What do you think are the best speakers ever?

[Staples]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: Staples
I just have to say, don't spend too much on speakers. More than $200 a speaker and you will not notice the difference.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype but don't.

I take it thats coming from personnal experience?

Or have you ever owned a $5000 set of speakers?

Maybe he has severe hearing damage

Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

 

[Lithium381]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: Staples
I just have to say, don't spend too much on speakers. More than $200 a speaker and you will not notice the difference.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype but don't.

I take it thats coming from personnal experience?

Or have you ever owned a $5000 set of speakers?

Maybe he has severe hearing damage

and maybe he's just a tool......hahaha j/k

i'm in the middle of planning my next pair of speakers to be built myself.....this will be 4 pair + sub........i have been pleased with my results so far

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: Staples
I just have to say, don't spend too much on speakers. More than $200 a speaker and you will not notice the difference.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype but don't.

I take it thats coming from personnal experience?

Or have you ever owned a $5000 set of speakers?

Maybe he has severe hearing damage

Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

If it makes you feel better.... But as far as my non-sound-dampened room and standard audio sources go, my B&W's still sound SIGNIFICANTLY better than the standard speakers I had before. But, some people are simply more inclined to notice sound differences and be more appreciative of it. Just like some people can't really tell 720i from 1080i, while others...it's life-or-death for them. People aren't buying $5000 speakers if they don't notice the difference. (I should hope!) With my speakers, sources like radio and mp3's still sound... well, as you'd expect. but pop in a DVD and it's a whole new world from the way it was before.

I wouldn't recommend anyone buy expensive stuff if they don't detect or justify the benefit. But that doesn't mean everyone detects or justifies as you or I might.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: fs5
I don't know about best but my pair of Monitor RS6s work pretty well http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/product.php?range=2&product=4 for their price.

Nice! How much power do they require?

Originally posted by: Staples

Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

Actually, no. There's good science behind it.

A DIY amplifier based around the LM3886 or LM3875 can be made for under 50$, and has a distortion of well under 0.1% at 20khz, or 0.03% at 1khz. (It may be even less - I'm not sure.)

An average speaker has a distortion measured in percentages, and a frequency response best defined as "awful". Speakers can be made cheaply, but often costs are cut to increase profit. Cheap speakers can leave out some bands entirely, leading to many people reporting "Hey, a new instrument!" when switching to better-quality speakers.

Originally posted by: Lithium381


and maybe he's just a tool......hahaha j/k

i'm in the middle of planning my next pair of speakers to be built myself.....this will be 4 pair + sub........i have been pleased with my results so far

We will start a thread on DIY speakers, and rule the world!

EDIT:
Anyone know where I should make the DIY speaker thread?

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead

Originally posted by: Staples

Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

Actually, no. There's good science behind it.

A DIY amplifier based around the LM3886 or LM3875 can be made for under 50$, and has a distortion of well under 0.1% at 20khz, or 0.03% at 1khz. (It may be even less - I'm not sure.)

An average speaker has a distortion measured in percentages, and a frequency response best defined as "awful". Speakers can be made cheaply, but often costs are cut to increase profit. Cheap speakers can leave out some bands entirely, leading to many people reporting "Hey, a new instrument!" when switching to better-quality speakers.

If it helps any, I NEVER listen to anything over 100db (probably more like 80db is the max I ever listen to). The more you crank up "good" speakers, the more you will hear the difference. Since I don't like loud noises, I am less likely to hear the differences between expensive and midrange speakers.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Just sold off my M&K S-150 system. I loved those speakers...

Best system I ever installed was a B&W Nautilus system. Four Krell FPB-600 amps. Wadia CD player. Krell CAST pre-amp. B&W Nautilus speakers...

$120,000 audio system. It was a religous experience.

I have heard from many that B&W is the best.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: Staples
I just have to say, don't spend too much on speakers. More than $200 a speaker and you will not notice the difference.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype but don't.

I take it thats coming from personnal experience?

Or have you ever owned a $5000 set of speakers?

Maybe he has severe hearing damage

Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

Not true at all.... unless you measure sound quality by bass output. Source has little to do with it, unless you're using some 96kbps mp3s.
Getting my Etymotic ER4S earphones with amp was like opening another dimension to music. Speakers isn't just about sound output and distortion. Once you get into the high realms of speakers, you'll start feeling a soundstage. I've never really experienced soundstage in music until I've heard high end audiophile setups. It's like what I said, adding another dimension to music.
I bet anything that you can't hear the difference between 128kbps MP3s and SACD if you claim $200 speakers is about as good as it gets. I dare you to do a blind test.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Staples
Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

I don't think you quite "get it". 5000 dollar set of speakers gets one into the "good" range of speakers. It's a whole 'nother level. Music sounds totally different and real. There is depth to the imaging - bass guitars are behind vocals, violins are "airy" and tonally accurate. Meaning it literally sounds like somebody is playing in your room.

The difference between a 1000 set of speakers and 5000 is astounding. But I will agree that much past 5000 you get diminishing returns. I'm talking stereo here, 2 channel.

Do yourself a favor and take your favorite recording (and make sure it is a pristine recording or those 5000 dollar speakers will reveal every last botch) to a hi-fi place and listen on one of the nicer stereos. It should really wow you once your close your eyes.

 

[dennilfloss]

What about this baby? The Kharma Grand Enigma.

http://www.kharma.com/_images/products/enigma/e-800.jpg

The Kharma Grand Ceramique speakers appear good too.

http://www.gttgroup.com/press.html

Some decent stuff listed here:

http://www.aca.gr/system_world_a.htm
http://www.anycities.com/andyhifi/audio.htm .

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Staples
Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

I don't think you quite "get it". 5000 dollar set of speakers gets one into the "good" range of speakers. It's a whole 'nother level. Music sounds totally different and real. There is depth to the imaging - bass guitars are behind vocals, violins are "airy" and tonally accurate. Meaning it literally sounds like somebody is playing in your room.

The difference between a 1000 set of speakers and 5000 is astounding. But I will agree that much past 5000 you get diminishing returns. I'm talking stereo here, 2 channel.

Do yourself a favor and take your favorite recording (and make sure it is a pristine recording or those 5000 dollar speakers will reveal every last botch) to a hi-fi place and listen on one of the nicer stereos. It should really wow you once your close your eyes.

I dunno. I think that there's a level where it's just not worth the expense. A DIY speaker set costing under 500$ but built EXACTLY how you like it can be more pleasant than B&W's best offerings. Also, to be quite honest, I personally do find anything over roughly $2500 for the pair to be serious overkill.

I have enough earwax to make anything that expensive moot.

As a side note....most people have damaged their ears. I generally have my stereo at half the volume of everyone else I know, wear earplugs, and do all that other stuff. My hearing's not perfect, but at least I'll have it past 50.

 

[spidey07]

Well cheesehead, we'll just have to disagree. I don't like distortion boxes. Never have, never will.

But good for you for keeping the volume in check. I've got some damage, but tone and soundstage aren't affected much by this.

Hell, most all but the serious music listener don't have their speakers setup well anyway.

 

[Excelsior]

DIY, ftw.

Why accept anything less?

 

[BD2003]

Of the few planar speakers that I've heard, they all sounded absolutely fantastic. Mind you these were small, cheap multimedia speakers, but the level of detail coming from them was shocking. Only problem is that they were absurdly directional, you had to be DIRECTLY in the path of the speaker in order to see the full benefit, and they did not extend very far down into the midrange.

Reasonably speaking, 2-way speakers with a subwoofer are a good compromise. Too many drivers and the sound begins to lose something, but one driver is just being asked to do too much.

I prefer dome tweeters over horn tweeters for a more natural sound, and smaller subwoofers over larger for a tighter sound.

But for absolute quality, headphones cannot be beat.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Staples
Or maybe I know that almost 100% of people's houses don't have ceiling, wall and door sound dampening foam so if you do buy a $5000 set of speakers it will not make much of a difference. Also, most sound people listen to is compressed so it is not as though one is listening to an uncompressed 24bit audio source. Sure you can hear a difference with a $5000 set of speakers but the difference is small and considering the source and the surroundings, it isn't worth the price in 99% of sound setups.

There are a ton of reasons not to go overboard. My advice still stands.

I don't think you quite "get it". 5000 dollar set of speakers gets one into the "good" range of speakers. It's a whole 'nother level. Music sounds totally different and real. There is depth to the imaging - bass guitars are behind vocals, violins are "airy" and tonally accurate. Meaning it literally sounds like somebody is playing in your room.

The difference between a 1000 set of speakers and 5000 is astounding. But I will agree that much past 5000 you get diminishing returns. I'm talking stereo here, 2 channel.

Do yourself a favor and take your favorite recording (and make sure it is a pristine recording or those 5000 dollar speakers will reveal every last botch) to a hi-fi place and listen on one of the nicer stereos. It should really wow you once your close your eyes.

I will definitely agree that for true audiophiles, that crazy amount of money spent on speakers is not wasted. My high school music teacher really pushed to get the budget to get expensive speakers for our class. When he played music through those things, I could have sworn there was a damn symphony sitting in the front of the classroom.

That kind of money is wasted on popular music, since the recordings are trash, but for instrumental and detailed music, there is most definitely a huge difference.

 

[Excelsior]

I prefer dome tweeters over horn tweeters for a more natural sound, and smaller subwoofers over larger for a tighter sound.

It is a myth that small subwoofer drivers are "tighter" sounding than larger ones, just so you know. The only reason you prefer the smaller ones due to the differences in FR and the particular alignment of the sub, not the size of the driver.

 

[uberman]

I've got some Scott Pro 100s that I have matched to a Kenwood 9600 reciever, they go very well together. You can scare the nieghbors, ellicit calls to the police, or even get evicted with them. You can make walls shake and floors rattle. A lot of that is credit to the reciever which is legendary. The speakers are Philips and utilize 2 tweeters and 2 midranges with a 15 inch woofer. Bose are crap. Good speakers I've had or my friends have had are: JBL, Sound of the theatre ( I believe these used to be used in movie houses) and will crank very loud, Klipsh has produced some nice speakers, Nakamechi has made some incredibly fine sounding small speaker systems. My current setup is as follows: The speakers seem to be a good deal. In the 1970s they were $900.00 a pair.

[http://www.audioreview.com/PRD_118618_1593crx.aspx]

[http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/ele/233484817.html]

 

[cheesehead]

You'd be surprised what goes into a $5,000 speaker.

Often, the total cost of drivers is under 500$.

And while super-expensive speakers are nice, I'm more of a passive listener - I like to put on some 'tunes while studying calculus, to distract me from how much I suck at it.

 

[shortylickens]

I think someone may have mentioned it already but if you head over to the Klipsch website you can dig around and find $10,000 speakers.

Since I cant hear the difference I settled for a z-5300e system for my game computer, and a 600 watt sony receiver and six 100 watt sony speakers for my television.

 

[xes]

I like mine..
http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00149xc.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00203kd.jpg

They are IPL S3 kit speakers, I drive them with one of these:
http://www.hificollective.co.uk/kits/300bsedescription.html

Which is fed by this (old picture, it now has an orbe platter and lyra dorian)
http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00265hg.jpg

A long way from worlds best, but it didnt cost silly money, I built most of it myself and it rocks my world.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: xes
I like mine..
http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00149xc.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00203kd.jpg

They are IPL S3 kit speakers, I drive them with one of these:
http://www.hificollective.co.uk/kits/300bsedescription.html

Which is fed by this (old picture, it now has an orbe platter and lyra dorian)
http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dcp00265hg.jpg

A long way from worlds best, but it didnt cost silly money, I built most of it myself and it rocks my world.

Nice!

Are those ribbon tweeters I see?

 

[xes]

Thanks=)
Yeah they are Legend Acoustics ribbon tweeters, sound bloody fabulous=)

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Just sold off my M&K S-150 system. I loved those speakers...

Best system I ever installed was a B&W Nautilus system. Four Krell FPB-600 amps. Wadia CD player. Krell CAST pre-amp. B&W Nautilus speakers...

$120,000 audio system. It was a religous experience.

I have heard from many that B&W is the best.

People can make arguments about Wilson, Dunleavy, Magnapan, Revel... But that Nautilus system we installed was the best aural experience I've ever had. Just... absolutely staggering.

 

[0roo0roo]

single driver and ported seems like waste of time to make. you want the best quality sound right? that means using multiple drivers..tweeters... sealed box for precise sound.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
You'd be surprised what goes into a $5,000 speaker.

Often, the total cost of drivers is under 500$.

And while super-expensive speakers are nice, I'm more of a passive listener - I like to put on some 'tunes while studying calculus, to distract me from how much I suck at it.

yea theres a lack of real information for the consumer at high level audio equipment they charge what they can get away with. we need more scientific testing. too bad consumer reports don't bother with that stuff. and yes...i know..they rate mini ssytems based on more than sound anyways, where theres a lack of info consumers get buttraped.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

I prefer dome tweeters over horn tweeters for a more natural sound, and smaller subwoofers over larger for a tighter sound.

It is a myth that small subwoofer drivers are "tighter" sounding than larger ones, just so you know. The only reason you prefer the smaller ones due to the differences in FR and the particular alignment of the sub, not the size of the driver.

But for the same amount of money, a smaller driver will likely be of higher quality than a larger one.

But if money isnt a consideration, better to use speakers with big woofers already, and leave the sub to handle the SUB bass.