The best speaker you ever heard?


In my opinion, the speaker is by far the most important part of the audio system. After all, it is the only part you hear. OK, the other stuff really matters a lot, but without a great speaker... No go.

I am a bit 'speaker-obsessed' I guess, and now I am wondering: What are the best speakers you have ever heard, and what made them the best?
njonker
Evolution Acoustics Model MMTwo with Dartzeel gear! Sounds as good as LIVE MUSIC!..
Hifisoundguy,

As ridiculous as this may seem, i "heard" the Evolution Acoustics with DArtzeel reference monoblocks which were recorded by Albert Porter at the recent Electronics show...i think he recorded 30 rooms using the same equipment. As crazy as this sounds, the Evolution Acoustics room was the only one where the soundbyte actually sounded like Albert recorded a live event and streamed it over the internet. aside from 2 other presentations, everything else sounded like a stereo in a room.

i would never say i have heard the Evolution Acoustics, but i will say i am intrigued enough based on this one soundbyte to say that it would not surprised me if these speakers ranked up there for me at "top 3-5" based on my readings, speaking to a few folks who own them and also this one soundbyte in comparison to all the other soundbytes of the show. it really sounded like someone streaming music from a concerthall.

how familiar are you with these speakers? would love to get your thoughts in more detail on them!
MY Audio Physic Avanti IIIs. They're substantially improved, with LOTS-better parts in the MR/treble crossover (including LARGE Teflon-film caps in series with the tweeter) and the bass filter removed and replaced by active filtering from a dbx DriveRackPA and a separate pair of Marantz monoamps driving the bass. The MR drivers now have NO hi-pass caps between them and the poweramps, while a much-smaller-than usual coupling cap in the MR/tweeter amps reduces the bass energy to the MR drivers. Excellent Audioquest speakercable is soldered to the x-over boards, and chunks of that AQ speakercable replace the inexpensive stranded cable within the cabinets. An antidiffraction pad by diffractionbegone.com around the tweeter completes the large improvements in the treble.

Best speaker ever? Certainly not. Best I've heard long-term? Absolutely.

See http://jeffreybehr.zenfolio.com/p610729623 for more info.
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The Evolution Acoustics seems like an interesting speaker , i do appreciate the time spent getting the shape of the MTM modules right, most speakers today are done poorly in this regard, the lack of smearing is what most are quite possibly commenting on..

regards,
Hi all,

Just one person's experience, i finally traded up my SF Strads for a pair of Wilson X1 Grand Slamms. Stunning beyond all belief. Musical and organic (and this coming from someone who's favorite components include my Zanden DAC and, up until last nite, my SF Stradivaris.)

The set up is soooo incredibly important. 8 hours but after Pedro from Absolute Sounds changed the tweeter resistors and worked with Arif from KJ West One...smokes!...this is the best sound i have had the pleasure to really listen to. i am fortunate thanks to KJ West One to have found a pair in mint condition.

i would not tell anyone else it's the best, or anything silly like that. what i will say is that relative to the SF Strads:

1. effortless, effortless, effortless. one rarely understands this until you "see it" in action.
2. effortless [helps] translate into musicality because the speaker can get out of the way without strain and deliver whatever signal you feed it.
3. once properly dialed in...so critical on a Wilson!...the music flows thru the speakers like they are not there (at least way more than the Strads). Whatever size, volume, soundstage, quartet, a cappella, choral, deep house, rap...small, big, intimate, cavernous.
4. The Strads excel on mellifluous sound...natural and organic. soulful as michael fremer once said. in my system, the Slamms matched and exceeded the Strads even on this. that, i was truly not expecting.

just one man's set of ears. Enjoy everyone!