Top 10 Most Influential Speakers of the last 50 years!

[Kingnoob]

You somehow deduced the exact opposite of what I was saying which was that none of the Klipsch Heritage series produce deep bass-even the biggest, most expensive pair of the series-the Klipschorns don't produce really deep bass

oops my bad ..
Definitely an oxymoron or paradox such large speakers with poor bass . Especially costing up to 22k or so for top models .
No better bass then $259 tower speakers haha …
Lot of subs don’t even do bass good enough , but surely beat these big horns .

 

[carewser]

For $22,000/pair (here in Canada at least) I don't think it's unreasonable to expect frequency response of 20hz-20khz but the Klipschorns can't do that which is weird because they use 15" woofers and they're huge. There are plenty of subs under $1000 which produce deeper bass. Like I said, my little 8" Audioengine sub was less than $500CAN and produces deeper bass than the Klipschorns so if I worked for Klipsch I would try and improve the bass from them

 

[Replicant 7]

Anyone on AH, has or have had these? Wharfedale Reva 11.4 tower's?

 

[Yogi52]

Anyone on AH, has or have had these? Wharfedale Reva 11.4 tower's?

Does anyone remember stacked AR’s and how much they sounded better than just one

 

[D Murphy]

Does anyone remember stacked AR’s and how much they sounded better than just one

NO--just stacked Advents. And I can't think of any reason why they would sound better. Louder, maybe. Worse, maybe.

 

[davidscott]

NO--just stacked Advents. And I can't think of any reason why they would sound better. Louder, maybe. Worse, maybe.

I had New Advents with small Advents on top back in the early 80s. Not quite the same but they were a bit louder. Not worse as I could tell.

 

[Cos]

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

And before that Polk Audio, because they did not want to call the speaker line GROSS

 

[Mojo Navigator]

ESS AMT technology still seen today on many speakers
Dahlquist DQ-10 Open baffle and time aligned drivers
Ohm high fidelity omni-directional sound

Disagree with Thiel, B&W and Klipschorn (almost no one could afford them, although they survived to make mass market speakers for big-box stores)

 

[davidscott]

What no mention of OHM's omnidirectional speakers? Of the speakers on this list I've only owned Advents - nice sound with deep bass but not to be confused with live music.
Now Magnepans they can sound real to me. Maybe now that I'm retired Ican get a small pair for my condo.

 

[mdinno]

Steve Guttenberg did a video on this and he had my NHT SuperTwo on his list. I still have those speakers for over twenty years and am looking to upgrade since I've had them so long.

 

[Ponzio]

Wow, I'm shocked. I had 2 of the speaker models nominated at one time; the JBL L100's and the Bose 901's.

Yes, I'm that old.

Hopefully I'm alive to see my modern day choices, the Salk SongTower QWT's and the Focal 1027 Be's make the list.

The only thing that's holding me back nowadays from upgrading is my old nemesis ... cash ... and the missus.

 

[carewser]

What no mention of OHM's omnidirectional speakers? Of the speakers on this list I've only owned Advents - nice sound with deep bass but not to be confused with live music.
Now Magnepans they can sound real to me. Maybe now that I'm retired Ican get a small pair for my condo.

Omnidirectional speakers seem kind of silly as most musical instruments aren't even omnidirectional, in fact the only two instruments I can think of that are omnidirectional are drums and piano

 

[carewser]

Wow, I'm shocked. I had 2 of the speaker models nominated at one time; the JBL L100's and the Bose 901's.

The irony of the L100's is that JBL didn't make them famous, Maxell did

 

[davidscott]

Best sounding speakers that I owned were DCM Time Windows. Not a lot of deep bass but man they could come alive with acoustics and jazz. Blew my Advents out of the water but they didn't make the list.

 

[GotAudio]

I went through this whole thread and only saw one mention of Magnepans.. I would like this set but too pricey for me at the moment.. plus I would have to buy all new gear to power them as they are power-hungry speakers.

Magnepan 1.7i

The Magnepan 1.7i planar-magnetic loudspeaker is available for sale at Overture in Sales Tax Free Delaware. We welcome any Trade-Ins!

www.overtureav.com

 

[MaxInValrico]

What no mention of OHM's omnidirectional speakers? Of the speakers on this list I've only owned Advents - nice sound with deep bass but not to be confused with live music.
Now Magnepans they can sound real to me. Maybe now that I'm retired Ican get a small pair for my condo.

I've found that they do the trick.

 

[robert diiorio]

AR 1W with Janszen 130 electrostatic
KLH Model Nine
just a question; someone in this forum said W. HECHT of Phase Tech invented the Dome tweeter (filed 1964 granted 1967) yet AR-3 speakers had dome midrange and tweeters and that was in 1958. Am I missing something?

 

[blanddawg62]

Title didn't limit it to consumer only speakers so

That was just assumed since the majority of people buying and listening to hifi were not in 'music professions'. And even those who were, preferred something different when listening at home.

 

[marc brown]

I went through this whole thread and only saw one mention of Magnepans.. I would like this set but too pricey for me at the moment.. plus I would have to buy all new gear to power them as they are power-hungry speakers.

Magnepan 1.7i

The Magnepan 1.7i planar-magnetic loudspeaker is available for sale at Overture in Sales Tax Free Delaware. We welcome any Trade-Ins!

www.overtureav.com

I think the fact that Magnepan was mentioned only once or twice so far shows that their inclusion in the list was spot-on. They are the standard bearer for flat panel speakers and a frequent gateway drug for new initiates.
Owning a pair of Magnepans doesn’t have to be expensive. I picked up a pair of used 2.5-R’s for $750 when I was in college (the 90’s) and powered them for years with a Denon PMA-520 (70wpc). Don’t overdrive your amplification and you can enjoy Maggie’s with modest power. Pick up a used pair of SMG’s for around $500 to see if you like the sound. If you don’t, sell them and get back what you paid. Or, if you do like the sound but want “more”, sell them and upgrade.

 

[Bobby Bass]

Thanks for your comments to revitalize an old thread. A great article I didn’t know existed having joined in just the past year. Oh boy now I’ll be going down the rabbit hole researching the archives.