What's your speaker IQ, and the best speaker?

I have owned or did extensive auditions with these speakers they are just my OPINIONS.

Speakers: The Top 4 are Worlds Better then the bottom 6!!!!!
(All speakers were evulated with the EXACT same componets cables, and turntable, EXCEPT the VR-9's which were evulated wiht the owners own equipment.

1. MBL 111e or 101e Closest to live music I have ever heard. Don't know how they sound in a "real world room". (The best without regard to cost, very expensive $27,000 and $47,000, and requires big dollar amps.) Some say they image to diffuse, but so does live music. Can't fault a speaker for being like the real thing. I think most speakers over image unnaturally.

2. ATC Anniversary 50's (Best "real world speaker". Doest not require $30,000 worth of amps. Awesome tone. BEST midrage of all speakers. (Best Vaule for what you get.)

3. Von Schweikert VR-9
Gives up midrage tone to the above two, bust adds thunderous bass, and ultimate high frequency response.

4. Goldmund Active Speakers. $33,000 (Very nice but, for price should go deeper.)

5. Rockport (The $30,000 ones, don't know exact model)
6. Martin Logan Summits (Good Value at $10,000)
7. Kharma 3.2 Fe (At this price point $20,000 in my opinion you should get more bass.)
8. Wilson Benesh (Overpriced for what you get at $26,000)
9. Maggie 20.1 (Great tone, and even great bass, but images larger than life, think 8 feet around vocals.
10. Vandersteen 5A. (To dark for my taste)
11. B & W 802 D (To much like good HI-FI, not like good
music.
12. Wilson 7.1's (Explosive dynamics, very average midrage tone. Only good for home theater,IMO. (Worst value of all)

IQ is intermediate: I have listen enough to come to an opinion about: quad63s, 57s, custom double stacked quads, little maggies (?model), Tympani IVs, Sound Labs R1, Dalquist dq1(inital model), Fried G3, Rodgers LS3/5a, shanihan oblisks, mbl 111e, proac tablettes

I really like my quads. Within their limits I find them the least fatiguing speaker to listen to hour after hour. They only go so loud but are really good at realistic or low volumes. 57s are popular, excellent midrange but didn't have enough 'oomph' for me. 63s are better, best is the stacked 63s I am now running. Haven't heard the new ones but I will soon. Careful amp matching is in order. Very very good value for the money.

Maggies are nice but they do take room. I loved my tympani's. Louder than quads and better bass but not as lucid as quads. I was sorry to see them go but the wife was not.

Sound labs sounded nice but i had trouble with the transformers. Perhaps a bad bit of luck for me... I just gave up on 'em. These were a very early venture for Sound Labs the R1s I believe. They likely have improved quality control.

Dalquist 'phase array' speakers were my first foray into hi end audio. You never forget your first love.

I recall fondly listening to a friends Oblisks from Mr. Shanihan (sp?) A really great speaker, particularly with orchestral music as my recollection serves. One of these days I'm going to grab up a pair..... A truely excellent speaker.

LS3/5a are the speakers in my living room system. If you are space limited and thinking about getting small speakers you could do worse than grab a pair of these babies on the used market. Driving with a tube amp they make remarkable music. Ok, not the last word in bass, HF extension, soundstage etc..... but a non fatiging speaker that can approach the best at a low price. Believe me, after listening all day/night to my fancy quad setup I am constantly surprised just how good these little guys can sound.

Proac Supertablets. I still have a pair -blown tweet in one. I might repair someday. They are nice but no LS3/5a. The midrange magic just isn't there. If you can get 'em cheap they could make a nice office or dorm room system with a high quality reciever. Not for a high res system IMO.

Fried G3's are in my excercise room. And they boom boom boom. Punch out the bass. Shake the house. Shake the ground outside the house (I kid you not). They don't sound too bad, a lot of fun actually, but fatiguing for prolonged listening. Of course, not high res (by todays' standard)I've heard that some have changed the tweets and substantially improved the speaker thereby. Might do this one day.

MBL 111e. This one I have only heard in showrooms and shows. Agree with the comments of others here. This is the speaker I now lust after. I was shocked at the coherency, power and realism of the sound. The best of my quads with all the missing elements. Mind you these were the big boys. The smaller mbls just didn't have it for me - at least in the very limited listening sessions I was in. I'm saving my pennies so I can get a used pair someday. Need a big room though.

One of the best things about this very nice thread is that I can see I'm not the only maniac who runs multiple systems. It's nice to not be insane alone. : )

cjs

Speakers I have owned or listened to extensively:

IMF TLS 80
Braun 880 and 1010
Rogers LS 3/5a
DCM TimeWindows
Mission 770
Kef 105
Apogee Caliper Signatures and Duettas
Avalon Eclipse, Ascent and Eidolon Diamond
B&W (too many to mention)
ProAc (many models)
LivingVoice Avatar OBX2
Quad ESL57 and 63

Okay, there are others but this is the main list.

I would have to say that the ESL57s are my favourite and (for me) the best. They just get me closer to the musicians than anything else I have tried.

Have heard (listed in no particular order, certainly not chronological): Soundesign, Panasonic RBH 1600 (or something like that--owned these in high school), AR90 (original, not the new ones), Allison, Klipsh corner horns, Thiel CS ~3.0, Magnaplanar, Mirage bipolars, Dunlavy SC IV, Hales, Totem Tabu, Totem Shaman, Avalon Radian, Paradigm 9 SE (owned these for many years),
==>AUDIO PHYSIC CALDERAS--Old (!) three box version<==,
(holy grail for me for many, many years), JM Labs Cobalt floorstander, Pardigm Studio 100 V 3 (owned for a year or less, just recently), Legacy Whispers, Legacy Speakers one step below the Whispers, Aerial 7B, Totem Winds, JM Labs little 5000 dollar Utopia 2 way with the Be tweeter, Kef, Induction Dynamics Monitors, Infinity Kappa 8 or 9, Altec Lansing (bought the Paradigm 9 SE's instead), little Conrad Johnson 2 ways, Carver's Amazing Ribbons (or something like that), Spencer Sound Ribbon Loudspeakers, the Gallos that so many people are high on (they're ~3k, I think), probably a lot of others that I can't remember, and finally......

==>Intuitive Design Summits<== (plus a Rel Storm 3)

To my ears only, the Calderas and the Summits are far and away the best. Between those two it's close, and it's been a long time since I heard the Calderas, but I'd bet the Summits would beat them in a shoot-out.

Two other EXCELLENT speakers are the Totem Tabus and the smallest of the Induction Dynamics line, which are also a monitor.

Included in the above list are some speakers I consider to very solid and and excellent values, and others (only a few) that I consider to be real losers, and I won't delineate them any further than that.

I can't claim to have a high speaker "IQ" (and the test is culturally biased anyway....), but the Summits have been such a wonderfully joyous experience that I WILL say that I feel as though I now have a high speaker "EQ" {Speaker Emotional Intelligence Quotient (not equalizer--the equalizer's almost always on bypass.....)}.

Well I don't know about you guys, but I am LOVING these posts, although I am developing a bit of speaker envy... This is like hearing the "dirty little secrets" that the magazine reviewers wont talk about! I always wished that these reviewers who've had access to dozens or hundreds of the world's best speakers could just freely say which they found to be the best of the best, and compare them to other brands, but never could, out of fear of losing advertising dollars. Dlanselm you post was an especially great read, with your having heard so many top tier speakers and having them all compared. The same goes for so many of the other posts as well.

The responses that list intermediate priced speakers are also fascinating to me since this is where my pocketbook is at at the moment, and I am reading responses that compare many of the same speakers I would consider in the not too distant future.

Mdhoover, I read your review of the Summits when you first posted it, and have always noticed your effusive praise of them in the various speaker threads, but now seeing your speaker experience, it takes your praise of them to a whole new level for me.

And I appreciate the detail that so many have taken the time to go into in their posts, the answers have been a great resource to me thus far.

So thank you everyone, and I sincerely hope that many more A'goners respond, I love reading what the magazine reviewers wont tell us!

Ray