Your personal best, Earth shattering speaker auditions that left you speechless

Not too long

Even at the big box store I was working at, the salesmen always said "No highs, no lows, must be Bose". That being said, we were still pretty impressed with the soundstage and relative crankability of such a tiny speaker. I think you have to tip your hat to Bose for really popularizing (if not starting) that Sub/Sat concept. It wasn't too much later that other companies started doing it better and cheaper.

 

I've heard many great systems over the years. But the one that slapped me upside the head was hearing a pair of Apogee Centaur Minor speakers driven by a Rotel RB-980BX anp and Rotel RC-980BX preamp at a store near my work when I was fresh out of college. They were playing Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms CD (don't recall which CD player they used). I had always been a music lover with a modest, at best, system. But that combo made me realize there was more to hi-fi life than what I had been hearing. Been an audiophile ever since!

 

I have also heard the little Centaurs. They're very affordable and IMO will destroy most other speakers priced out of their range!

A short story, a friend of mine had just purchased a new pair of Infinity Kappas. She was ecstatic over them, couldn't wait to show them off. After a nice listening session we headed out for a late lunch, then just happened to pass a Stereo place (Albany NY) I did a U turn, just being a gear junkie was only curious what they offered.

Once inside, I spotted the Apogee Centaurs. I asked if we could hear them. Well.. My friend was instantly captivated by them. "What am I going to to with the Kappas", she asked! Sell 'em I responded. That she did.. down payment, and sold the Kappas within two days. She had owned the Kappa scarcely two weeks. The Kappa is a nice speaker, they rock, but the Centaurs ended that relationship really fast.

 

Wilson Watt/Puppy (I think they were version 8) powered by Spectral monoblocks; unbelievably dynamic and punchy, fun and dynamic speakers.
Dynaudio Contour 5.4 powered by Rotel (I think it was an RB1080 or 1090); gorgeous, liquid midrange with smooth extended highs; female vocals were to die for.
MBL 101 (I think this was the model) at an audio show, I think powered by MBL amps; they were playing drum solos, and it was the most realistic reproduction of cymbals I had ever heard.

 

Best sound ever from a speaker IMO and love the look...matches my TT. Heard at Montreal Audio show around 2009/2010 Modest system as well Sota TT with SME iv/vi with Glider benz cart.

sean

 

Altec Lansing VOTT's...3 way system outdoors at a private pig roast. Sounded like the band was live!

 

Dahlquist DQ-10 at Harte Sound Studio in Allentown PA - Bought
Magnepan MG-II at Canlen in Bethlehem PA
Rogers LS3/5a and Quad ESL at Chestnut Hill Audio on Cherry Street in Philadelphia
Acoustat Model 3 at DS Audio in Allentown
B&W 801 at Sassafras audio in Whitehall PA
Thiel CS 3.6 at Audio Images in Whitehall PA - Bought

Everyone of the above stores is out of business.

Harbeth M30.1 and SLH5+ at BEK HiFi in Allentown PA....the only High End Store left in my area.

 

I heard a pair of custom made dynamic speakers at a recording studio 30 years ago that I remember to this day; partly because I generally dislike dynamic speakers (boxes) other than headphones. These had such a pure sound with beautiful overtone realism that was truly special. I have never heard their equal since, which rather confirms my opinion that the best speakers are custom made.

 

I don't know about "earth shattering," and I certainly would not attribute the great sound strictly to the speakers, but, I have heard some pretty amazing demonstrations of whole systems that were quite memorable. At an off-site venue for the CES show, I heard a five-channel Wilson Audio system using three of its flagship speakers for the front channels and two "smaller" MAXX II speakers for the rear channels. The source was master digital tapes that Peter McGrath recorded. The opera selections, in particular, were amazingly lifelike, particularly because opera recordings hardly ever come close to the live experience.

I have also heard a truly amazing home system in a dedicated listening room that was at least 30' by 50' in size. The system was just two channels, but, both speakers were gigantic horn systems (the system cost well north of $1 million). This was the most dynamic and lively system I have ever heard. I have since heard a number of other horn-based systems that are really quite good (systems with Western Electric drivers, Jensen fieldcoil drivers, Goto drivers, etc.). I like what I have assembled for my own system which is based on a horn midrange and other very high efficiency drivers and electronics that is mostly tube-based.

There are plenty of more modest systems that I've heard that I thought were amazingly good. At last year's Capital Audiofest, I heard a two-speaker mono system with Japanese compression drivers and a truly amazing mono tube amp (Deja Vu Audio) that delivered such an enveloping soundstage that most listeners did not even realize it was mono. At another show, Deja Vu Audio set up a room that had tiny Proac Tablette speakers driven by a small, quite modest, tube amp. But, what was not obvious from casual observation was the use of a first rate source (computer as server feeding an Audio Note DAC 5 converter) and quite high-end Audio Note cabling. This was a demonstration of how even lower end speakers can be made to sound amazing with the right complement of gear.

 

Vu is kind of a wizard with this stuff.

 

Well? lets see. It was a hot Texas summer back in 79' I was standing on the 75 yard line at the Cotton bowl wishing I hadn't drank all that beer. The lead in to Children of the Sun started, as it progressed my chest started thumping from the bass, I was speechless all I could do is stand there thinking those are some good ****ing speakers!

 

Mine was a quad surprise at Fat Julian's in Atlanta. I had a pair of OLA I really liked. Then I went into his upstairs room in I think 1974 and heard ADS L810, Braun LV 1020, Dq-10s, and a huge pair of 3 panel each Tympani's. I got home and didn't even fire up any tunes...

 

I don't remember the exact model but I believe it was a Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mk II. I worked at the shop and they had just come in and we set them up. Opposite them were NHT 3.3s. The Contours showed me what music could sound like when a speaker just disappears from the equation, or at least that's what it sounded like as my first taste of highend stereo.

 

1966- Quad ESL in fathers stereo.
1976 - K-horns driven by 1st or 2nd generation Levinson playing Stanley Clarke's first solo LP on a SME in a shop in Wellsley MA. We were driven about 4' straight back into the chair.
1981 - Duetta's - first really wow speaker I had heard since the Quads
1982 - ProAc EBS - know the original Snells? Better focus, much better micro dynamics, and more "in phase". Pulled the dough together to buy these within 72 hours of first hearing them. Arlington MA - dealer
~1993 - ML CLS. Whoa. But where is the bass? Then heard them with Gradient subs. Ho Ho. Lots of room and lots of amp needed.
~1999 - Verity Parsifal, maybe its not as good as the MBL. But it's better the Maggie 20's and the CLS. Took me about a month to locate a pair of used ones to buy
~2005 - Sonus Faber Guarneri - art in Engineering.

The only things the past few years I've enjoyed are the latest Maggies (.7, 1.7i, 3.7), Focal Aria 936, KEF LS50 - but none of them make this list. Oh yes, Dynaudio makes some good stuff.

 

Strong call on Dahlquist 10s. I love mine.

 

In the eighties it was B&W 801 then recently KEF Blades and Kings Audio KS10 panels at CES.

 

Thiel 7.2s playing a Mark Levinson 30/31, can't remember power, think M/L. Sublime.

 

They were! They were hiding inside of the A7's! I figured that one out, at the early stages of my journey!

 

In my relatively short midfi/hifi experience, three pair of speakers have stood out and redefined my expectations...and all of them for different reasons. Most of my experience is with vintage gear, if that isn't obvious enough with my examples. I still own all of the speakers below. Needless to say, I have an understanding and hifi-appreciative wife.

Dahlquist DQ-10's - Full Regnar restore; xo's, wiring, woofers. Unparalleled airiness on the high end, expansive soundstage. Smooth and lifelike midrange. Love guitars on these.

ADS L1530's - Richard So treatment on all drivers and rebuilt/upgraded xo's. Wall of sound, smooth midrange compliments of the domes, and immense bass. These are great all around speakers; they do everything well.

JMTEC Jack of Jack - Japanese Altec Valencia clones. All original for now. Amazing midrange and precision imaging. Soundstage and imaging unlike anything I've heard before. Concert-like, band right in front of you. Needs subwoofer for 50hz and below.

 

I've was fortunate to hear several really good speakers through demos, I would love to call my own.

Aerial 7T, which have been mentioned by others are really good.
B&W 802 D3 were awesome
The Martin Logan Neolith's were in a class by themselves, however, they should be. $$$$$$

 

It is interesting, how much you may think about how a speaker may sounds, because you have listened to them many, many times before.

Then, one day, you listen to the same speakers in a different environment. Maybe that would mean the room or with different amplification, and you scratch your head and say "wow!", I thought I knew these speakers and their obvious limitations, and then you discover an entirely new experience.

Under the correct conditions, speakers can sound several magnitudes better than you thought that they ever could.

I enjoy being surprised!

 

That's the truth there brother. Yes yes

 

Some of the ones that impressed me the most have been in rooms that were carefully treated, acoustically. In the order in which I heard them, over a span of about 20 years:

Dunlavy Sovereign
Something expensive at Goodwin's High-End, outside Boston
Apogee Caliper Signature
Revel Ultima Salon
Aerial 7T

and the ones I recently bought, which were not earth-shattering in impact, but were and are in smoothness, beauty, transparency, and lack of distortion:

Janszen Valentina

 

When I was in high school 1972 one of my best friends got a pair of Altec Valencias ( the ones with foam grills) a Mac 6100 integrated and some Dual ( probably 1219) his senior year. Those Altecs were amazing to me. His basement rocked. Some of my best audio memories were in front of that rig which I continued to hear thru the 70s and was still around when we bought a house together in 1980. At the point I added my Thorens 160. Those Altecs needed room but we had it.

I occasionally ponder buying a pair but I don't really have the space.

 

The first was Acoustat 2+2 electrostatics. I was starting to hang around a high-end audio shop in the 80's (which developed into a friendship), and the Acoustats were one of the flagship products. I came into the shop one Friday evening, and a couple had just purchased them, and were sitting in the couch enjoying them, powered by some Krell electronics. They were playing an accoustic track from CSNY's Deja Vu. I'd never heard anything like it. Couldn't afford anything near them.



The second was last year, at the Melb. HiFi show. Heard some spectacular systems (and some ordinary ones). Then I heard German Physiks speakers - omnidirectional design. In a small hotel room, with cr*p acoustics. They played the usual jazz demo records used at hifi shows, then Elvis' Love Me Tender from an LP. If my memory serves me correctly, they played some CSNY (what a coincidence, have only just made that connection). A wonderful, natural sound was enjoyed. I didn't think it could get any better than this. I was wrong.

Then the distributors starting to say to each other "should we use the Studer?". They had a Studer studio tape machine in the corner, and put on a dub from the master tape of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue. As soon as those familiar chords started playing, I felt that Miles was a few feet away, and I was in NY sitting in on the recording session, so close to him I could touch his trumpet.

I walked out of that room, and into the other rooms which had the equipment that had previously impressed me greatly. They still sounded good, but now they sounded like good reproductions of the music. The most frustrating part of this experience is the exhilaration from listening to the Physiks is balanced by the knowledge that I will never be able to own this equipment.


(I'm not sure which model Physiks I heard, but the range looks like this)