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The small Elacs seem to be the new miracle speakers. Just prior to that it was the Pioneer monitors. They may all in fact be outstanding, but who can add additional miracle speakers that were touted as Messiah's of sound. These are the speakers reviewers recommending buying "...just for the hell of it!" because they are so good and so inexpensive. Here's a few highly praised and marketed gems to start:
--Original NHT Super Zero
--Mission 731i
--Wharfedale Diamond 8.1
Follow Ups:
I bought a a pair of the bookshelves and was unimpressed.
+1. Though they were a lot better than the last shilled/hyped speakers I bought ( Insignia coaxial ).
A pair that indeed were amazing and actually lived up to the hype were the 1995 Definitive Technologies BP 2002 bi-polar arrays. Those powered towers were fantastic. At $2,000.00 a pair though, they were no bargain back in '95. But they also lived up to the price since they are still going strong in 2016.
OK for music, but along with the CLR 2000 and the BPX surounds they are still an impressive HT setup. Power hungry...but they reward he who pumps them with many watts!
At least I can't be accused of shilling a long out of production product! LOL
What in your opinion is the most successful, hyperbolic, over-the-top, extremely well-written review to ever launch a miracle speaker? I know my favorite and will see if anyone mentions before sharing.
Isn't what is the Miracle System a better question? The speakers that have been highlighted are at say <$500 price point. So for the cost conscious buyer what is the best Integrated or Amp + Preamp that match up best with each of these speakers? A low cost tube or SS approach? If there is a kick butt matchup, isn't that what the readers here want to know about so as to be able to pass on to friends? I'm excluding sources and DACs in this question.
Better? No. It's an additional question. I mentioned the original NHT Super Zero in my original post, so I will offer that they are going to need a sub in most cases and probably require at least 40+ decent watts. 150 actually sounds best to me. A former sales rep for NHT posted that in demoing to dealers he ran the Super Zeros full range and kept the sub crossover much lower than expected and blended the volume up. He was absolutely correct to my ears.
I also had the NHT Super Zero's which I modified. Than the NHT Classic Three. And now Merlin TSM Black Magic series. All have been great at their price points. But I've run them all with tubes.
I still use my SZ's. What mod did you do? Always interested!
Upgraded the crossover with much better parts and internal wire. Don't recall the actual parts, it was like 8 yrs. ago. I used to also have 2 bricks (5.75 x 5.75 x 1.75) on top of each with a thin stiff rubber sheet so as not to scratch the finish. Tightened up the sound. Left the grills off. I used sintered blocks for speaker stands. Should mention I ran them with a large diy 12" sub (around 22 x 34 x 20 driven by a McIntosh MC2205 amp). Although good, as I recall the NHT Classic Three's were much better.
Thanks!
and put them into their proper context. I have the Debut F5s in my second system, and while they certainly aren't perfect, what they do for under $600 (particularly in the imaging department) is pretty impressive.
Just about every speaker listed here, I have heard both good and bad reports on. I recently got a pair of Elac B-5". I think they sound great, someone else may not like them. This is very subjective....
My son has a set of the Pioneers with Dennis Murphy mods. If you use a sub and crossover to relieve the bass load, they are the real deal in budget speakers.
I helped a friend get a a NHT Superzero system with their sub and sub amp and a Jolida hybrid receiver. Very high value system with a small footprint.
Back in the day I helped my sister find a pair of Cizek Sound Windows. In the wall mounted category a real value.
Magnepan MMG.
Energy Connoisseur C-2
In the 70s the Dynaco A25 and the Advent speakers that were wonderful in their day and sold in 6 figures bringing a ton of audio to a lot of audiophiles.
And before that in the 50s and 60s the 1st Acoustic Research speakers that were middle priced and brought deep bass in small cabinets for the time when bass meant huge cabinets. Stereo for audiophiles might not have taken off so quickly if the smaller AR speakers had not changed speaker design.
nt
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
Boston A-40 in 1980 (I bought and still use a pair.)Others to add to this: The JBL LSR305 monitor (Though for some reason an Active speaker usually avoids audiophile recognition. I'd argue that it is the more logical way to configure a loudspeaker for optimum performance/value.
And in these days of Digital sources, NAS archiving, and Streaming devices - who needs the complication or size of a power amplifier.
@ $300/pr for speakers, 4 channels of class D amplifiers & Electronic DSP crossovers I'd say great sound for the money - lot's of home studio types like them a lot...
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius
Edits: 05/24/16
Agreed! I just heard the JBL LSR305 and they are very nice indeed. I will add one other recent "just buy one they're cheap" miracle that I'm surprised hasn't been added yet. The original Audioengine A2 which was quite the rave and still is in it's A2+ updated version. That much sound in a tiny near-indestructible box for the price is a miracle to me.
A good bookshelf, which has built-in limted expectations, is not hard to make and the field jam packed with decent ones. My point is that one will still get more by spending more, and audiophiles visit hyperbole a lot. I still like LS50 as my personal messiah, at least at a few hundred off MSRP.
Don't worry, next month it will be some other speaker.
I've been fooling around in audio for decades. the true classics are still around. The "flavor of the month" speakers come and go VERY quickly.
My prediction is the Zaph SR-71 will be one of the classics. Like the original Dynaco A-25 was 60 years ago.
charles
I believe the Pioneer and Elacs were designed by the same person
Alan
Yep! It doesn't matter who designed, although kudos to designers like Andrew Jones, Ken Kantor, etc. who were able to offer innovative, yet affordable designs.
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