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

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by The FRiNgE, Dec 3, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. phred

    phred Forum Resident

    Polk SRTs - visited a chap that had a house and a garage full of good gear. He had a pair of big SS monos on the SRTs - stunning (Way better sound than the gorgeous looking SF Amatis that were among his other trinkets)
    Canterburys - with a big Perreaux SS amp that I owned at the time - some special synergy that night (thanks John D)
    Genelec 8010 - such small things so much music
    Genelec 8260 - We listened to a lot of gear that day, these were the best speakers we heard - scale, image and easy to listen to.
     
    Fruff76, The FRiNgE and enfield like this.
  2. ZenMango

    ZenMango Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Ha! Our journeys had similar beginnings with different outcomes. I fell under the Apogee spell by listening to Divas and Calipers driven by Counterpoint electronics. I couldn’t even dream of spending that kind of money, but eventually got an “insider” deal at Sound Advise and picked up the Apogee Stages. That was 1991...and still have them. Honestly they sound better than ever. I seem to remember even then Counterpoint had a reputation for great sound but reliability issues.
    (I remember calling Apogee with a placement question. Jason Bloom himself answered the phone. We talked for a long time. He took the time to fax me a sketch w placement suggestions, and we talked more music than hardware). He is missed.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2019
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  3. Wasabi

    Wasabi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lutz, FL
    Like other's, I've heard some good ones over the years but these stick out:
    -KEF 104.2s w/KUBE (blew me away as a young guy and started my wannabe audiophile future)
    -Klipsch Fortes
    -Dahlquist DQ-9s
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  4. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    The Joseph Audio Perspective speakers with Doshi electronics and Cardas Clear wire at RMAF 2018 was spectacular.
     
    Stone Turntable likes this.
  5. bever70

    bever70 Let No-one Live Rent Free in Your Head!

    Location:
    Belgium
    Legend Precision Sound Reproducers

    Why? Well they didn't sound like any speaker, in fact they didn't sound like a speaker at all. They just projected a lifelike image of someone playing a piano in the room....and that person playing the piano was definitely not sitting in between the speakers!
    Never heard any other speaker pull that off.
    No classic sweetspot here, any seat in the room will give you that sweetspot experience.

     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2019
  6. simon-wagstaff

    simon-wagstaff Forum Resident

    Stages were like half height Duettas. I'm sure they sound amazing. With my subs and a mini DSP they would be Mini-grands plus. If I could do it all over again that is what I would do. Counterpoint amps sounded great, but definitely blew up. I wouldn't touch one. The NPS series fixed those issues.
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  7. cporcp

    cporcp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    The first time was probably at a friends house in high school. His parents had just purchased a pair of ESS floorstanders.

    They loved Opera - and I remember standing outside the front door, waiting for a quite passage in the music so that I could knock or ring the bell.

    Of course, when they would leave, my buddy would crank up Quadrophenia :righton:

    Sometime later we were visiting a friend of his parents, in San Francisco - the house was a Victorian - and built into the upper loft were two huge speakers - I’d never heard anything like that before - or since. No idea what they were.

    Several years ago, Maggie 3.6’s. Liked them so well that I picked up a pair of 1.6’s. The quest for quality high power eventually cost me too much, and I switched to low power tubes and Cornwall’s. This will probably be it, unless I find a pair of Khorns to restore.
     
    Fruff76 and SandAndGlass like this.
  8. pterodactyl

    pterodactyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, CO
    Old thread, but I'll chime in.

    I don't recall the first time I heard really good home hifi speakers, but the first time I saw the Grateful Dead in June of '76 at the Boston Music Hall (why do some many people in this thread seem to have connections to Boston?), they had a Sansui powered system that sounded amazing. The speakers were in these road cases that made them look like big fly's eyes.

    I had a system by the end of the 70s that was a McIntosh MC2105 (when it wasn't being my bass amp) and a pair of NAD L420s which sounded OK, but I knew there was much better. It wasn't until I started hanging out at David Glasser's Airshow Mastering and listening to his Pass powered Dunlavys in Boulder that I was truly blown away. Of course, hearing the original source tracks in a very well designed room, after having David's skill applied to them, makes a big difference. I've heard live recordings in there that truly sounded like standing on the stage with the musicians.

    Now I have a pair of Avalon NP2s powered by either a pair of MC30s or that same MC2105 (using a Grace M902 as a DAC) and I'm pretty happy. I know there's a lot better out there, but it's inspiring to listen to music in my lowly living room. OTOH, while my stereo GAS has subsided, I'm still addicted to microphones for my recording business. And bass gear.... don't get me started!
     
    Stone Turntable, mrz80 and The FRiNgE like this.
  9. Old Zorki II

    Old Zorki II Storm Watcher

    Location:
    near Tampa, FL
    MBL 101. Nothing beats that for me.
    JMlabs Grande Utopia was awesome too.
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  10. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    A demo of an 11.2 channel system set up by Tomlinson Holman at the Consumer Electronics Show.
     
  11. Echoes Myron

    Echoes Myron Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Every single day with my KEF Reference 1s.

    :)
     
  12. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    My Webcors :cheers:
     
    Bill likes this.
  13. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Wish You Were Here demo by James Guthrie and Joel Plante at RMAF using James' ATC monitors in surround playing DSD files made direct from the master tape. Holy ****.
     
    Stone Turntable and The FRiNgE like this.
  14. zoomin

    zoomin Forum Resident

    Are these DSD files available to purchase somewhere that you know of?
     
    bhazen likes this.
  15. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    The current SACD, probably.
     
  16. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Yes, the SACD is still in print I believe.
     
  17. pterodactyl

    pterodactyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, CO
    I can't remember exactly what albums he played, but hearing some of those DSD transfers at Gus Skinas' studio in Boulder was pretty incredible.
     
  18. Bathory

    Bathory 30 yr Single Malt, not just for breakfast anymore

    Location:
    usa









    Klaus came to my home a while back to pick up my purchased used 18 yr old monos.
    Getting em upgraded, he said they will b awesome!
    No reason to doubt his words!
    Such a nice guy.
    The owner of the company drops by personally to pick up an old pair to upgrade......??

    Amazing.
    Should be done is a week.
    Picked up a while ago, he is busy, so patience is worth the wait!

    Will be unhooking my Carver Sig sunfire 600, and break in these new Kismet ultra monos!
    Can’t wait!
     
    layman and The FRiNgE like this.
  19. Bill

    Bill Senior Member

    Location:
    Eastern Shore
    Maggies here too, in about 1979, listening to an MFSL pressing of Supertramp playing School. Whan the child screamed at the beginning of the song, I jumped. A couple of years later, I bought a pair of very used MG-IIs. After an unfortunate detour to some flashier sounding Definitive Technology 20s, I bought a pair of Maggie MG-3.5Rs and a REL sub. Nothing like that sound. Listeng now, 16 years later. Ahhhhh....
     
  20. rbbert

    rbbert Forum Resident

    Location:
    Reno, NV, USA
    Different strokes... I was quite unimpressed by this; not that the sound wasn’t good, it was, but it wasn’t any better than many other rooms at that same show
     
  21. ayrehead

    ayrehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid South
    Just bought a pair of Emerald Physics KCII Pro Carbon speakers. I may not be speechless but the spaciousness and utter lack of boom and bloat are addictive. They mate beautifully with my REL sub.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  22. geodiak

    geodiak Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rhodes, Greece
    Sonus Faber Stradivari .
    Natural addictive sound .
    You could listen for hours..
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  23. Drewan77

    Drewan77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK/USA
    Glad too see Open Baffle speakers in here, I will never go back to a sealed or ported box.
     
    The FRiNgE and ayrehead like this.
  24. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    Voxativ Zeth at AXPONA last April.
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  25. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    I've been around the block a few times, which may mean that I'm back where I started. I'm sure I'm omitting many heard over the years; I don't attend audio shows much anymore, and tend to discount what I hear in those venues if it is bad given all the issues around set up. (Some people have a knack for getting good sound at shows, but that's another issue).
    Here goes, in rough chronological order:

    • KLH 9, double pair, driven by Marantz tube gear-- this was the late '60s, so the Marantz stuff hadn't yet taken on 'grail' status- very unconstrained, large image, transparent;
    • Quad Loudspeaker- I bought my first pair in 1973-74, and really didn't get to hear them properly until they were set up in my home; running ARC tube electronics, circa 1975. I later set them up as a "mini-HQD" system, with Decca ribbons and a few different subwoofers. Today, that same pair of Quads is still in use, after having been restored a couple years ago, and I spend as much time listening to them now as I do my main system, which is horn-based;
    • Tympani (Magneplanar) with ARC electronics-- state of the art in the mid-'70s;
    • Dayton-Wright-- I'm not sure these were even working properly, but what they did was pretty impressive;
    • Dalhquist DQ-10- a visual clone of the Quad that could play louder, and had more dynamics and bass, driven at the time by an Ampzilla;
    • IRS V- I've heard these many times, a client had two pair- one in a studio and one in a listening lounge;
    • Duntech Sovereign- I spent a lot of hours listening to a pair of these that a friend owned, in the late '80s. Lifelike, with early Krell amplification;
    • Wilson Wamm- the first version, with Jadis amplification- the heat would drive you from the room; I didn't get blown away, but a 'drive by' is not the way to listen to these;
    • Martin Logan- I think a Monolith, heard in a salon on the Il St. Louis, driven by Jadis- very big image, transparent, circa 1989-90?
    • Crosby mod-Quad 63- fixed the issues of the old Quad without quite the transparency of the original; I bought a pair in 1990.
    I tended away from conventional dynamic speakers and liked planars. I didn't have much time for hi-fi in the '90s or early 2000's-- I was working too much, and didn't have the desire to fiddle with equipment. I moved into home theatre for a while just as a way to chill. When I decided to get back on the hi-fi bandwagon, around 2006, I decided to go to horns, for greater dynamics and the ability to use low powered tube amps. One system I heard at the time I was starting to put together a horn type system was the then current JBL K2 driven by ViVa tube amps-- I'm told that the Viva wasn't powerful enough for these, but what I heard was stunning.

    One system that has long been on my list to hear is David Karmeli's pair of Siemens Bionors. He's not that far away from me, now that I live in Texas, so at some point, I'll make the trip. I've also never heard a full-on WE system using not only the original drivers, but their amps. I suspect I'd have to travel to the East to do that.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2019
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine