top 5 speakers ever

[Susurus]

Clever misdirection! :grnbounce

Fooling the flippers/preditors/butchers by not giving away our real treasures, the Quadralinear, Sonic, and Thrusters!

 

[Boonaroo]

On the cheap (if you shop):

1. Polk Monitor 7a or 10a, with the pearless tweeter.
2. EPI 100's either tweeter, but I have the plastic casing.
3. Realistic minimus 7's

These are ones that I have owned and have experience with.

I have listen to and liked:

4. Any speaker from the Wilson line, they are very impressive. Alexandria's are lovely if they have the right power. I have heard them with Levinson No. 33. I melted in my seat.

Reality:

5. THE SPEAKER THAT YOU LIKE!!! There is nothing more satisfying than going speaker shopping, listening to some very good choices, and then finding that specific one that just 'fits' your ears.

"Best" is usually in the eye of the beholder. Let us know your top 5.

 

[Satch]

Provided cost, space and amp's can handle it (in no particular order):

- Apogee Scintilla's
- TDL Reference
- Magneplanar Tympani IV
- B&W 800D
- PMC BB5-A

These are loudspeakers I've heard, so there might be speakers around I would consider to be better - as soon as I heard them.

 

[phread]

Hmm... Having played bass in a symphony orchestra, I tend to like a bit more gut
rumbling bass then most, and since I still listen to everything from orchestral to
heavy metal, I like it loud!

-Altec Voice of the Theater A7 (which I've had a set for years, but currently not using, need a bigger living room)
-McIntosh XR6s (which are currently in my living room and I'm picking up 2 more for
surround sound)
-JBL Olympus (the speaker that started it all)
-AR 94s (which I have in my office and am looking to hot-rod the X-over)
-??? (I've always like the McIntosh XR7s, but since they don't have a right and left,
I've never bought a pair due to high-freq imaging) (I've also always liked a lot of the
*bigger* Klipsch speakers, but not familiar enough with their product line...)

And yes, I like vintage gear...

Cheers,

Phread

 

[onedaatmc]

The best I've ever heard were $400,000 a pair. It was a $1,000,000+ stereo at one of my Ferrari Clients ' houses. He owns several Ferrari's , anyway ... They are 7 and a half feet tall, look like a tuba bell for a bass driver, trombone for a mid and trumpet bell for tweets. Hooked up to custom made class A giant amps of a triangular sort of shape that were oh, 2 feet high x 2.5 feet long and where he has 3 amps per speaker running off of custom wound speaker cables that are 2" in circumference with hand made silk sheathing on them coupled to a 900 lb Turntable, that had a 85 lb platter, that had 5 holes drilled in it, with vacuum tubes of surgical rubber that sucked the albums flat from a vacuum system mounted in another room in the house ( so you wound't hear the vacuum hum ).

The owner warms the amps up for about an hour, has the temperature and humidity controlled at set parameters and has a "sweet spot" chair bolted in the "sweet spot" location.

Other than that ...

Phase technology

Snell

ADS

Martin Logan

Magnapan

are my five picks, put as someone else eluded to, the list could go on ad infinitum !!!!!!!

Some higher end stereo stores will let you take speakers home to try out in your house on your stereo, without buying them, because every speaker and room and what kind of electronics , etc... are all different. Certainly you won't be able to tell how they'll sound in an audio store very well, because one, their room is different than yours, normally when showing any speaker , they'll have a sub hooked up in the display to make you think the bookshelf speakers are better sounding than you think, their electronics are different, speaker runs are longer and many other variables that makes choosing a speaker in a stereo store and expecting the same results at home are near impossible. That being said, the more consumer based stores all have a 30 day return policy, so find something in your budget, buy and try them out , if not what you like, maybe try them with a powered sub or better speaker wire or swap them completely for a different speaker set.

like some one else said the variables are too wide and your ear hears different than my ear and your likes of maybe highs and how they should sound to you are different than mine, etc... the list and amount of right line conditions when asking a stereo forum will end up running and getting responses from now until the second coming of Christ.

the best thing is just go try some and see how you like them and keep trying until your happy, which also make take a lifetime ... !!!

 

[tarior]

Somewhere on this site, it says that there are 16,369 active members on AK. That is likely how many opinions you would get on the top 5 speakers ever.

 

[legalalien]

I will preface this by stating these are the five I've either owned or could afford to own, my current and all time fave the New Large Advent (walnut), Magnepan 1.6's, Dahlquest DQ10's, Yamaha NS1000's and the Shahinian Obelisk. This list for me represents "value" with respect to a given price point.

 

[Speaker Fan]

... the next ones

OK, here is my two cents as posted previously on this site....

YES FOLKS... may the worlds best speaker always be the pair we buy next :thmbsp:

Here's a link to the "World's Best Speaker" thread that also had great points...

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164831

 

[mike22]

OKay, I hate to really ruin the fun (imagining all those great ones) but if my miserable budget says STOP at about $200, what would you folks recommend? (And I do mean used--I figure I'll get more for my buck.)
BTW, big room and my taste is mostly classical music, lots of LP vinyl, tubes (500-C).

Thanks.

 

[jimfet]

You talking 5 best for the money or the 5 best sounding. They start at about 100 grand.

 

[Fisherdude]

You talking 5 best for the money or the 5 best sounding. They start at about 100 grand.

And...9 days and counting...the OP is MIA.

Since he included "new" in his criteria, the best one of the best five ever could easily match the cost of his house.

 

[JimJ[VT]]

If I had the room, I'd probably go with big horns first...K-Horns, Altec multicells, I'd really like to hear a Lowther-based Tractrix horn setup one day, or one of the big 3-bay RCA multicell horns.

As far as more "conventional" designs go, some of my favorite driver manufacturers are Scanspeak, Audio Technology, Seas, and Hybrid Audio. Hard to go wrong with any of those, IMO.

 

[Zilch]

OKay, I hate to really ruin the fun (imagining all those great ones) but if my miserable budget says STOP at about $200, what would you folks recommend? (And I do mean used--I figure I'll get more for my buck.)

Another easy one:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=196614

I placed them against the back wall raised up quite high. The horn center is now at ear height: 48" up, putting the woofer center about 38". This is good positioning for this room because of unavoidable obstacles. I'm running the lpad of the horn backed off about 45 degrees. The back wall now gives just enough reinforcement to support some 'socko' in the midbass. Man, the ease and openness of this horn is outstanding. It's hard to imagine someone not liking the mids and treble from this system.

If not "Keepers," it sounds as if these are at least approaching "Benchmark" status in your collection, and you've rolled through just about every speaker known to man there.

E'Wave is just plain silly good.... :thmbsp:

Agreed on 'silly good'. I'm sitting here listening to my modded Audiophile Grade Sony SCPH-1001 PS-1 as a CD player, obsolete Yamaha C-2X preamp and intellectual property violating Rowland copy MOSFET amp with the ULA Ewaves and it's just absurd how good this sounds for how cheap/simple/easy it all is.

 

[dnewma04]

None of the near 100k speakers I've heard were on the same playing field as these, IMHO.

Lambda TD / Unity Horns

Gedlee Summa

DIY speakers similar to this but with 4 dipole 15" woofers per side.