2. speakers
  3. 182158-20253

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
 

@deep_333 Yamaha and Technics are so underrated! However, the low efficiency of Technics speakers in general made me look the other way. 

The story of old manufacturers recycling old designs is best exemplified by Focal. Their drivers have even gotten worse over the years for "economy of scale" reasons. The materials are of cheaper quality these days. The new Focal Vestia line is using tweeters from the Focal car electronics division. 

I am a bit perplexed about your statement regarding KEF. The build quality and engineering of the KEF LS50 is hard to beat for the money (you literally have to go to small boutique manufacturers which underprice their goods or assembled DIY projects with quality parts). The KEF R3 Meta measures extremely well regardless of price. But I'll concede that measurements don't tell the whole story. If it were the case, all amplifier companies would go out of business and everyone would be using class D mini amps from China (forshadowing maybe...). 

erik_squires OP
16,283 posts
 

The KEF R3 Meta measures extremely well regardless of price

 

Except in impedance, this is a very hard to drive speaker which also happens to have a truly odd impedance curve.

erik_squires OP
16,283 posts
 

I guess my experiences, limited as they were, also did not convince me that coaxial speakers, or hybrid coaxial (mid + tweet coaxial, with additional woofer) were by themselves a magical new direction that I had to have.

Unlike say ESLs which clearly distinguish themselves, though not everyone loves them or has the space to use them well.

tweak1
3,679 posts
 

Eric, in my case the 3.4 is my first coax

deep_333
1,500 posts
 

@kokakolia  Focal and Tannoy continue to be rehashed legacy designs. I had the KEF ref 1 bookshelves for about a year before I sold it. Clinical sound and i could never get emotionally involved with any tracks no matter what electronics I tried. I could say the same about Magicos. It is just not my kind os sound (The latter is quite effortless with TADs and the new Technics that i audited). Yamaha is also the biggest manufacturer of musical instruments. It would be safe to say that their engineers understand more about music in addition to core engineering.

More to discover