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Best 2way Speakers you have owned

My recently departed Altec Model 19s.
When they were a current speaker I enjoyed my Celestion SL700s.
Both very different but both likeable for their own reasons.
 
Pretty humble stuff over here. Got my Klipsch KG2’s for a song from someone who upgraded after almost 30 years. Really happy with them.
 

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Ronnie T said:
I still own some and others have moved on. Signet SL280's, Camber 3.0ti's, Mission Cyrus 781, EPI M60, EPI 140c, Vienna Acoustics Haydn's, Jamo c603, Jamo 407a, Canton Plus S, Morel MLP 203, Kef RDM 2, Spendor 2020, ESS PS-420, KLH Model 23(they're huge)and Sound Dynamics 6S.
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I've always liked two-way speakers. My first were EPI 100's, followed by Linn Index, Linn Saras, Vandersteen 1C's, Bose 301 series v, and currently the little Cambridge Audio SX-50's. The Linn Saras were the best, but they were pigs to drive (sounding great with Linn's LK1/LK2 preamp power amp combination). The Vandersteen's sounded amazingly good with anything from a low-power NAD 7225PE receiver to Audio by Van Alstine's Insight solid state gear.
 
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jrtrent said:
I've always liked two-way speakers. My first were EPI 100's, followed by Linn Index, Linn Saras, Vandersteen 1C's, Bose 301 series v, and currently the little Cambridge Audio SX-50's. The Linn Saras were the best, but they were pigs to drive (sounding great with Linn's LK1/LK2 preamp power amp combination). The Vandersteen's sounded amazingly good with anything from a low-power NAD 7225PE receiver to Audio by Van Alstine's Insight solid state gear.
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Linn makes great speakers man. I almost pulled the trigger on a pair of Kann's but went with Vienna Acoustics Haydn's instead at the time. Another speaker that is beautiful and sounds just as good as it looks.
 
grindstone said:
@Ronnie T if you feel like it, talk some more. Maybe you had several of these pairs simultaneously and took notes? Not trolling, just Interested in your impressions. Shootouts, in your own house, basically. Probably most of us here at AK did similar at various times.

How have your hearing/preferences evolved by owning them, how they differed -- in whatever detail you can make time / effort to post. Please add non-functional/sidebar domestic-approval-stuff, what size room, what material...whatever you feel like posting. For the record, none of these are anything remotely similar to areas of personal focus -- not a slam, I just sort of start at 95dB/W baseline these years 2-pi space.

But you can get smooth and coherent-ish and a lot of Other Things. Are those enough, do you seek more/other? What's missing and what's exemplary?
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Busy day today at work but when I get home I will go into detail about some of them.
 
tgmartin said:
Odd set of KLH 23s with mismatched tweets in the first pic. Do you notice much of a difference between the assumed real 5, 12, 23 type on the left and the 24, 26 type on the right? I say "assumed" because I guess it could be a 6, 17, 20 type. Nearly impossible to tell from the front unless you can see the "M-12" impression in the basket.
I wondered what that 24, 26 type would sound like with a larger woofer.
EDIT: Actually, rather than a 22/24/26 tweeter, it looks like a Model 5 Mid Range sometimes referred to as a "12.5" driver. It was also used as Full Range in Models 11, 14, 19 and others.
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Same here. The question was "owned" and not "heard" so that's what I have to offer.
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The only decent two way speakers I have owned and regularly listened to were EPI 120's and KG4's. Advantage EPI.
 
Celestion DL8 series II... among several others, these always stand out, because they don't stand out (does that make sense?)

"Everything sounds so real!!!" (compliment from an audio friend)

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Glad to see a few other DIYers chiming in. I'm doing the final voicing on a pair of stand-mounts that use an 8" Tymphany HDS woofers tuned to ~35Hz and 1" tweeter in a waveguide. I've been hacking away at speaker design for a few decades, much of it using Jeff Bagby's software and write-ups. These are my best sounding passive speakers to date. I was surprised they measure flat at the listening axis above 350Hz, when modeling had predicted a few dips in the treble.

Me - apologizing at IowaDIY last Fall for the failed 1st attempt with these. I couldn't get the ring radiator tweeter to mesh with that woofer. I finally changed to a traditional soft dome and the results are much better. They will make return visit in Oct. Maybe I should name them "The Redemptions"
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Wow, they look awesome. Definitely little sign of them being DIY. I’m sure they sound every bit as impressive
 
My favorites, like @Lavane are my Marantz Imperial 6s (the 5s are awesome as well). I mainly like two ways except for my Realistic Nova 8s and a few other Realistics. I have OLAs and Nova 6s and ADS L620s that I rotate in and out of the bedroom systems as well.

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For the size, Mission MS-5s.

But for for anything other than desktop use, I think either the ADS 420 (not 520) OR Fritz Grove speakers.

I got an incredible deal on the Groves and never shoulda let them go - I traded them 1 to 1 for Totem Dreamcatchers. Trouble was I didn't, and still don't, have a place to keep large two ways as my main systems are all larger three way ADS speakers.
 
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