Best speakers you've ever owned.

[beginjapan!]

Give a shout out to the best pair of speakers you've ever owned and let us know if you still have them.

 

[Russdawg1]

Ascend Acoustics CMT340’s. I’m still early so I have a while to climb the ladder

 

[lovinthehd]

Give a shout out to the best pair of speakers you've ever owned and let us know if you still have them.

You first

 

[beginjapan!]

ADS L1590's. Sweetest sounding speaker ever. Followed closely by several Polk SDA's that I've had over the years. i still have the Polk SRS towers and those are a really well balanced, wide ranging speaker. I have to say i had some small Canton's a long time ago and i wish I still had them but the two listed above are easily my faves.

 

[davidscott]

Original DCM Time Windows nothing else close. Sold them 10 years ago when I moved to an apartment but regret it as they could have worked. They were 30 years old and needed some work. Not the deepest base but the music really came alive with the Windows and isn't that what it's all about?

 

[beginjapan!]

I'd call them a little bit oogly but I've never heard anyone say anything but great things about the sound quality.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Gedlee Abbeys and yes they are my main speakers.

His Summa sounds better, especially the last version he made, but i never owned them.

 

[snakeeyes]

I haven’t heard enough speakers yet to be an authority, but my Canton Vento 820.2 are the best I own. I’ve had them since the summer.

 

[Alex2507]

Bose cubes ...

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Bose cubes ...

Shhh!!! Bose will hear you and start to get a complex.

 

[ryanosaur]

Philharmonic BMRs.
I'll get back to you after the Phil-3s arrive. End of Spring? Dennis? *fingers-crossed

 

[beginjapan!]

O

Shhh!!! Bose will hear you and start to get a complex.

Well, you never know. Maybe he has the top of the line cubes!

 

[lovinthehd]

ADS L1590's. Sweetest sounding speaker ever. Followed closely by several Polk SDA's that I've had over the years. i still have the Polk SRS towers and those are a really well balanced, wide ranging speaker. I have to say i had some small Canton's a long time ago and i wish I still had them but the two listed above are easily my faves.

Thanks, I think I've heard those ADS before, but a long time ago....and a neighbor had some fancy Polks before I was much into it, but that was before the SDAs but they sounded nice.

I've had generally good speakers...my first good set was the Original Advent Loudspeaker back in 72 when I was in high school; I lusted after JBL L100s at the time but they were more expensive. I recently picked up a pair of JBL 4311Bs, tho, and that's like a trip back to high school. I had some Carver Amazing Loudspeakers that I liked a lot but a friend killed them by turning the volume knob to 11 and then had subsequent damage due to a move so didn't have them repaired (again, the ribbons had failed before). I've had a variety of speakers otherwise and like my Ascend Sierra-1s a lot as well as my Dayton BR-1 kit speakers as well as my latest JBL S5xx series (and LSR 305s). Much of the time in my earlier days I had bought into the electronics are more important unfortunately rather than speakers but I also shared living spaces so mostly just had small bookshelves for the most part. I'm more interested in diy solutions from here on out...but dream speakers like the JBL M2 or big Revels would be nice but not exactly what I'd like to budget for among other things....

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Something stirred within me in 2018 to seriously upgrade my system, and I came across by far the two best sets I had ever owned.

So in 2nd place are the revel F30's I got back in the summer time. Beautiful looking and beautiful sounding. Had they the bass output that I desired, they'd still be in my room. I convinced my best friend to buy them so I know they'll be in good hands and truly appreciated for many years to come. He adores them, and they are fantastic in his living room where he has ample space.


1st place, Without a doubt, these T&A's I just bought. My short and sweet summary of these monsters is "everything I loved about the Performa F30's just more of it!"

Some definite firsts for me with these.

First transmission line enclosure- never in my wildest dreams! Everything I had read about the capabilities of a TL made me go this route instead of a pair of Legacy Signature or Focus that I was considering. The quality and strength of the bass is astounding.

First MTM configuration I've owned- I came for the bass, but the width and depth of the soundstage is intoxicating (I hate sounding like a "professional" reviewer, but I don't have any better words to describe it). These are simply the most immersive speakers I've ever heard. After staying up past 1AM the night I got them, I was asked my opinion by my wife. "They were hard to listen to," wasn't the answer she was expecting. But it was true! I have never been so enveloped by sound, and it took a couple days to get used to that fullness in the midrange. I was really worried about how these would work in a small room, but zero complaints now that I have them. I hope for a larger room in our next house, but they don't overwhelm the space I have for them now.

I've put myself in a position where I've priced myself out of the market. I'd have to spend a small fortune to get better speakers, so I may well be done. If not for a lifetime, at least for many years.


Honorable mentions from the past are JBL L7's and Infinity Kappa 9's, neither of which I felt I gave a fair chance back in the day. I didn't have the knowledge and same tastes back then as I do now though. Maybe they just weren't the right speakers for the time. Also a shout out to the fantastic Canton GLE-496's I bought last year! For "budget" speakers they were amazing, lacking any kind of bass but probably outclassing everything short of the Revel's and T&A's in the mid- and upper regions.

 

[Irvrobinson]

ADS L1590's. Sweetest sounding speaker ever.

I owned the ADS L1530, the L1590, and the a/d/s M15s. I thought they were sweet-sounding too. In the middle 1990s I heard a demo of the Martin Logan Monoliths at a local dealer, and I suddenly realized that the ADS speakers were indeed sweet-sounding, but not only weren't they accurate, that sweetness was a coloration. On my ADS speakers a wide variety of CDs had a sameness to their sound, that sweetness you mentioned, but on the Monoliths they all sounded different. Listening to one of my favorite jazz compilation CDs on the ADS speakers (all of them) made all of the tracks sound as if they were made in the same studio sessions; the quick track changes making the effect easy to hear. On the Monoliths every track sounded like it was made in a different venue with different instruments, which was surely the case. It was an epiphany for me.

I couldn't afford the Monoliths, nor did I have a room big enough for them back then, but I hunted around for speakers that weren't so colored (at least in that way) and ditched the ADS speakers. Ever since then I've also used compilation CDs for speaker assessment, and it is amazing how many speakers can't pass the different-tracks-should-sound-different test.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Bose cubes ...

Yeah, I sold my Bose cubes 2.001 system for $50 and have regretted it ever since.

In case you're wondering, the "0.001" is the "bass" portion, which doesn't quality for the whole "0.1".

 

[snakeeyes]

Yeah, I sold my Bose cubes 2.001 system for $50 and have regretted it ever since.

In case you're wondering, the "0.001" is the "bass" portion, which doesn't quality for the whole "0.1".

Is that the one with the “big” 5in sub? LOL

 

[Swerd]

… I lusted after JBL L100s at the time but they were more expensive. I recently picked up a pair of JBL 4311Bs, tho, and that's like a trip back to high school.

I'm more interested in diy solutions from here on out…

Do your JBL 4311B speakers have drivers similar to those the 4311? If so, you might have fun building the crossovers that Dennis Murphy designed for my L100As years ago. See this link. Or, see the attached pdf file.

 

[CB22]

Philharmonic BMRs

Second that, I've owned four pairs of speakers in my life and there's are the best I've had so far.

 

[lovinthehd]

Do your JBL 4311B speakers have drivers similar to those the 4311? If so, you might have fun building the crossovers that Dennis Murphy designed for my L100As years ago. See this link. Or, see the attached pdf file.

The difference in the 4311B that I read was that the original 4311 had a titanium tweeter but apparently people didn't like it so they revised it and voila the 4311B, but they're both supposedly basically the L100 from what I know. I haven't double checked the drivers for model number yet (plan to replace the pushed in dust caps on the tweets and mids....even tho they sound okay. I remember your mods, thanks for the link/file. Pics of the drivers attached