Worst speakers at Stereophile show


Here's what I thought were the worst sounding speakers at the Stereophile show. The Eggleston speakers that list for 100,000 dollars. I heard them in the Nagra room, with the Nagra 845 tube Amps, Nagra Preamp and Nagra digital reel to reel player. The cabinet on the Egglestons looked gorgeous. But let me tell you, these speakers were horrible. I was shocked how bad they sounded. They were so bright sounding. Eggleston has got to change midrange drivers. Those Morel midbases just sound to bright. Egglestons should use the Dynaudio 3 inch dome mids. Krell came out with a new mini monitor. It cost like 6000 dollars. These Krell Speakers sounded so edgy and the sound could get out of control. I didn't like them. Silverline had the Silverline Sonata speakers there. These speakers had to have the worst crossover. I played a track with a nice beat to it. It sounded horrible on these speakers. Then I put my ear to the speakers and I couldn't believe it, 80 percent of the midrange and bass was coming out of the tweeter. Silverline has got to change the crossover. How could you have the midbase coming out of the tweeter. That's why the bass sounded so edgy. A tweeter cant handle bass. Now another speaker I heard, that I didn't like. I heard the Merlin VSM se speakers. Merlin had 2 rooms with the VSM se speakers. One room had the Joule Electra Tube amps and Preamp. The other room that had the Merlins VSM se was the Sim Audio room. The Merlins in the Joule Electra room sounded not bad. It had nice detail. The same Merlins VSM se in the Sim Audio room sounded so average. The Joule Electra Tube Amps, sounded so much better on the Merlin speakers, then the Sim Room, which was using Sim W5 Amp, Sim P 5 preamp and Sim CD Player on the Merlin VSM se. The Merlins in the Joule Electra Room sounded very detailed, but didn't have that bass impact and large sound that I like. Then I heard the Verity Parsifal speakers on these Tenor OTL Tube Amps and the Audio Aero Capitole 24 bit CD Player. The Veritys didn't sound good. Someone said it perfectly to me, the Verity's dont have a full body sound. I then heard the Meadowlark speakers. I think they were the Herons. The bass did not sound good. It sounded way out of control and to boomy. I was also dissapointed with the Totem designer. Vince is a nice guy. But he kept playing these Totem tower speakers. They used a 5 inch midbase and the tweeter. They didn't sound to good. Then there was these nice looking Totem speakers in the room. They were called the Totem Wind. There's a pic of them on Totemes website. www.totemacoustic.com They used a 8 inch woofer and 2 dynaudio 3 inch dome midbases and a tweeter at the top. Vince played these speakers for like 40 seconds and they sounded really good. The bass and the midrange sounded nice. I wanted to hear more of them. Then Vince stopped playing them and went back to the Totem speakers, with the 5 inch midbase and the Tweeter. Everyone in the Room wanted to hear the other Totem speakers. But he wouldn't play them. He said he would play them later. Every time I went in the Totem room, he was playing the speaker with the 5 inch midbase and the tweeter. The 3rd time I was in the Totem room, another guy wanted to hear the Totem Wind speakers, but Vince said the same thing, he'll play them later.
doug99
Doug99

I once heard eggleston products which is the Andra
with the levinsons also,using meridian 508 cd player
the sounds is very transparent but not musical and
uninvolving,my friend brought the speaker in my house
with my plinius sa 100,adcom gfa750,cec cdplayer,and
master gen tara lab. the andra sounded speaker of the
year.I guess the gear they used did not match,or maybe
it is not your preference,some its all about preference
also.or I suspect the room is not acoustically prep. i do
agree with you the driver can sound too bright in the
less padded room or small room,or even paired with tubes.
What good does it really do to complain about speakers without mentioning everything in line before them, and then the room. Great speakers will not sound good in a bad room with improperly setup equipment.
Do you really think the manufacturer would let people listen to them if they sounded as bad as these comments indicate?
I wasn't at the show but there are a lot of things that can make speakers sound bad. Bad room acoustics, poor setup, poor source or front end, wrong power amp for that particular speaker. One of the biggest things that makes speakers sound bad is poor interconnects and speaker cable. I was at a show one time and the speakers sounded terribly bright. We changed out the speaker cable and what a transformation, the speakers sounded great.
Nrchy
totally agree with you, very few people dont realize
room will make a whole world of a difference.also
you hit it bulls eye, most of this speakers were
made up of quality parts, drivers, but it is our
job to use them right.I also think the one reason
the andra shines in my room, my room is acoustically
right for the andra, and the size of course.
Guys: my dealer (who did not exhibit) but attended, feels that there is simply not enough electrical juice in the hotel to make these things sound their best. But, expectations also factor into our judgements, in my opinion. For what it's worth, most of these systems were just not musical-but maybe the dealers didn't care about musicality, just sonic showmanship. I think most of the rooms were either too small or too big. My best of show were the Meadowlark Swifts, a phenomenal value, and the Innersound Eros-but the bass was far too boomy.