Your favorite speakers

[GlassWolf]

My favorites..

KEF Reference 104/2 Type SP3128
KEF Reference Three~Two and Four~Two
MartinLogan Ascent and Odyssey

[EdAInWestOC]

1) Rectilinear IIIs - my favorite dynamic speaker I ever owned. Transparent and quick enough to almost be an estat
2) Infinity 2000A - Those RTR estat modules made some damm nice music
3) Magnepan IIIa - Original Magneplanar ribbon magic
4) Quad ESL63 - for all the reasons that have been talked to death
5) Magnepan 3.7 - I have plans on getting a pair of these or the 20.7s if I get really lucky
6) Stax Lamda Pros - yeah they are earspeakers but in the years I've owned them (a present for Christmas 1990) they have been very fine performers

Ed

[Billnot]

My favourites have changed over the years.
When I first heard the ESL 57s I was blown away - better than any wooden box then available (this would have been about 1964 or so). So when I was in a position to do so, I bought a pair, in 1970.

I was totally happy with them until I was subjected to an A/B test with the ESL63s. I arranged a trade-in. This would have been about 1985. In my home environment, I was never 100% convinced of the superiority of the '63s, especially in transparency, but they lasted me until 1999 when I moved from the UK to Spain. They didn't come with me, and I changed to an inherited pair of LS3/5As which I put on Partington stands. I surprised myself by finding them even better at imaging (important to me) than the Electrostatics.

Now I've moved back to the UK, my interest in vinyl, which never disappeared, has been reignited, and I have had the chance to audition some decent kit. What have taken my breath away in the last couple of months have been a pair of ex-dem Tannoy Revolution Signature DC6Ts which I picked up for £450. Compared with the LS3/5As they have a better bass (no surprise) but they can also be very delicate in quieter passages, and they image like hell.

If you'd have told me forty years ago, when it was Electrostatics or nothing, that I'd end up liking a pair of Tannoys, I'd never have believed you.

But something that none of us can change, and which I think is the cause of much of the difference of (equally valid) opinion is the Mark 1 ears with which we have either been blessed or cursed.

[Jim Leach]

I've had quite a few different speakers of the years (Hales Concept 5's, Magnepan MG1.6's, and lots more...), but my current ones are my favorites, Thiel CS2.4. Give them enough current and they can just flat out sing! Stunning to watch them disappear right in front of you.

I have their predecessors, the 2.2s and I LOVE them. I think Thiel does not get the credit he deserved when you look at what he created...

[Jim Leach]

I loved my Advent Heritage speakers enough to buy two replacement woofers recently because the foam surrounds rotted away. I still had two original boxed woofers that the friendly people from Recoton sent me for free some years ago. So now all four low/mid speakers have been replaced. I know the Advents will not get much respect either, but I like them. I suspect that something better will blow my budget and I hesitate to buy small speakers on stands - I prefer something more substantial, floor standing.

I had old Advent Legacy (floor standing) speakers and I did a couple simple mods that really improved them. I used them for MANY years until I got Vandersteen model 1's (which I have replaced with Thiel 2.2's).

1) If the speakers are identical (as mine were) yet the tweeter dome is not in the center line of the cabinet (as mine was not), 'flip' one of the tweeters over and the image will snap into sharper focus. Placement (toe-in etc.) was critical with these too.

2) make sure the tweeters are at ear level. Even though these were 'floor standing' I used high-tech milk crates for mine. Non-resonant plastic ones...

3) replace all internal wire with silver. Worth the money.

4) replace all crossover caps. I used Wondercaps which I think are no longer available. The original ones were really poor. This made the sound quite a bit more pleasant!

5) if you haven't already, ditch the grille cloth and frame! The plastic can resonate and it does no favors in the imaging department when not resonating.

They sound good stock, and are rather efficient too. With these mods, you could be happy for another decade or two with them, and for not a lot of money!

[Jim Leach]

And I wanted to revive a brand I did not see mentioned at all in here.

Back in the eighties when I was putting my first 'real' system together, the shop I visited (sound and music in Northampton Mass) used to sell Snell speakers. The ones I really liked were the C-4 model. They had an adjustable rear-firing tweeter and worked well in all the rooms they set them up in (WAY out of my price back then). Nice veneer work on them too.

Now I never see them on the secondary market, and also never hear them mentioned. Did anyone buy them??? Any impressions compared to all the speakers that have come along since?

[jackfish]

How about Magnestand modified Magnepan 20.1s, a pair of Rythmik F15HP subwoofers, and ungodly expensive components to drive them? Haven't heard them but sure would love to!

[Jim Leach]

I wanted to make a comment about my experience with Klipsch speakers as well.

Before I got the Vandersteens, I was doing a lot of speaker shopping. During that time I listened to a few Klipsch designs, below, in and above my price point. I discovered (in the poor acoustics of the store) that I preferred the Klipsch speakers on 'live' recordings- that is, recordings of live performances. Those horn tweeters added a level of 'reality' to the sound and you really felt like you were at a concert.

The down side was (for me) that with a good studio recording, they sounded a bit 'honky' to me. You could tell they were horns in there. I was comparing to Polk speakers at a similar price point, and learned the Polk speakers have their own problems as I continued to audition speakers (and ultimately why I did not buy Polks in the end).

Anyway, my conclusion is that the Klipsch speakers are very lively (perhaps too lively, dependent on your source material) rather than neutral, and for me, and my schizophrenic musical variety, that just wasn't going to work.

[slr9589]

Have had all kinds over 35 years.The Bob Crite Cornscallas are the best i have ever had. highly sensitive,wide response,....i love them

[Aural Addict]

Most people will say what they own... I'm no different. Considering my speakers are the best sounding I've heard, and they are entry level for Focal, I really wish I could hear some Utopias.....!

[Dismord]

Most people will say what they own... I'm no different. Considering my speakers are the best sounding I've heard, and they are entry level for Focal, I really wish I could hear some Utopias.....!

I've listend to the three top Focal speakers with a range of amplification and never could take to the treble. To my ears it always sounds 'hi-fi-ish' if I can coin a term. Their cheaper models though I could happily live with. Interestingly when Wilson Audio uses tweeters made by Focal in their statement speakers I don't hear this 'hi-fi-ish' effect so maybe Focal are doing something odd with their crossover designs or maybe they've figured that just about all their customers who have enough cash for their top models are middle aged men with diminished treble hearing and they're deliberately compensating for that ? Just a guess but I'm sure a number of high end moving coil manufactures are up to the same trick.
And yes, my favourite speakers are still my own.

[Aural Addict]

Interesting....one of the stores from the company I work for had some Electras, but I didn't get a chance to hear them. Do you think the ones you heard weren't broken in yet. They change drastically in the mids and low end, which creates a better balance...?

[Dismord]

Interesting....one of the stores from the company I work for had some Electras, but I didn't get a chance to hear them. Do you think the ones you heard weren't broken in yet. They change drastically in the mids and low end, which creates a better balance...?

Don't know about the others but the Utopias I heard belong to a friend who's had them up and running for some time with a range of amplifiers from Nuforce V3's to Audio Research 'References' and last time I heard them, MBL mono blocks. Didn't like the treble with any of them and the room is 'kind' to treble being properly set up with diffusion and absorption treatments. Coincidentally (?) my friend also likes expensive moving coils with tilted up high frequencies so he's happy with his Focals.
Horses for courses?

[Aural Addict]

It's funny, I was always more of a bass junkie (Polk lsi, Martin Logan subs, Polk micro pro subs, etc...) then I heard the Focals... They definitely have strong highs, but the cleanliness and clarity is just nuts to me... More detail than I've ever heard before and the inverted setup bounces around my room incredibly... And not in an echoing sort of way, the soundstage amazes me. When I sell them to a customer, they are set up as a 5.1, but I only demo them in 2 channel. Almost every time the customer puts their ear to the center expecting sound, but there is none...
Love em!