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Re: 10 Best Speakers-What do you think

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Based on your rules, here's my list. All of the below-mentioned speakers were available sometime between 1996 and now, because that's when I got into audio. In rough order, except for #1, which is #1 by a pretty huge margin. I think the bottom 2 speakers in my top 10 are seriously flawed, but they do the rest well enough to make me prefer them to any number of high end speakers lacking such obvious flaws.

10) Acapella Violon 1. I put this speaker on the list despite a fatal flaw, because it does the midrange and highs so well. The Violon incorporates three very different types of drivers: a plasma ion tweeter, horn-loaded mid, and direct radiator woofer. And despite the huge space between them, they integrate as well as any non-concentric speaker out there. If the Seas 10" woofer that anchors them weren't so hopelessly outclassed, this speaker would be my #1. Perhaps their next version will use something like a Lambda TD-15 instead. If they weren't so expensive, I'd likely have bought a pair and done precisely that by now.

9) Dunlavy SC-IVA. Massive, moderately efficient, multiway dyanamic direct-radiating tower. Unfortunately, though, it's the perfect speaker only for people with no friends, because the sweet spot is so minute. But oh, what sweetness inside that ~15" wide spot...

8) NHT 3.3. Basically, a sat-sub system in two boxes, with the side-mounted 1259 woofers and the 3-way satelite. A very clear-sounding, low distortion speaker. I suspect that a similar design using "back to the future" components (paper cones, for instance) would be an absolute world-beater today, just as the 3.3 was when it was first introduced.

7) Gallo Nucleus Reference. Two basketball-sized spheres containing Dynaudio 17W75's, and a custom 330-degree piezo tweeter. Besides the eye-catching industrial design (I heard them before the spheres were covered in cloth), they had surprisingly full-range sound for a pair of small 6.5" 2.5-ways. Also, that tweeter was something special.

6) KEF KAR System 160.Q. These car speakers were designed to get the best sound possible out of non-ideal locations, namely the doors of cars. Do to so, they are not flat, but have a rising top end. On the proper axis, though, they are by far the best sounding transducers I've heard put in a car. Most car-fi equipment is designed to make lots of noise. The KEF's are much more comfortable with Schostakovich 7 than Bass Mekanik 24601.
(These are not to be confused with the later blue poly-coned KEF KAR Q160, which was designed and manufactured by the American company Coustic.)

5) Martin-Logan reQuest. The reQuest wasn't the first ML hybrid, nor was it arguably even the prettiest or best integrated of its generation (those honours go to the SL3), but it. I haven't heard ML's latest generation, but aesthetically they're a definite step backwards.

4) Avalon Avatar. Yes, six-odd grand is A LOT of money for an 8" 2-way, even one using an Eton woofer. And bass alignment (Qtc=0.5) aside, their design is "all wrong", with a horrid tweeter, a woofer with legendary break-up modes on top, and probably 15" of impeccably finished wood between woofer and tweeter. But they work, and work well. They're the smallest speakers I've heard to convincingly portray the raw energy of massed strings, and the overall spectral balance is wonderful. No one else has successfully tamed that MB Quart dome, to my ears. I actually had to look to make sure it was an MBQ dome, because usually they literally run me out of the room. The Avatar are also stunning pieces of industrial design, Avalon's best looking, to my eyes.

3) KEF Q15. Yes, a little US$350 KEF ahead of all of these multi-kilobuck speakers! IMO, the 4th gen Uni-Q was the first one that really sparkles. KEF's achievement with these little speakers was to package such smoothness with decent efficiency into a US$350 speaker. Are they the last speakers I'll ever own? Not likely. But in all honesty I think them the best 6.5" 2-way out there at any price, and I like them better than many five-figure speakers I've heard, the Wilson WATT/Puppy for example. (NOTE: Comments apply to the original Q15, not the newer Q15.2. I suspect the new one is as good or better, but I've never heard it.)

2) Tannoy D700. First and only speaker I've ever heard that basically does everything right. It nails the energy density of the lower mids, and (with ports plugged) it exhibits a top-to-bottom coherence like no other speaker I've yet heard. Also, despite its poly cones, this thing is QUICK!

1) Sennheiser HD-580. Headphones may seem like an odd choice for "best speaker of all time", but I have never heard recorded music more convincingly reproduced than over these headphones. Particularly when driven by a Headroom Total AirHead headphone amp or a Sonic Frontiers Line-series preamp that incorporates Headroom's spatial imaging processor. I picked the '580s over the 580 Jubilees or the 600s because the latter two are just variations on the theme established by the '580. Excellent variations, and perhaps better for people who don't already have '580s, not enough for this '580 owner to upgrade.

Dishonourable mention:

Any me-too 6.5" 2-way using the ScanSpeak 8545 and 9x00 tweeter. No matter how pretty or expensive you are, you'll still be just a 6.5" 2-way. Get over yourself.

NP: Dave Matthews Band, "Too Much" (Live in Chicago)


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