The best "imaging" speakers?

I think every pair of speakers I’ve owned imaged well. Some speakers are easier to place than others. Some companies take the time to match each pair to within a half a dB of each other, some believe in a narrow baffle some use horn loading tweeters and some will flush mount them. I did have 1 pair that imaged better, as in spooky detail, but the tweeters were cheap and let the rest of the design down.

By far and away: 

Ensemble Ondiva
And
Stenheim Alumine 5

Image precision is primarily delivered by the first-arrival sound, and is degraded by very early reflections from the speaker itself (including diffraction), and also by early room reflections, but not so much by later reflections unless they are too strong.

Envelopment or immersion ("you are there") is delivered primarily by a clear differentiation between the first-arrival sound and the later reflections, which means that early reflections are once again particularly undesirable.

Early reflections are not all bad - for instance early sidewall reflections can can make it sound like the soundstage is wider than the space between the speakers, something that most of us enjoy. But the same auditory mechanism which expands the soundstage to the outside due to strong early sidewall reflections also reduces imaging precision and in particular soundstage depth, so it’s a trade-off.

These are not the only things that matter, the time coherence of the speaker also matters. ("Phase coherence" is virtually a marketing term and imo usually means very little.)

So ime the IDEAL balance might be really good first-arrival sound, then little or no early reflections, and then a lot of (but too much!) spectrally-correct late reflections. "Late" within the context of home audio being "about 10 milliseconds behind the first-arrival sound". This can be accomplished with a combination of speaker choice and setup, and maybe room acoustic treatment.

One example might be, a pair of relatively uniform-pattern fullrange dipole speakers positioned at least five feet out from the wall behind them, perhaps with a considerable amount of toe-in to minimize early same-side-wall reflections.

The best imaging I have ever heard was from a pair of Supravox wizzerless 8" fullrange drivers, listening nearfield in a large room, with one aimed at each ear. Sweet spot was head-in-a-vice, soundstage was incredibly deep, but the presentation wasn’t "you are there".

Best imaging with more practical speakers was Earl Geddes’ personal three-Summas-plus-subs system in his dedicated listening room. This system also did an excellent job with "you are there", but not the very best I’ve heard. Sweet spot was exceptionally wide.

The best "you are there" I have heard was from a pair of SoundLab Ultimate fullrange electrostats in a large room, set up with maybe seven or eight feet behind them. Again, wide sweet spot (but not as wide as Earl's Summas, relative to room width). 

Duke
yeah I’m a SoundLab dealer

I am proud to say that i create "imaging" and "soundstage" at nearfield listening (3 feet) and at regular listening (7 feet) in my smal irregular room by passive materials controlling acoustic methods and also with many different active methods (mainly different size and kind of resonators)

Most people stick on their favorite brand of speakers, completely unconscious of the importance of the room acoustic.... I even speak with some " reviewer" that argue against the too much importance given to acoustic.... He was not conscious of the fact that the Greek theater exist before Edison.... Hi-Fidelity recording of sound is slave of acoustic rendering by the room at the end.... :)

I call my method the triple embeddings of an audio system...(mechanical,electrical,and acoustical)

Give me a good speakers, certainly half of them are good, i will make it imaging like crazy.... If not his design is very bad....

Like engineering electronic design, acoustic is an art of trade-off, your ears are the judges.....And we live with our judges then why not using them?

I call that listening experiments, it is fun, and the only way to reach, incrementally, one step at a time, at low cost, audio paradise....

Audio Physic Virgo II. These image like nothing I've ever heard (and I've been to a few shows). I used to own a pair and 'upgraded' to MBL 121s. Even though others have cited the MBLs as imaging masters, the Virgos were even better IMHO. I miss them in many ways, even though they are so cheap - they're a real bargain.

Interesting.  I've had the Virgo IIs at my house - and the Audio Physic Libras, and I owned the AP Scorpios.  I also owned the MBL 121s for many years (just sold them not too long ago).


The AP speakers are definitely up there with best soundstaging/imaging.They just do a spooky disappearing act.  Not sure I'd quite put them in league with the MBL 121s.   The most amazing disappearing/imaging act goes to the MBL 101s IMO.


I've always enjoyed soundstaging/imaging/disappearing speakers so that's been a requirement.



Next to the AP speakers I'd place Waveform speakers (with their egg-shaped head module) for a crazy disappearing act.  Also my current Joseph Audio Perspectives really do soundstaging/disappearing.


Other honorable mentions:   Hales Transcendence 5s imaged wickedly.Probably the biggest surprise were a pair of Shun Mook Bela Voce speakers.  Plain "made-in-wood-shop" looking speakers that somehow soundstaged like giants!



For small monitors:  My Spendor s3/5s do a crazy disappearing/imaging act, probably only exceeded by a small pair of Meadowlark Swallow speakers - those were insane.


Holy geeze...forgot about my original big dynamic speakers, the Von Schweikert VR4 Gen II.   Those were known for their 3D effect (with rear firing ambience retrieval tweeter) and that was true 3 dimensional sound.


But if I had to nominate one overall best imaging/soundstaging speaker I've had it was probably the Thiel 3.7s - Thiel's final flagship speaker.The reason is that, despite their size, they disappeared from top to bottom in an utterly coherent way beyond anything I'd heard.  Soundstaging was as vast and deep and wide as I've ever had.But, crucially, the sonic images had a focus and density, a palpability and "thereness" that tends to escape other speakers.