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

Wildfoxinn, sorry your perception of the B&W vs Paradigm Personas is wildly off base.

B&W Diamond tweeter with a Kevlar composite midrange driver

vs

Paradigm Persona, Pure Beryillium tweeter, with a pure Beryillium midrange.

B&W no wave guide

vs

Paradigm waveguide for both tweeter and midrange driver.


Persona composite pressure bent completely curved non parallel cabinet mdf fused glue layer cabinet

vs

B&W multi chamber plywood cabinet with matrix bracing and composite midrange pod with top mounted tweeter.


Paradigm Persona 9H four woofer design with active room correction and self amplified bass

vs

B&W 800 Passive louspeaker without room correction.

The only way these two designs are remotely similar is that they both fall into the uber resolution camp.

As per Joseph Audio being easily replicated Mr. Joseph’s crossover designs are patented and based on the JSE Infinite slope design, not to mention the years he spent voicing the loudspeakers, also his "off the shelf" parts may be custom made versions of the same drivers. Hey we are not going to disagree with you we think the speakers are a bit expensive for what you get however, many people love them.

Jtofish, RIGHT ON MAN!  Speaker A can sound great or poor depending on the electronics, source components cabling and room.  Speaker B with those same components may sound better because of a system synergy that works better either with the equipment, source components, cabling or room. 

This is why we match brighter speakers like the Personas with warmer electronics, Coda, Electrcompaniet, Naim, Krell.  Same thing with the Elac Adantes play them on Naim or Parasound you make one terrific value oriented system. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Persona dealers

This thread cannot signify something, beside a complete description of the room, tweaks, and audio gear associated with the speakers... Yesterday I had listen to Magnepan MMG a pair of speakers with a relatively fair price and on the top audiophile field...The sound was " bad", unbeknownst to the owner himself, because of the level of noise; the sound was less interesting than my own speakers that are however in a totally other sub level category than this big MMG...The reason is NO speakers sound at their potential level without cleaning of the electro-magnetic field of the house first, of the room after that, without serious controls of vibrations, without controls of the acoustic of the room, and without at last pairing with the right amplifier and dac ( I will not add here other essential tweaks that are very potent and necessary)…Except for the pairing, all other means were ignored by the owner of MMG...


My speakers are only good,(Mission Cyrus 781) not the best in a possible level of comparison with top level one, but yesterday these speakers of mid-level grade were more ,way more better than a pair of top level speakers (MMG)… The reason is simple: my room is under treatment, my vibrations control in efficiency, and the electrical line of not only the house but of my room is prepared for being the best embedding for the speakers... I had with that astounding tweaks that can elevate any speakers to his true potential... Anybody can say that Harbeth Tannoy, Focal, Splendor, Dynaudio or MMG are more than good...Money can talks also...

But the question, the true one to ask is : How can we put our ordinary speakers on their true top own accessible potential level, be it mid-fi speakers or top one ? If not for this question, the other question is what are the best speakers money can buy ? This second question is of little interest and is the only question asked everywhere... When you have no limit of money you dont even need to read article about that question, you go somewhere with top level speakers at high price, you listen to them , you smile, you buy....And you call them the best speakers big money can buy...And the word "tweaks" repulse you, or suggest at your revolting mind that perhaps your speakers are not at the peak of the world...And you dont give a back thought at all to this fuss about audiophile obsession with good sound...Your money had already talk loud after all...But I am poor and I must make the better with the lesser... It is possible trust me...

Underrated:
PSB- most all of them 
Totem Forest and others 
higher end Monitor Audio
Spendor
Wharfedale 
Klipsch Forte III and some of the Heritage line
Epos 
Bryston
van L speakerworks
Many budget pieces from big names like JBL, Polk, Yamaha, SVS

Overrated:
B&W (some)
Devore (great but very pricey and performance can be inflated by reviewers)

Joseph Audio (expensive speaker with off the shelf drivers, no low diffraction cab or waveguide even, can easily be replicated for a cheaper price).

Ah, naive "argument-from-cost-of-materials." And "you can DIY this stuff."

Never gets old ;-)

The Joseph speakers have garnered rave reviews and have been consistently rated at or near "best of show" year after year at audio shows, by picky audiophiles and reviewers. You can’t just go on "materials used" but on the skill of the designer in achieving through much time and effort the balance between the drivers, crossovers, cabinet etc. And it’s one thing to achieve the sound, another to have a viable speaker-selling business.


The "I could build that in my basement for cheaper" crowd never seem to get out of their basement to show they can produce a speaker that can receive that much conformity in praise, while being a viable product.

Told ya this thread would go well...;-)

What’s the best sounding bose speaker?  All the ones I’ve heard were mediocre.  Best Bose systems I’ve heard were in cars.

I think bose is crap.  When people say they like it, I smile politely and then lie to them and say “yeah, it’s pretty good”.  

Bose is more marketing and life style than hi-fi and it has nothing to do with price.   

Next up, beats headphones!