Your favorite speakers

[davidsrsb]

Mission 752s helped by a subwoofer. This was a classic Mission model

[Dadimo]

My Focal JM Labs 807V. I feel silly for not knowing much about the company, until I started listening to them. They replaced a pair of B&W series II matrix II that were not too shabby either.

[jc_the_trucker]

My Focal JM Labs 807V. I feel silly for not knowing much about the company, until I started listening to them. They replaced a pair of B&W series II matrix II that were not too shabby either.

My only experience with Focal is their car audio line which is absolutely top notch. Not only do they make the best car speakers, their lower range models offer the best value for money. If their home stereo equipment is at least as good, I can see why your happy!

I had a little Acura coupe several years ago that I put a set of Focal's cheapest speakers in the front (I think they cost around $150 at the time) and a set of Polk Audio's top of the range model in the back, and the Focals were much cleaner sounding (although the Polks had slightly crisper highs, so the combination was epic). Also had a couple of 12" subs in the back because I was a stupid young man who didn't care if he ruined his hearing. I've been toying with the idea of Focals all around in my Ford pickup because I loved them so much (wont do the subs though, kinda need my back seat and what hearing I have left ).

Sorry for the rambling, semi-off topic post.

[lbgrrl]

Not the ones I have now, that is for sure. My parents have 1973 era Altec Santanas--wonderful speakers that sound incredible. Very warm and detailed reproduction. These are my favorites!

[Bennybee]

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.

[Boukman]

I agree with the Yamaha NS1000's. Have a pair in the office. And a pair of Harbeth SHL5's in the living room. And a pair of Rogers Ls3/5a's in the bedroom. I love them all. They all do the job for me. The Harbeth's and the Yamaha's for neutrality and soundscape they create....with some decent bass. And the Ls3/5a's for the lovely engaging sound (albeit coloured etc)

[dlaloum]

Some speakers I have owned or listened to and lusted after:

Quad ESL57 - currently in storage, unbeatable purity of midrange... play a good TT into these with a QuadII valve amp or Quad 303 driving them, and they definitely do midrange magic. They are also delicate, and must be run with the right amp otherwise you can easily get fireworks and a speaker that does not do much.

Quad ESL63 - loses a touch of the midrange magic of the 57, but when positioned right they are a much more full range speaker, and the imaging is absolute magic - there is a sweet spot where it is pinpoint sharp, but you get real imaging right across most of the room - quite remarkable, and like the ELS57, the microdetail they can reproduce is astounding - not a "rock" speaker - won't give you that gut thumping kick drum.

Quad ESL989 - all the good things of the ESL63 - but more lower end, it just goes lower - also the mid panels are higher off the floor. Remains one of my reference speakers - brilliant!

Martin Logan CLS - heard these, liked them a lot, ultimately chose the quads - the Quads have the all over the room imaging effect, the ML's didn't do that - but I could live with them!

Maggie Planar 3.6 - heard these a number of times.... doesn't do the microdetail thing as well as the electrostatics - needs a bit more oomph to get things happening.... But it does not sound like a box. (on a lot of speakers I can literally hear the box) - I liked these, another speaker I could live with.

Boston Acoustics A400 - this one is a fabulous rock speaker, and does everything else well too - requires a good powerful amp - but ohmygosh it definitely could give you that gut thump sensation. - The rest of that speaker range was good in gradually reducing levels of quality - all of this series with the soft dome tweeter had a touch of magic (A400, A150, A100, A70, A60)

Klipsch Forte II - not one of my personal favourites - you need an amp that can give it some serious "stick" before it wakes up, and it doesn't wake up at lower volumes (which is why I didn't go for it) - but once it wakes up, this is another fab rock speaker, or one for BIG music. Yes it is an efficient speaker, but I never had any luck running it with lower powered amps - 100W minimum!

Gale 402's I remember liking these - got them for a friend who asked me to set up a system for him... but I do not remember what they sounded like!

Gallo Reference 3.1 - my current main speakers - a compact, non boxy floor stander with Gallo's CDT tweeter (effectively a supertweeter as it goes well beyond 20kHz) - with a 180 degree spread for the tweeter, this is another one that throws an image that can be heard from most places around the room.
It is not quite as good as my previous Quad 989's but it is a LOT more compact (which was the point of the changeover.... sigh).

DCM Timewindow - a friend had these and I remember liking these a lot - an omnidirectional speaker, with transmission line loading if I remember correctly - needed a bit of power, another forgotten speaker that occasionally shows up as a great buy.

Metaxas Electrostatics - I remember hearing this at Kostas Metaxas' Melbourne showroom many years ago, with a goldmund reference feeding into some Metaxas amps - the whole thing played one of the most "real" piano renditions I have heard.
Very very good - but I thought the ESL57's did the midrange a touch better... (but then to this day I think nothing matches the ESL57's midrange!)

[pivot]

DCM Timewindow - a friend had these and I remember liking these a lot - an omnidirectional speaker, with transmission line loading if I remember correctly - needed a bit of power, another forgotten speaker that occasionally shows up as a great buy.

Worked at a shop that picked up the DCM line when the Time Window was introduced.

Folks are certainly allowed to like what ever they like....and I did sell a number of these.....or more correctly customers sold themselves. I would turn them on and play them. They sounded "different" from other speakers and sometimes different sells. (would actively "sell" Magneplanar, Cizek and ADS)

I frankly thought DCM had a "goosed" mid-bass and funny gimicked imaging created by having two Phillps dome tweeters connected out of phase on the angled front baffles. I recall describing it as "fun house" imaging. Far, far from my favorite speakers sold in the shop.

They sold for circa $600 a pair at the time Magneplanar MG 1a sold for circa $500 a pair. With salesman "comp" pricing they were pretty much the same cost to me. I brought home Maggies and never gave the DCMs a thought.

I'd suggest a good listen to comparison speakers before deciding these are "the one". Horses for courses and all that.

[dlaloum]

With regards to the DCM's I hear them before I was exposed to the Quads, maggies etc... I recall liking them, but today could not say whether they truly were good bad or indifferent - 30 years later, the recollections of what I heard in my mid teens....a bit vague!

[pivot]

With regards to the DCM's I hear them before I was exposed to the Quads, maggies etc... I recall liking them, but today could not say whether they truly were good bad or indifferent - 30 years later, the recollections of what I heard in my mid teens....a bit vague!

Certainly no insult to your taste intended, I just wanted to give a different perspective.

I had the advantage at the time of a room full of interesting speakers to hear them against.

DCMs do seem to bring a decent price on the used market so there must be others who think my opinion is off base. Would not be the first time.

[dlaloum]

Nah you could well be right - Had you said something similar about the Quads, my response would have been very different.
But I really do mean what I said - I recall being impressed at the DCM's when I was 13/14... but I never saw them again and have not heard them since... so it really is not very meaningful.
But I will say one thing - they are a very different design, and worth listening to for that reason alone (given the chance, I would love to give them a listen with my now rather more educated albeit less capable ears )

[lini]

That's really a difficult one, 'cause I've heard so many nice speakers over the years. Hmmm, maybe the Gessner G1, G3 and the Mini/G0.5. I've still got one of the four prototype pairs of the latter, a nice little two-way combination of a Seas 13 cm bass/mid pp woofer and a tiny ITT tweeter, which required only a very minimal crossover: 1 cap. The production versions were a bit more complicated, though: 1 cap plus 1 resistor - as Mr. Gessner chose to go for a smaller cabinet (than the prototype cabinets two friends and I had made for him - for which in return we got the speaker parts from him for cheap...), so that the tweeter output needed to be reduced by a bit... Really nice sounding thingies, but also dependent on comparatively juicy amplification.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

[Fishtails]

I just found the most amazing speakers in the entire world! More info and pictures coming!!

[natty_dredd]

Watson Labs Model 10 speakers, designed and built by Mike Wright, creator of the original Dayton-Wright Electrostatics.
These speakers are so transparent, with 15 to 23000 Hz response, easy to drive, forgiving of placement, and built to last.

Cheers,
Alec

Alec - did you used to play Elite (the computer game) back in the day? Just noticed your signature and wondered if it was a reference.