What are some of the most underrated and overrated loudspeakers you’ve auditioned?


What speaker do you believe are the most overrated and which one do you consider the most overrated?
mrc4u
in re: millercarbon Most overrated? Easy. Vandersteen.

LOL. The Vandersteen 2CE in all its iterations is one of the best-selling speakers of all time, for a reason. Great value. I’ve owned a pair for 20 years and will be getting the latest version soon, only because I can’t afford the Treo CT or Quatro CT. The Quatro CT, in the >$15k price bracket, has some good competition, for sure. I recently auditioned them powered by a full AR stack ... stunning. Note: I’ve been to more than a few hi-fi shows and heard systems fetching >$100k or well beyond.

I’m a Vandy fan, but not a fanboi. I have been trying to find and consider other floor standing "full range" speakers that perform as well as the 2CEII and are as good a value, in their price range, and so far it’s slim pickings.

Overrated:
Dynaudio, Totem, Audio Note ( especially price for this kind of 2-way monitors in poor cabinet )

Underrated:
many active speakers : Backes&Muller, Geithain
they play so much better than passive in similar price , and You dont need any ( expensive ) amp
Goldenear Reference are so overrated.
$8500 for speakers is still ton of money (to me at least)
I absolutely loved their sound, BUT I think the Triton ones are amazing and sound close enough to the TRef for most people without paying a 60% premium. Law of diminishing returns kicking in big time.

I had them side by side for three months playing with Hegel H160 and Rogue Cronus Magnum II / Ayre Codex and did not see a huge difference that some reviewers did. But then again, I ain’t selling full page ads either !!! 



Most overrated:

Focal sopra No3. 

Most underrated:

SCANSONIC MB 3.5B, followed  closely by
PMC TwentyFive 26. 

Most brilliant (though neither under nor overrated in my estimation) is the Raidho D2.1. 

Underrated : Linn Nexus LS250 - Dahlquist DQM-7C - Design Acoustics PS-6

Overrated : Klipsch RP-600M - Wharfedale Diamond Series - B&W - Golden Ear - Revel