Top 10 Most Influential Speakers of the last 50 years!

[gene]

Today, Audioholics goes over its top picks for the ten most influential speakers in the American hi-fi market over the last five decades. We'll take a trip down memory lane to look at classics from Acoustic Research, Advent, Bose, and Klipsch among others. We've also got a few speakers in mind that you might not anticipate. Of course, if we missed one of your favorites, make sure to chime in on our forums to let us know who you think deserves an honorable mention.

See: Top 10 Most Influential Speakers of the last 50 Years

Let us know your picks and why.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would agree with the B&W 800D & 802D because their street prices (especially used) is "affordable" and they look amazing and sound pretty good.

The other group of speakers I find to be most influential are the towers with built-in LFE subs like Def Tech, Golden-Ear, RBH, etc.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Today, Audioholics goes over its top picks for the ten most influential speakers in the American hi-fi market over the last five decades. We'll take a trip down memory lane to look at classics from Acoustic Research, Advent, Bose, and Klipsch among others. We've also got a few speakers in mind that you might not anticipate. Of course, if we missed one of your favorites, make sure to chime in on our forums to let us know who you think deserves an honorable mention.

See: Top 10 Most Influential Speakers of the last 50 Years

Let us know your picks and why.

Thanks Gene--great article. And thanks in particular for showcasing the KLH 5. I thought I was the only one who realized what a significant speaker it was.
I owned a pair for 20 years. A quibble or two on the AR discussion. The early AR's obviously belong on the list. But they were in fact highly colored speakers. All of them suffered from the same flaw (other than the haphazard driver placement). The simple, text-book crossovers failed to control for diffraction peaks at the bottom of the midrange (AR3, AR2, or tweeter (AR4x). My first speakers were AR4x, which I roundly hated. I thought the murky sound was due to a depressed tweeter, but when I got hold of a pair a few years back I discovered the issue was really a broad, veiling 5 dB peak at around 1200 Hz. The 3a had the same issue, but at around 800 Hz. It was worse than on the original 3, which was really the superior speaker. I've redone all of the class AR's, and it's amazing how good they can sound with the original drivers despite their screwy baffle placement. The driver engineering was amazing. The crossovers, not so much.

Did I think you missed anything? I think I would have bumped Thiel off the list for the Dahlquist DQ-10. It was the first to really stress time-aligned drivers and phase relationships. I'm sure not all of the theory holds up, but the sound was a step forward despite the cheap tweeter and somewhat bass-challenged woofer.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I feel that few other speakers had very significant influence over current audio landscape:
BBC's LS3/5A and Yamaha NS10

Thiel 3.6 were probably great speakers, I don't know if deserves to be in top 10 most influential of last 50 years...
KEF probably had more than few reference designs which are now closely copied

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I would agree with the B&W 800D & 802D because their street prices (especially used) is "affordable" and they look amazing and sound pretty good.

The other group of speakers I find to be most influential are the towers with built-in LFE subs like Def Tech, Golden-Ear, RBH, etc.

Wasn't Golden-Ear was a spin-off from Def-Tech?

 

[Irvrobinson]

I too had an issue with Thiel being on the list. I probably would have included the Quad ESL.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Wasn't Golden-Ear was a spin-off from Def-Tech?

Yup. Totally spin-off on the Def Tech with "improvements". The same guy did both - Sandy Gross.

 

[gene]

I feel that few other speakers had very significant influence over current audio landscape:
BBC's LS3/5A and Yamaha NS10

Thiel 3.6 were probably great speakers, I don't know if deserves to be in top 10 most influential of last 50 years...
KEF probably had more than few reference designs which are now closely copied

There is no denying Yamaha NS10s or their Beryllium speakers influence in recording studios, but that's NOT consumer audio hence why they didn't make the list.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

There is no denying Yamaha NS10s or their Beryllium speakers influence in recording studios, but that's NOT consumer audio hence why they didn't make the list.

Title didn't limit it to consumer only speakers so

 

[Jeepers]

Just a detail but the B&W speaker in the article (photo) is not the 800D, it's the 800 Diamond. The 800D is the first generation whereas the 800 Diamond is the second generation.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Just a detail but the B&W speaker in the article (photo) is not the 800D, it's the 800 Diamond. The 800D is the first generation whereas the 800 Diamond is the second generation.

That's why I prefer to call them either 802D1 or 802D2.

In about 3 years when they come out with their 3rd generation, they need to call it 802D3.

But those marketing guys will probably call it "802 Diamonds."

And then the 4th generation will be "802 More Diamonds".

A note to B&W marketing: they are all diamond tweeters, so you might want to differentiate with D1 vs D2 vs D3, etc.

 

[macddmac]

Dynaco A25 was a big one too.

 

[Jeepers]

That's why I prefer to call them either 802D1 or 802D2.

In about 3 years when they come out with their 3rd generation, they need to call it 802D3.

But those idiots will probably call it "802 Diamonds."

And then the 4th generation will be "802 More Diamonds".

A note to B&W: they are all diamond tweeters, so you might want to differentiate with D1 vs D2 vs D3, etc.

I am sure B&W are no idiots and they name their different series with some thought.
On the other hand; there are idiots who have difficulties to separate the ones from the others and use D1 and D2; does D2 stand for dumb and dumber ?

A happy new year and may 2015 be a year of wisdom.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I am sure B&W are no idiots and they name their different series with some thought.
On the other hand; there are idiots who have difficulties to separate the ones from the others and use D1 and D2; does D2 stand for dumb and dumber ?

A happy new year and may 2015 be a year of wisdom.

I should have said "marketing department".

Even the B&W parts retail price list label them as "800D" vs "800D2", 802D vs 802D2.

When the 3rd gen comes out, the parts list will say 800D3, 802D3.

http://www.bwgroupsupport.com/parts/partslist-bw

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Dynaco A25 was a big one too.

interesting part is that A25 was originally designed by engineer from SEAS - (http://home.indy.net/~gregdunn/dynaco/components/speakers/)

 

[Jeepers]

I should have said "marketing department".

Even the B&W parts retail price list label them as "800D" vs "800D2", 802D vs 802D2.

When the 3rd gen comes out, the parts list will say 800D3, 802D3.

http://www.bwgroupsupport.com/parts/partslist-bw

True ...about the group support website which also mentions "This page and the information contained therein is intended for use within North America only".

B&W is a British brand so I only use the British website which, as the US website, also contains a product archive.

Have a look at the archive (also check the one from the group support) and you will see that there is no mentioning at all of D1.

 

[KEW]

I wonder how AR got such exceptional performance out of their LST given it had the same drivers as the 3a (although the 3a had only one of each). The 3a was reviewed favorably, but no graph provided.
Did multiple drivers make it somehow easier or do you think they dedicated more resources to the crossover design?
AR LST FR chart from High Fidelity's Test Reports, 1977 Edition.
It is hard to read the text, but High Fidelity says it measured 50Hz to 15,000Hz within +/-3dB and from 30Hz to over 20kHz using their more common +/-6dB standard (of that era).

 

[Dennis Murphy]

I've never worked with or even seen the LST. But weren't the two sets of drivers stacked in conventional manner, rather than plastered over the baffle as they were in the AR3, 3a? That certainly would have helped. And more thought may have gone into the crossover. Still,+/- 3 dB can cause serious colorations depending on where the dips and peaks occur.

 

[KEW]

I've never worked with or even seen the LST. But weren't the two sets of drivers stacked in conventional manner, rather than plastered over the baffle as they were in the AR3, 3a? That certainly would have helped. And more thought may have gone into the crossover. Still,+/- 3 dB can cause serious colorations depending on where the dips and peaks occur.

It had a total of 9 speakers: 1 ea 12" woofer, 4 ea 1-1/2" hemispherical-dome mid, and 4 ea 3/4" hemispherical-dome tweeters. The cabinet was 6-sided measuring 27" wide, 20" tall, and 9" deep. The back panel was 27" X 20" and
(guesstimating from here) side panels come forward 3" at right angles to the back. The remaining 3 panels were the baffles with the front at about 16" wide. Both side baffles dropped back from the front at about 30 degrees.
The woofer was definitely in the front panel, but I don't remember how the drivers were arranged among the 3 baffles.

There certainly are peaks and dips in the FR I posted, but HF declared them among the most linear speakers they had ever measured.

This speaker was sold primarily for pro use in studios and labs, but AR allowed their distributors to special order them.

Edit: Hopefully anyone understood what I meant by having 6 sides, but I suppose I should have said 8 sides since the top and bottom technically count as sides.

 

[JohnL]

Hi Steve,


Sorry buddy but I think you need to rename your list!!!

Maybe something like...."Top Ten Speakers that I have heard so far".

Or even "Top Ten Speakers I can get easily get my hands on in the U.S."

There can be absolutely NO other POSSIBLE reason to exclude ATC for their world class, recording industry standard, Actives!!!!!!!

And then there's ...........Duntech Sovereigns (remember the Professor!!)..........Quad and ML for electrostatics....so on

I did actually have Bose 901 Series VI's in the (thankfully) distant past!!!


Appreciate what you were TRYING to do but.........


Cheers,

JohnL