"The Ultra High-End Speaker."


My entire relatively simple high end audio system retails for approx. $70,000, with my speakers alone retailing for approx. $24,000 (Revel Salon 2 speakers).  I've been around high-end audio for over 40 years.  I attend audio shows and visit local and non-local high-end audio shops on a regular basis.  I get to hears a lot of high-end audio speakers and gear all the time.  That said, I honestly believe, along with others who've visited my home and have listened to my system, that my system (speakers) produce that ultra high-end, reference quality sound.  Others would suggest that, when it comes to speakers, that the "Ultra High-End" sound can only be achieved by megabuck speakers costing 50K, 100K, 250k and beyond.  I do not believe that ultra high-end ("Sound Quality") is excusive to those speakers costing a king's ransom.  And, I think my own system is am example of what can be achieved at a lower (not for most people) price point.  I absolutely believe in the law of diminishing returns, especially when it comes to high-end speakers.  What's your definition, idea of, what you consider to be, a "Ultra High-End Speaker, and at what price point does the ultra high-end start?????            

kennymacc

The Salon’s are great speakers but they’re not the peak of the speaker designer’s art.

I don’t think that you can get the measure of a speaker at a show or dealer’s shop. I think you have to live with them for a while. Especially the ultra-high-end type. Your ears or brain have to adjust to them.

If someone like @mikelavigne is willing to put the money AND the time and effort into an ultra-high-end system, I think he can probably build one that sounds noticeably better than yours, no disrespect intended. Diminishing returns will surely also be noticeable, but if someone has the money and wants a system and room that’s the best he can buy, I don’t have a problem with that.

There seem to be a lot of posts on this forum that imply or state that high-end audio or some aspect of it is a scam or that everybody should listen to a system like the poster’s or at least one based on what the poster has found works for him. I think we all hear differently, have different tastes, have different listening rooms, have different budgets, different wives 😁, etc. and that is why we all have different systems.

I say live and let live, and that’s just my opinion.

OP  I honestly believe that my system (speakers) produce that ultra high-end, reference quality sound.

Do you have any uploaded live recording of your system? I love to hear it. Alex/Wavetouch

My system live recording => Pink Floyd – Time - David Gilmour, Wavetouch audio, Live recording

Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien, Wavetouch audio - Live recording

Ultra High end? Borressen 05 SSE, the best speakers I have ever heard,
Stenheim 05 SE, Estellon X Diamond Mk 11, Gauder Berlina RC9. Any one of those are my endgame speakers.

Your speakers are good but can be Much Better, Being honest the internal Xover 

parts are average at best like a 7 out of 15  just unscrew a bottom driver 

there areNo name brand capacitors ,or resistors,

 I owned aAudio store for a decade and this is one area modt speaker companies fail it’s all about profit , some of your drivers are made in the far East 

look at your Xover inside 

go to Humble homemade hifi capacitor test the tops are Duelunds best capacitors 

rated 14.5 on down these yellow caps are made in Taiwan. ,Solen another very popular company rated a 7  and $3 resistors ! Mills much better $12 , Path Audio best resistors $30 each and 100% better sonically .if you plan on keeping them. 
a Xover upgrade is well worth the effort , good parts cost $$/ that’s why companies 

just put in decent ,it’s all about profit . Sad but true.

My 2 cents:

Over the past 30 years I have listened to too many speakers to list. Ranging in price from a few thousand to nearly $100K for a pair. In many different settings with a large variety of expensive gear. A few months back a friend bought a used pair of Klipsch Chorus ll’s. He couldn’t brag about them enough. So for fun I brought a pristine pair for $1000. I hooked them up to my Luxman L-509Z and I was blown away. One song I always use to audition gear is Hotel California from When Hell Freezes Over (Eagles). I had to play it several times to make sure I was hearing was real. The band was literally in my listening room. When Don Henley starts singing it was amazingly easy to pick out his position on the stage. Each member of the band was in a position easily discernible. My point? Outstanding sound quality from a set of speakers is not solely related to amount of money spent.

I will never sell the Klipsch, but I will sell off others I currently own.