Curious what people think is the best "value" high end speaker (~5K to 15K)

@bo1972  Seriously man?  I am new here so trying to be respectful but you are not adding any value and screwing up the purpose of this thread.  Moderators? ?

@ Thank you @cleeds 

@stereo5   It is definitely loud and I am surprised based on what you are telling me that I have not blown both speakers as well.  I am a little confused though, It was done as an experiment (although I do listen loud frequently) , Both my Mac setups don't seem to get as loud as I would imagine given the efficiency of the speakers and the projected watts being fed to them. My MC300 especially seems to top out at a point where I can still have a conversation. I did just purchase an SPL meter and my ears definitely come away from a session like that ringing but still don't seem to give me that concert like punch that I crave.  Maybe my ears are already damaged but my goal when listening at this volume is to get that punch in the chest from an SPL viewpoint. 

I am wondering if there is another limiting factor going on in my setup? Modwright Oppo 105 or old Sony transport into an NAD M51 DAC (or Mytek Brooklyn)  to a C48 to the 501's all fairly well regarded cables (Morrow etc.). 

It is a beautiful thing when I can listing to smooth jazz then transition to some Nickel Creek and other bluegrass, and then to chest punching rock all in the same session all with the same setup getting an emotional connection from all of them. 

This thread is all about loudspeakers? So it make sense how people make their choices? If people ask me a normal question I just answer.

When you loose dynamics in your system these days compression is a limitation what many system lacks in their drive. Many loudspeakers use materials which are not that light and fast in response. Almost all regular loudspeakers still use voice coils. For example Monitor Audio does not use them anymore. This creates a lot less compression. And a much faster reponse. It improves both dynamic range and layering in sound.

Compression also means losing in realism in sound of the low frequencies. Speed and timing are essential parameters in sound. That is why you need loudspeakers who own a fast response. That it why the material and techniques which are used are so  important these days. These days we see dome-tweeters a lot less and in the comming years more brands will use different tweeters. For the mid and low-frequency drivers the materials are also getting lighter and faster.

The Monitor Audio Platinum drivers use a mix from ceramics and aluminium. But the thing what makes their drivers unique is that the back of their drivers use carbonfiber. This makes the level in disstortion a lot less. This you can directly hear in more layers of instruments and even of voices. Their drivers do not use a voice coil anymore. But they even placed the driver in a cylinder. So the driver can only go up and down. Even at very low volume levels they create a lot of drive in the low.frequencies.

Tomorrow Monitor Audio will introduce the new Gold series. They will use many of the Platinum features and techniques. 

Like many people use a separate dac instead of a source with an inbuild dac. But when you compare many sources with an inbuild dac vs sources with a separate dac. The outcome often shows that sources with an inbuild dac owns better dynamics so less compression.

We have done a lot of research in everything what has to do with electricity in the last 4 years of time. Most conditoners limit audiosystems as well in their dynamic range. But the best conditioners will improve the dynamics as well. Like many people have no idea that smog, highfrequent noise and magnetism absorbs a lot of the dynamic range of each individual system.

Sound is very complex and that is why you need to understand all the different aspects who limits the dynamic range of each system.

bo1972, you are single-handedly ruining the Monitor Audio brand name with your ludicrous shilling and drivel.

Bo1962, you act like you know more than everyone and there is a smug sense of superiority to your posts. It’s quite arrogant and I can see how it rubs people the wrong way. I am not “making it personal” I am calling as I see it.

I think the problem with asking about the "best value" is that it is almost always the least expensive items in the range. The law of diminishing returns seems to still be in effect.

Unless you start counting in absolute money "savings" then a high price item that sounds like even higher priced items will be "worth" the most money. Then you run into the problem that most of us have not spent very much time with a variety of +20k components and therefore have a hard time telling with certainty when a 10k component is as good.

Reviewers are probably the ones with the best suited experiences to do this but since many don't trust paid reviewers that doesn't help. If you don't mind the reviewers you can just read magazines year-end issues and see which component they did think were "punching above their weight" during the last year.

After saying all this, just for fun, I would say that the Boenicke W5 impressed me during the few minutes I heard them. About $5k.

http://boenicke-audio.ch/w5_c/