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What is the best HEAVY METAL speaker?

I know totally blasphemy question here on Audiogon. But you like what you like, right? Anyway, I know most metal music is totally compressed and recorded horrible (aka Metallica) however there is a new age of metal bands out there that are starting to change that (Opeth started with Blackwater Park). So what speakers out there can take the pounding of a double bass drum kit hitting at full throttle and give the roar of metal guitar justice. There has to be a set up that would make Glen Tipton turn his head and say hell ya!
128x128lizzardkingseattle
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,518 posts
 
I would take on most comers with my setup and OHM 5s, at least on my home court or in a similar fair home venue. Maybe not in a large auditorium or arena though. I would defer to the high efficiency horns for that.
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
I have a home speaker that will blow away any JBL... for heavy metal...

Dual 15" TAD woofers; it uses a JBL horn, although it is driven by a custom built compression driver with powered by a field coil. No alnico here. Later versions of the same speaker have a machined maple horn that has lower distortion.

Those look great. So, what is the price of those babies?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,979 posts
 
^^ It depends on what options are installed. I think the base price is around $12,000/pair, with all the options I think they are about $37,000/pair.

Options are field coil powered woofers (there is an 18" available now), Mundorf caps in the crossover, and a larger diaphragm on the mid driver, which is beryllium with a Kapton surround and has no breakups in the audio passband.
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
Ok, cool, thanks.
lizzardkingseattle's avatar
lizzardkingseattle OP
11 posts
 
So funds have been short this year so I had to scale down the speakers I wanted to try. However, I picked up a pair of Cerwin Vega xls-215 for 800$, brand new, (fell off a truck kind of deal, lol). Have them hooked up to a pair of Bel Canto EVo2 mono blocked and man do they rock. My audio friends and I are really surprised at how well these speakers perform. Even with the huge woofers they are very dynamic and have great soundstage as well. Silk dome tweeters are made for heavy guitar tones and no shrill like you get from Klipsh horns. First pair of non Audiophile speakers and have to say they really compare to much higher end stuff out there. Perfect party speaker and get as loud as you can take it with no complaints.
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