Top Ten Speakers of All Time?

Paradigm Active 40s, when given proper ICs and power cords, stands and a excellent pre and source. When all of these are done you will have one of the finest FULL RANGE speakers money can buy.

well guy's there are alot of good spks. most of the stuff i see listed here are expensive. i have owned 350 or so sets of spkrs. mostly because i do repairs and rebuild. just about any sound good it is just a visual thing more than the drivers playing. they each have thier own good points.

There are so many variables in selecting speakers, it is impossible to agree on this list. Generally, I selected ones that I think do the best job of achieving their desired goal (ie. best for a certain price or best possible sound).

From my experience in the business and as a listener I would pick:

Avantgarde Duo
Quad (original)
Wilson Watt/Puppy
B&W 801
Beverage
Goldmond (small)
Magnaplanar MG-1
Advent (Large)
B&W CDM-1
LS3/5a

Magnaplanar Tympani D I get chills just thinking about them.

I have used these speakers for almost twenty years. My reference standard comes from live recordings using a stereo Neumann mic and my 1/2 track Crown tape deck. I was there making the recording...using that as my reference point I find the AIIIi speakers still able to reproduce the original performance. In the subsequent years I have changed turn tables, CD players (now Wadia 850), tuners (Marantz 10B and SAE MK VI) and pre amp/power amp combo...was audio research, now Spectral DMC 30 and DMA 150 ....the result is always better sound...more accuracy...but the Snells seems to permit the associative changes to come through clearly...which makes sense considering Peter (going back to his days at EPI) pioneered smooth time accurate powerbandwith...with low time distortion (accurate control of phase distortion) and low resonant cabinet construction with minimum refractive distortion....same things that Revel...Avalon do...thus these are wonderful speakers.

John