Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard

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sl_1800

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #100 on: 28 Nov 2010, 03:14 pm »
For me the best are:

GR Research Super V
Linkwitz Orion
GR Research V2
GR Research LS9 at Arthurs house
Big Soundlab
Green Mountain Audio Imago IV
Wilson Audio Sophia

Dpod4

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #101 on: 28 Nov 2010, 04:31 pm »
- Vandersteen (any of their models) - very musically engaging
- my older brother's maggie 20.1 driven by all audio research electronics & linn sondek vinyl
- dynaudio special 25 driven by beefy musical fidelity amp
- speakers for head (my beyerdynamic T1 headphones driven by matching a1 amp)
- best of best.....just purchased pair of Esoteric MG20...speed, immediacy and transparency of electrostat, imaging of a mini-monitor, large soundstage and warmth of best floorstander.

Stercom

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #102 on: 28 Nov 2010, 05:52 pm »
Shindo Latour

rave959

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #103 on: 28 Nov 2010, 05:59 pm »
The best speakers I've heard:

Adam Audio Tensor Beta - Easily trounced Wilson Maxx 2's and Wilson Watt/Puppy 8 (and Sasha) I've listened to.

Gedlee Abbey - I currently own the Abbey 12a and Harpers.  I have also heard the Nathan

Linkwitz Orion

Wilson Audio Maxx 2

Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage

Wilson Sasha

Vandersteen 5A


Take care,
Ian


2bigears

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #104 on: 28 Nov 2010, 06:03 pm »
 :D  buy and sell,what a game we  play.two sets of speakers that came but never let go,Proac D38's and Maggie 3.6's......i have yet to try the Maggies with a couple of good subs,but i bet that will be greatness.the 38's are very good value. :D

TONEPUB

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #105 on: 28 Nov 2010, 06:06 pm »
Got em right now, the GamuT S9's.

Runner ups:

YG Acoustics Anat II Studio
Verity Audio Lohengrin II
Avalon Sentinel
Martin Logan CLX

sunnydaze

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #106 on: 28 Nov 2010, 06:19 pm »
Correction to my previous post:   It is the Proac Response D38 that my buddy raves about and prefers to Vandy 5A, and just about everything else. 

The Response 3.8 is an older and discontinued model.

 :duh:

Blooze

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #107 on: 28 Nov 2010, 06:23 pm »
Short list:

Pi 3 Pro's with Pi 3 subs
Emerald Physics CS1.3
Classic Audio T1.4
Jim Griffin Line Arrays with (12) CSS WR125S midwoofers and (9) Aurum Cantus G3i-130 ribbons
Sanders 10C
AudioKinesis Dreammakers

HAL

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #108 on: 28 Nov 2010, 06:56 pm »
Infinity IRS REF III's
GR-Research LS-9's
GR-Research Super-V's
B&W 801 Series II
 :thumb:

activexp

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #109 on: 28 Nov 2010, 07:04 pm »
In no particular order:

IMF TLS80
QUAD ELS63
Gale 401
Lecson HL1

Bob in St. Louis

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #110 on: 28 Nov 2010, 07:08 pm »
Would be nice if one of you with the time on your hands to spreadsheet this information.
Kind of a "scorecard", if you will.   :eyebrows:

Bob

mort

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #111 on: 28 Nov 2010, 10:37 pm »
Would be nice if one of you with the time on your hands to spreadsheet this information.
Kind of a "scorecard", if you will.   :eyebrows:

Bob
Funny I was just thinking that right before your post. It seems we could get a pretty definative picture, at least of the golden ears on A/C. Ill see what I can do.

markie

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Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #112 on: 29 Nov 2010, 01:00 am »
I have never listend to the statement e-two's but would pay good money to hear them.

The idea of paying money to listen to the best speakers you have heard reminded me of this report from StereoMojo's Best Sound at Show award at the recent CES and The Home Entertainment (THE) Show, found near the bottom of  http://stereomojo.com/CES%202010%20Show%20Report/CES2010ShowReportPart7BestofShowAwards.htm

I've included the whole quote for context but have bolded for those who want to skim.

Mark


Quote
There's no denying that this is an expensive system. We almost passed it by altogether. It was the last room we ventured into just a few minutes before the show officially closed.

We had heard DarTzeel components before. We knew they were megabuck icons, not something we'd ever review. And we'd certainly never heard of Evolution Speakers. Probably just another overpriced speaker system. A couple of ceramic drivers and nice enough lacquered cabinets, but nothing special compared to all the monstrosities we'd seen that weekend and at countless shows before. Not surprisingly, this system was heard at The Home Entertainment Show, not CES. Things just seem to be better at THE Show. Only real hardcore music and audio loves venture there, not the teaming hoards the populate the massive Consumer show,

The moment we entered the room though, we knew there was something special going on. The room was crowded with several people standing outside the door, peering in as if something cool was happening. When they saw our Stereomojo badges, they eventually ushered Darby to the center chair.

Usually when you go into a megabuck room such as this ( Kondo in particular), you'd think you were at the last green at the Master's Tournament waiting for the final putt. There's a hushed reverence. Eerie. Not here. Everyone was so relaxed and jovial, like they had all just smoked some very happy weed. The room's hosts were playing a selection from Reference Recording's "Tutti" disk, one we know very well. Though we had heard that track thousands of times before, we had never heard it like THIS!

We're not even going to try to describe the sound. All we can say is that  this was not just the best sound at this show, it was the best sound at ANY show we've EVER heard. In fact, we can state that it's the best stereo reproduction we have ever heard...period. And that friends, is saying a lot.

Yes, the DarTzeel amps ( NHB-458 monoblocks, whose 1000Wpc cost $135,000, but that's a pair - not each...ahem), and preamp (NHB-18 NS - $29,000 - but it includes a phono stage...gasp) together cost around $300,000. Cables by Evolution as well and all the other ancillary gear probably added quite a bit more. The Playback Systems MPS-5 Reference SACD/CD costs another $15,000.

However, the Evolution Acoustics model MMtwo speakers were not anywhere close to those numbers, or close to any of the megalithic (we made that one up, too) speakers we saw. The Evolutions weigh 375 pounds (!) and sell for only $35,000 per pair. The "only" is in contrast to all the other six-figure speakers at the show.

They are 53" tall, 18'" wide and 30" deep. The tweeter is a 5 inch aluminum ribbon between two 7" ceramic midranges and one 15" treated paper cone for the woofer. Frequency response, according to the literature, is 10Hz-40kHz and that's +/- 3 dB.


At -6 dB. they go all the way down to an unheard of 7 Hz. They claim that impedance is 7 ohms and only deviates by +/- 2 ohms, so no wide swings. Sensitivity is a very high 93 dB. They are phase and time aligned. Woofers and tweeters are user adjustable. An internal amplifier for the low end is rated at 600 watts RMS. Max power handling is 400 watts. Minimum watts, they say, is 5 watts. Hard to believe. But if those watts are only driving the 93 dB sensitive mids and tweeters, maybe so.

As big as those speakers were and crammed into a small room, when the music started they utterly disappeared. Linda said they sounded just as good to her and she was seated next to the left wall, way off axis. For the first and only time at this year's show, we listened to the entire Stereomojo Ultimate Evaluation Disk. As every track played, we were mesmerized. We have heard each of those tracks thousands of times, but in this room it was if we'd heard them for the first time. No, there wasn't any new sounds or noises we've never heard before, but what we did hear was simply....Wow! And it was not the amount of sound we heard, they weren't blaring, it was utter realism of the voices and music. Herve Delatraz of DarTzeel commented on what a great demo disk it was. The music wafting from that system was better than most live concerts. Publisher James Darby was heard to say to Evolution designer Jonathan Tinn, "This is the only system I would PAY to hear".


jimdgoulding

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #113 on: 29 Nov 2010, 02:08 am »
The first set that comes to my mind is some Acoustat 1+1's driven by a Linn Sondek deck/arm/MC cartridge via a Spectral pre amp and amp listening to a very fine recording of some choral music.  Spectral is something special if you don't know.  There was stunning realism.  Next best to my trials and trails would some Maggie 20.1's and some Vandy 5's.  This from the earliest to the latest auditions, all quite awhile ago.  This year I got to hear an AudioKinesis Planatarium Beta System with some sterling equipment in front and must include those bad boys. 

Russell Dawkins

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #114 on: 29 Nov 2010, 02:25 am »
First, any decent speaker must produce a solid 3D image.  So strike dipoles or arrays immediately.  And you may want to strike "2.1" designs (that use two mid/woofers with one doing bass/mid-bass only).
The best imaging I ever heard was from a pair of very carefully set up Martin Logans back in 93. I can't remember the model number, but they were hybrids (cone bass) with a simple bass mod that reduced boxiness and they were well into the room and set up using my "mono phantom image check" method, so don't strike dipoles off your list!

SlushPuppy

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #115 on: 29 Nov 2010, 02:35 am »
The first set that comes to my mind is some Acoustat 1+1's driven by a Linn Sondek deck/arm/MC cartridge via a Spectral pre amp and amp listening to a very fine recording of some choral music.  Spectral is something special if you don't know.  There was stunning realism.  Next best to my trials and trails would some Maggie 20.1's and some Vandy 5's.  This from the earliest to the latest auditions, all quite awhile ago.  This year I got to hear an AudioKinesis Planatarium Beta System with some sterling equipment in front and must include those bad boys.

The Acoustat 1+1's were amazing speakers. In 1990 I bought a mint pair for $900. I hooked them to a Threshold FET II Series II preamp and a modded Adcom GFA-555 amplifier. It was one of the best systems I've owned. No bass, but the midrange was to die for.

jimdgoulding

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #116 on: 29 Nov 2010, 05:07 am »
I hear ya, bro.

Russell Dawkins

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #117 on: 29 Nov 2010, 07:36 am »
The idea of paying money to listen to the best speakers you have heard reminded me of this report from StereoMojo's Best Sound at Show award at the recent CES and The Home Entertainment (THE) Show, found near the bottom of  http://stereomojo.com/CES%202010%20Show%20Report/CES2010ShowReportPart7BestofShowAwards.htm
Mark

...and that was the Evolution Acoustics MM2, with one woofer, two mids and a tweeter per side. It makes me wonder what the MM7 with 3 more woofers and 4 mid bass drivers in addition per side must sound like:
http://evolutionacoustics.com/mmseven.html

vinyl_lady

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #118 on: 29 Nov 2010, 07:22 pm »
The Deadalus Ulysses are some of the finest speakers I have heard. Also, a pair of Martin Logan hybrids (not sure of model) at a friend's house in KC several years ago powered by Classe monoblocks. And the VMPS RM 40s at Woodsyi's sounded very nice.

Mike Nomad

Re: Name the finest pair of loud speakers you have heard
« Reply #119 on: 29 Nov 2010, 07:59 pm »
Near the Canal Street landing during the 1984 World's Fair, WRNO had set up a temporary control room. They were using KEF (Model 103.2, I think). They sounded fantastic in that space.

The Celestion A3 also comes to mind, and as others have mentioned, various Maggies.