was Caesar!
zippy
pfm Member
Indeed, and the best system I ever heard was many, many years ago, so audio memory comes into it too.
That system was Quad 33/303 plus ESL's.
herb
brain's right hemisphere
The new Quad ESLs I had from 1974 to 1988. They showed up the limitations of FM, record decks and the 33/303. Not to mention the monkey's antics of the mastering/recording engineers. They worked at whispering quiet levels too. In modern life my Harbeth C7s are currently belting out Beefheart to great effect. I must get a demo of new ESLs to go with my flat earth system.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
I don't think I've ever heard a loudspeaker that I've been completely happy with.
Quad ESLs have that "open window" thing, but are limited for dynamics and bandwidth. Stax F81 make Quads seem cloudy, but are monstrously inefficient, undynamic, and "small" sounding. The old original Martin Logan CLS were also clearer than Quads but could be a bit fatiguing and relentless, and really had no bass. JBL, Klipsch and Altec can do dynamics in spades, at the expense of any sort of timbre. Revel and Magico appear to try to "do it all" but sound artificial and it just "smacks of effort". Wilsons all have the smiley-face EQ that sounds impressive on Audiophile Recordings. BBC-influenced designs are easy to listen to, kind of like Quads without that last level of detail, will go louder and deeper than Quads but not enough, and are still dynamically stunted. But that's what I use as my present compromise that I can live with.
Is it really too much to ask for a speaker to be able to get up and go like Altecs, but be full range, have natural timbre, be insightful and do a believable image/soundstage?
Quad ESLs have that "open window" thing, but are limited for dynamics and bandwidth. Stax F81 make Quads seem cloudy, but are monstrously inefficient, undynamic, and "small" sounding. The old original Martin Logan CLS were also clearer than Quads but could be a bit fatiguing and relentless, and really had no bass. JBL, Klipsch and Altec can do dynamics in spades, at the expense of any sort of timbre. Revel and Magico appear to try to "do it all" but sound artificial and it just "smacks of effort". Wilsons all have the smiley-face EQ that sounds impressive on Audiophile Recordings. BBC-influenced designs are easy to listen to, kind of like Quads without that last level of detail, will go louder and deeper than Quads but not enough, and are still dynamically stunted. But that's what I use as my present compromise that I can live with.
Is it really too much to ask for a speaker to be able to get up and go like Altecs, but be full range, have natural timbre, be insightful and do a believable image/soundstage?
High ceilings and non-square rooms are a must IMO. Makes a bigger difference than most HiFi upgrades.
This is the problem I've had with STAX & ESLs. The hear-through window, the nuance, is astounding.
Put some 90s jungle music or really heavy metal on, and things aren't as convincing. If I weren't a fan of electronica, hip hop and metal then I'd still be using STAX.
I have had a number of speakers in my sound room that has a solid floor and approximately 7mx4.5m and have experimented a bit with my JR-149 MK2's, Snell J/2, Snell K's, Meridian M2, Quad ESL-57, Impulse Lali etc. Previously I owned a few pairs of Audio Note AN-E SPe HE that I really liked but sold them to upgrade to the AN-E SEC Signature model with external crossovers and these so far have been the best in the given system context and room acoustics.
Tony L
Administrator
To my mind that dynamic thing is a driver size and efficiency thing, you don’t get it even with high-power active monitors etc. It comes with big horns and high price-tags. Modern CAD horns are far less compromised than old exponential designs like Altecs etc. Even Klipsch are moving to tractrix these days. Have you heard the modern high-end JBL horns? There is a lot of very fancy math going on in their horns these days and the few I’ve heard sound very natural, clear and dynamic.
PS My solution is for two systems, one large, one small, and to let material and mood choose. Most music sounds good on both, some favours one over the other, and very little doesn’t sound good on either. I just love having two very different perspectives (full-range monitors and near-fields).