I nominate this company as building best speakers!

Having owned Apogee Diva's for six years I can tell you that I have never been so vexed by a loudspeaker. But at the bottom of it all is ribbon speakers are easy to damage and very unreliable. Even Magnepan's vaunted ribbon tweeter is subject to blowing. They have an ongoing tweeter replacement program. This issue was one of the reasons Apogee died. If you look online you will notice a that replacement ribbons are sold alongside ribbon tweeters. Replacing a 6 foot tweeter ribbon is quite an experience. Only the factory can replace a woofer ribbon. Because there are great and very reliable ESLs available there is no reason to go for ribbon speakers.


I haven't heard of any apogee ribbons blowing, it's usually the foam that encases them under the clamps and frames that deteriorates and then they buzz. The foam on the tweeter also deteriorates and then the tension isn't proper causing way to much movement of the ribbon.

I love great equipment, but not for $30K.  I wouldn't be round to enjoy them if my wife found out about them.   I'll stick with my Snell Type C.  

Clearly, there is no “best” speaker or, in my opinion, piece of equipment.  I’ve always been happy with a piece being “in the discussion”. Ultimately, there are too many variables in a system. But, most importantly, the individual’s perception or definition of what “good” sound is will ultimately determine which speaker one defines as best.

The kind of glowing reviews the OP is assigning to the Stenheims are the kind of reviews I often hear about my Zellatons. For my ears- and frankly that’s all that matters to me- my Zellatons posses a “life-like” quality that is very hard to achieve with other speakers/ systems.  To that end, I am thrilled.  Are they the “best”? Probably not... but in our hobby “best” is actually “favorite”. Favorite is an unchallengeable position. My favorite ice cream brand is “x”. How can one argue what I call my favorite? 

@mapman 

I absolutely love MBL. I've heard many of their systems and the 101Extreme at least three times. Just incredible. But we are talking at least a million so it is also out of the question.

@kw6 

No one's mentioned it, but you probably know. Burmester is also amazing gear in its own right. I have a TAD system with E-1 speakers and the big Burmester (909 I believe) with their near top of the line preamp and an amazing table bested the TAD amp/preamp I have (with the E-1s), but it also is beyond my means. Burmester is killer but I think not all that many have heard it. If you don't have Burmester gear, that should be taken into consideration and will your current gear synergize like Burmester does with Stenheim? BTW, would really like to hear  Stenheim, maybe some day.

mijostyn
having owned apogee duetta signatures for almost 30 years and now have divas from truesoundworksaudio since 5 years I do not agree at all with your assumption that apogee speakers are sensitive to failure. I moved the duettas from Saudi Arabia where I bought them to Germany and now to the U.S. without any problem or any failure. The duettas were rebuild once by truesoundworksaudio after about 15 years with better quality parts which were not available when apogee designed those speakers. On the contrary I had sound labs which did not survive one transport inside the same country, they are super sensitive in comparison, the foil easily rips and I had to bring them to Utah to get them fixed. After living with apogee for so many years sound labs sounded super slow and boring, dynamics are just not there at all in comparison.Any box speaker no matter how big or expensive using normal cones will not and can never approach the speed and dynamics and resolution of a ribbon planar speaker - but thats just my opinion and many other people will say thats complete bs because they like different qualities in a speaker and thats fine. For the original poster: buy what you like and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, for me they would be a no go, I would not even listen to them.I visited a showroom and they had super expensive speakers (I think made by rockport and wilson) with ultra expensive gear connected to them - they sounded super clean and super nice and super boring. If I listen to my divas and close the eyes I think the musicians are in my living room and I can touch them -  but listen to a box speaker while sounding nice and ultra clean they always sound like a box speaker  and like hifi and not like music. Its maybe like listening to a Ortofon SPU or another super expensive super clean and thin sounding super boring other cartridge - thats just me and to each his own! So for me I will keep my apogees till the end of time and my children will inherit them some day.