Best speakers you have ever heard?

[jimfet]

I have to second that.I heard the same speakers,I believe,at an audio show in Los Angeles in 1979,too.I was under the impression they were $7000,or less,unless he had more than one model.A string quartet recording was playing,and I kept looking for the musicians.Amazing.
Jimmy

He did have a $7000 set. Same set but without the tube powered bass comodes as he called them.

 

[Zinker]

HAVE to be Imperial 9's....






Love to all

 

[jimfet]

I have to second that.I heard the same speakers,I believe,at an audio show in Los Angeles in 1979,too.I was under the impression they were $7000,or less,unless he had more than one model.A string quartet recording was playing,and I kept looking for the musicians.Amazing.
Jimmy

When I first heard them , he was playing James Taylor on them. I was looking for James on a stool, picking. They did look like a coffin in each corner of the room. They were amazing

 

[AlleyKat]

In the early 70's, we used to make the drive from Syracuse to Buffalo every couple of months just to visit a unique stereo store, Transcendental Audio. Never could understand how they survived with such high end stuff. It was there that I heard my first Magneplanars, being completely blown away by the soundstage. The sales guy waited while I enjoyed two or three tunes, letting me revel in the sound. When I'd finshed, he said "Now let me play something really special for you."

It was a pair of custom built Tannoy speakers that had been removed from the Queen Mary when it was decommissioned. They were at leat 9 feet tall and 5 feet wide. When he fired them up, it was an unforgettable experience.

 

[ron-c]

Jimfet,

Those ESS were the Transars. The bass section was superb but...it could not play loud. when you drove it hard the voice coil would hit the magnet sides. I often wondered why they did not use a conventional spider but I suspect it would slow the whole thing down to where the magic would be gone....
The Transar was one of the best speakers at low to moderate volumes though.

Thanks,
Ron-C

 

[jimfet]

Jimfet,

Those ESS were the Transars. The bass section was superb but...it could not play loud. when you drove it hard the voice coil would hit the magnet sides. I often wondered why they did not use a conventional spider but I suspect it would slow the whole thing down to where the magic would be gone....
The Transar was one of the best speakers at low to moderate volumes though.

Thanks,
Ron-C

Ron , I believe your right. Come to think of it, they did not play them at a blowout volume. But is was loud enuf. They had 2 styles there. One in a clear cabinet and the other in what I think was Rosewood. The cabs where more like wings coming out from the sides of the base unit.

 

[ron-c]

The wings were because it was a di-pole, so they kept the bass from canceling. ESS used carbon fiber rods to connect a series of diaphragms made of thin square plastic pillows, stacked along the baffle. Above and below the diaphragms they had an angled section to send the sound forward or backward. The whole weird think worked though. I always wondered what a stacked series of 6" drivers would do in a similar arrangement although you could just set them up in an open baffle line array and be done with it.
It appears that the Transar design had the advantage of light and very stiff so all of the diaphragms kept in perfect phase while having very little resistance to motion. This design did not seem to need much EQ which many dynamic 6" cone drivers would need.

Thanks,
Ron-C

 

[wineslob]

The wings were because it was a di-pole, so they kept the bass from canceling. ESS used carbon fiber rods to connect a series of diaphragms made of thin square plastic pillows, stacked along the baffle. Above and below the diaphragms they had an angled section to send the sound forward or backward. The whole weird think worked though. I always wondered what a stacked series of 6" drivers would do in a similar arrangement although you could just set them up in an open baffle line array and be done with it.
It appears that the Transar design had the advantage of light and very stiff so all of the diaphragms kept in perfect phase while having very little resistance to motion. This design did not seem to need much EQ which many dynamic 6" cone drivers would need.

Thanks,
Ron-C

Ron, did you happen to hear those at Stereo Showcase????? Sound like the same ones I did and the guys there kept overdriving them. Maybe thats why I dident like them?


(your loc. is No Ca)

 

[jimfet]

Beverage stats, by Harold Beverage. They were $13,000 27 years ago. They were the best sounding spkr at the IHF show in Atlanta. Sounded better than $60,000 plus Infinity QLS on set. But not as loud.
ESS had a set there, I have not seen since. Had a big Heil tweeter, but the woofer was a 3 foot long tube about 10 or 12 inches in diameter, with baffels around it. The bass was great. It was one of those that you could hear the windings around a cello string.

Answering myself
Just went to the Berveridge site. The model 2's are now $65,000. They've gone up a little
http://www.beveridge-audio.com/

 

[cableguy]

Bozak Concert Grands. What else would you expect from me.

:thmbsp:

 

[alexkerhead]

Best I have heard was a set of JBL olympus.

 

[cableguy]

Oh, wow. So many.
Going back to the beginning of my life:
Bozak Concert Grands and KLH Nines tie for 1st place
Bozak Symphony and M-L CLS tie for 3rd place
Bozak 302s and Klipsch Cornwalls tie for 5th place

Of later vintage:
Tannoy Churchills

Amps; well have heard each with multiple amps and would be hard pressed to say what amps mated best. Universally, I'd go with the MCIntosh MC250/2505 and the MC2100/2105 depending on the power requirments. The 2100 would be it if I had to choose 1. I have a 250 and 2105. Preamp, well the C28 still resides while the only other preamp I'd really go for is the ARC SP3A-1.

Killer list.... :yes:

 

[melofelo]

haven't heard many expensive speakers but i remember hearing a pair of humble mission speakers paired with some very expensive front end & amplification that pretty much 'etched' a jazz trio between the speakers...
there wasn't much in the way of low bass but the rest was almost tangible... :thmbsp:

 

[Bogie]

Maggies. The 20s.

With some big ol' tube monoblocks that I never got around to poking at...

In a really well-thought out room.

 

[Damage]

Carver Amazings. Takes at least 300WPC to really wake them up though.

 

[musicnsurf]

although my heathkit speakers from the 50's are about the best i've ever heard, there are two that better them. the jbl paragon and a pair of monster 6' speakers from the '50s that i can't remember the name of but probably some here would.

 

[sansui9090]

The best sounding Speakers I have heard was only a few months ago, it was a pair of Polk Kappa 9's fed by a Krell 200W power amp (not sure what model... but made in '96)
With a Mark Levinson Pre amp (not sure what model... but made in '98) and not sure what CD player was playing, but the sound filled the room.
It was like the band were in the room playing...... and the bass drums sounded so real....
Great Rig :thmbsp:


Cheers!
Mark

 

[Damage]

What is a polk Kappa 9?

 

[bully]

I though Kappa was an Infinity nomenclature.

 

[billkroeger1]

Best I've heard was a pair of Boston Acoustics VR-M90's I think,It was 5-7 years ago, driven by a huge sunfire amp and a sunfire sub.
The speaker cables they were using were as big as my finger.
The speakers were about 8 feet apart and I was sitting back about 8 feet and I closed my eyes and I swore the band was playing right in front of me. WoW!