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

winnardt2 posts08-30-2019 4:55pm mahgister

You do realize that the MMGs are Magnepan’s entry level speaker and cost $600/pair, don’t you? You called them "top level speakers" and then proceeded to discredit them when compared to your Mission Cyrus 781 at $900/pair. Sure, the MMG owner may not have prepared his listening room correctly or even had them set up correctly, negatively impacting the sound, but Magnepans have traditionally been thought of as some of the best value speakers on the market, regardless of price, especially when paired with a sub. It’s possible that I’m a bit biased because I bought a pair of 15 year old Magnepan 20.1s (originally $12,500) for $5,500 and absolutely love them, but I think the only speakers that can compare to them cost more than $20,000. This is the price point at which we begin talking about "top level speakers".

You misread my post... I said explicitly that the Magnepan are at another level of quality sound than my Mission in principle for many reason(one being a superior technology at this price range the difference between price is not significative)... My point was not discrediting them ...My point was that a speaker is on his optimal peak point ONLY after many cleaning,damping, room treatment and many other essential tweaks... And I give this example with my audition of the superior MMG in a bad noisy embeddings...Here they speak of TOTL speakers at a high level price...But they speak about the sound of these speakers without being conscious that NO speakers sound what they may be able to give in term of sound without any cleaning whatsoever... It is like price was a warrenty...And to dissipate any doubt I will repete my saying, MMG are superior to my Mission but not on all count, anywhere and without cleaning methods... Giving the right embedding yes they crush my Mission...But this day I listen to them, no... Why? Because my own Mission are embedded in an heavily cleaned room and house on many counts...Nevermind the speakers you bought you must clean the room and the electrical grid of the house, treat the vibrations first before upgrading or speaking about them...

By the way price are no indication in general of quality"per se"... A simple example, the best headphone I own is the headphone I pay 50 bucks new many years ago and they are better if properly damped  than all my others including 2 Stax, hifiman HE 400, and AKG 340 and AKG 701...Then price in speakers are not also an indication of quality of sound "per se" in general... For sure anybody knows that we must pay for quality but it is a very general rule with many, many, exceptions...This Fostex can are one...

For me, some of the most underrated, or least heard and appreciated, are the old Apogees - particularly the Duetta Signatures and the somewhat smaller Stages. Both the Duetta Sigs in a medium to large room and the Stages in a small to medium room (when driven with adequate power and set up properly) present the accuracy of timber, the detail, stage and intimacy of the Quads with the fullness, harmonics, ambiance and dynamics of a live performance.
Very close would be the Sound Labs Electrostatics - 545s, 645s or 845s, depending on the room to fill and your budget and of course, the Magnapans.

For me the most overrated would be most $25K box speakers that have all the dynamics of a live performance but detailed to the point of being etched and lacking in the air, ambiance and timber of a live acoustic performance...Jim

@audiotroy 

And just because a speaker is 20-30k... doesn't mean its good.

I'll take the top end Salk's (9.5, SS10, SS12) all day long over the Wilson Yvette, any Paradigm Persona and a few others all day long.

To me, the Wilson Yvette is merely "ok" and way overpriced.  Now the Sasha 2, with the soft dome tweeter, used at 20k... that's a damn fine speaker.  At 36k... ah that's overpriced.

We get you think Salks are "merely" ok... but it's really really hard to find a thread on any page, or a review by anyone that doesn't think the world of what they get for the money, which to me accounts for an "underrated" classification by many.

At 20k plus... I would EXPECT a speaker to be phenomenal (though many are not).  Heck, the Persona's to many fall in that category.

Now in the stuff you endlessly push out here, I think the Legacy Focus SE is a heck of a speaker, and for what they can be found for used can be a great bargain.

I think the ATC stuff sounds damn good, but it's just so freaking expensive for what you get.  The 50's (both active and passive, but particularly Active) are pretty amazing. 

Fun topic, but meaningless.  Sure, I have my entries in both categories (overrated KEF ls/50, underrated Vandersteen 3A  Signature), but like all else in audio (and the world) it's a matter of personal taste.  Vandersteen is never going to sound great to millercarbon, while they do sound great to me.  Both valid views.  Maybe the real takeaway from this discussion is the highly variable reliability of professional reviews.
Jim Heckman