[MKOM]

TAAS Members:

It was suggested by a client of ours to start a Top Ten List for various system components.  I think this is a  great idea so here goes.  A Top Ten List for Amplifiers, Line Stages, Phono Stages, CD Players, Turntables/Tonearms, Cartridges & Loudspeakers. 

Let's start with Loudspeakers....

My candidate in the Top Ten Components, for the category of Loudspeakers is the Quad ESL 57's & ESL 63's.

Look forward to hearing from the membership.

Cheers,

MKOM   

[Pneumonic]

Great idea.

My candidate for inclusion in the best speaker category:

Martin Logan CLS

Cost no object: Martin Logan Statement

[Daygloworange]

I love my vintage 4 X 12 Marshall cabinets to death, personally. 

They rock! 

Cheers

[aerius]

For speakers I'd say it's the Living Voice Avatar OBX-R.  It's one of the very few speakers I've heard which combine high resolution & cleanness with the ability to get out of the way, disappear, and make music sound good even if it's not an "audiophile approved" recording.  I can hear tape splices and bleed-through echos on mastertapes, all that is there if I want to hear it, but frankly I just don't care since the music sounds too damn good.

[Rafal]

I would suggest something unconventional: A high end active speaker system like Linn Genki. There are other more expensive speakers but the Linn is one of the best I've heard. The other nice one is Sonus Faber Stradivari Homeage but value wise, Linn has it beat. Even my Tannoy System 800 As are hard to match for twice the price.

[Steve-N]

Amplifiers - Quad II Forty monoblocks

Line Stages - Quad QC24 Preamp, Sonic Frontiers Line1

CD Players - Teac P500/D500 combo

Turntables/Tonearms - Rega Planar 3 w/ RB300 arm

Cartridges - Denon DL-103

Loudspeakers.  Acoustat Model 3

[8205236]

Here goes my short list:

IMHO and in no particular order:

Totem Model 1's
Simply because they rewrote the book for many people on what a small speaker could do.  I wonder how many non-audiophiles looked at these and thought $1500 for what?  Then they heard a set and wanted them.

Totem Mani 2's
Okay maybe it is unfair to have two speakers from the same manufacturer but what the Model 1 did for the non-audiophile the Mani 2 did for the audio enthusiast.  Jaw dropping bass.  Hey where's the subwoofer?

Quad 57's
If you have to ask, you've never heard them.  Bass?  Not important.  Just listen to that midrange.  Perhaps the best that has ever been.

Quad 63's etc...
Okay another manufacturer with two speakers, actually more if you count 988's, 989's, 2805's etc.  I kinda group them all together because the are essentially the same electrostatic panel.  Not as clean in the midrange as the 57's but not nearly as self-destructive either.  They have better bass as well.

Linn LP-12
The table that launched a thousand upgrades.  Man you gotta like any company that keeps a 35 year old design current enough to be in the same conversation as the latest cutting edge designs.  Ivor may have been down, but his table continues to battle on.

That's it for now.  I'll repost if I can think of so more.

Cheers All