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Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?

Should say "hype vs. reality" in the headline. 

 

Coaxial speaker design has been around in one way or another for a long time. I often think I’ll be absolutely blown away by them, but in practice traditional vertical layout speakers often have sound as good, or have other features that make them sound better.

Thiel, KEF, Monitor Audio, Tekton, Seas are among the many players attempting such designs, but none has, by the coaxial drivers alone, dominated a segment of the market.

What are your listening experiences? Is it 1 coaxial speaker that won you over, or have you always preferred them?

erik_squires
kokakolia's avatar
kokakolia
198 posts
 

I don't know. Maybe the benefits of coaxial speakers are overstated. I liked the KEF LS50 Meta, but I also enjoyed many other 2-way speakers from the likes of Castle or Atohm. I'm talking about the $2k price bracket. I'm saying that if you try a dozen speakers around the same price, then the coaxial speakers won't necessarily stand out. 

I'll just be a weirdo and enjoy my single-driver speakers for now. I think that they sound fantastic.

erik_squires OP
16,219 posts
 

It seems that the general consensus is that there is no consensus!

What I mean is that co-axial speaker technology has not, by itself, won anyone over. Specific implementations though have.

Another way to put this is, if you own a Tannoy for instance, and you could not buy Tannoy again, you would not focus on buying co-axial speakers.

tweak1
3,676 posts
 

Ive been ridiculously happy, for a couple years now, with my very efficient Emerald Physics 3.4s. (12" woofer with 1" polyester tweeter) Most of the music I listen to does not go much below 40hz. My amps are LSA Voyager GaN 350 or EVS 1200 based on dual ICEPower AS 1200 modules

erik_squires OP
16,219 posts
 

Ive been ridiculously happy, for a couple years now, with my very efficient Emerald Physics 3.4s

So have you become a true believer in coaxials, or Emerald Physics?

deep_333
1,461 posts
 

The new coax design from Technics (SB-G90M2, ~5k/pair) sounds shockingly good for any speaker under the 10 to 15k price point. I recently got to audit it more seriously at my friend's house, who has it paired with ~40k in electronics. It would be safe to say that the engineers at Technics know how to innovate/design a coax driver better than the guys at KEF and Tannoy (rinse repeat of older driver designs with the same crappy sound).

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