Which brand makes the best quality loudspeakers?

[Squishman]

Kingnoob, I live in a mobile home, so the master bedroom is not super large. I think it's 12x14 or thereabouts. That whole system sounds crazy good. I have my Hereseys on small end tables with the stock angled risers. So the sound throws up over the bed. Bass sounds tight. These are the Klipsch's with the 300 w amps. Not the 100 or 150 ones. I know I could do better with one 12" HSU or Monolith, etc. But space is at a premium. These sit nicely in each front corner.

 

[highfigh]

Really your pole, speaker listing,or what's best list, is total inadequate. At the moment your comparing something in a card board box [ MDF ] to something in a hand crafted cabinet, And expect a valid response. Which is never going to work. What your doing in effect is attempting to compare an el'cheapo with a top of the line High end speaker. In your list of un'likely contenders, you fail to supply details of what's required, by holding a vote or a pole. What you need to do is revise your survey to state the price blocks involved. i.e. Priced between say 1000 to 3000, and 5000 to say 50000 thousand. Also to complicate it further list the type of speaker in the survey. i.e. Tower, bookshelf, etc,etc. Then and only then will you get some sort of accurate result.

You really think most high-end, well-regarded speakers were made from solid wood? That's not consistent throughout, so it's not generally used. By cross-laminating, it can be made more consistent, but with the price of premium lumber that's higher or lower, depending on specie, what would you use for the secondary wood, the same as the primary (the parts we see)? If you think speakers are expensive as they are, using premium grade lumber would drive the price up considerably.

By 'hand-crafted', you're not referring to using only hand tools, are you? If so, while it could be done, the surfaces wouldn't be as smooth/flat as they are and with piano gloss finishes, that would annoy many people. Anyone can sand something flat, but hand planed wood has a characteristic called 'chatoyance' that isn't possible after sanding- it happens because the wood fibers have been sliced through, not chopped off with rotating saw blades and jointer/planer knives and router/shaper cutters.

Most of the high-priced speakers have MDF (or HDF) under veneers and solid wood because it's less expensive and consistent.

 

[Kingnoob]

I gotta have dual 12" woofers on my towers, at least dual 10" woofers.

Those if new cost a boatload these days .. if you can find them . What are you using?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Those if new cost a boatload these days .. if you can find them . What are you using?

RBH SVT towers (dual 12” woofers) for 2CH and SX-T2/R (dual 10” woofers) for HT.

There are other less expensive towers with dual 10” woofers: Polk L800 and Klipsch RF7iii.

 

[mono-bloc]

You really think most high-end, well-regarded speakers were made from solid wood

Firstly no where in my post did I state "high end" I think your looking for an argument where there isn't one.. I'm just attempting to add a different opinion to the thread. Manufacturers use MDF, simply because it's cheap and in a plentiful supply,Which is over laid with timber veneers or cheap fake plastic. Leave your speakers out in the sun and it will peel off. But once you get into the higher priced products , the MDF increases in thickness. Of cause the use of Timber., is restricted to the higher priced Italian makes, with high prices to match. BUT people the like of Wilson use a composite which is claimed to be 10 times denser and heaver then your standard MDF. Others like Magico, in there top of the line models use Aluminium which is machined on giant CNC machines, In some models the front baffle is six inches thick. As to timber costs. I'm lucky where I am on the north coast . I'm inland off the coast and many years ago it was all hardwood forests.Then the timber cutters arrived and small settlements sprung up round the sawmills. Once the timber ran out, people moved away, and the land was used for beef cattle . Some re'growth took place together with planting and was ready for cutting 25 years later.. I live in one of the small settlements with less then 50 houses, A small sawmill is still working and I can buy a range of hardwoods for practically nothing. But once that timber gets to the cities the costs really increase. Here's a couple of links to a big sawmill which is on the north coast and also has showrooms in Coffs Harbour.. https://coffshardwoods.com.au/product/sawn-hardwoods/ HTTPS://coffshardwoods.com.au/ Which show the range of hardwoods availlable.

 

[highfigh]

Firstly no where in my post did I state "high end" I think your looking for an argument where there isn't one.. I'm just attempting to add a different opinion to the thread. Manufacturers use MDF, simply because it's cheap and in a plentiful supply,Which is over laid with timber veneers or cheap fake plastic. Leave your speakers out in the sun and it will peel off. But once you get into the higher priced products , the MDF increases in thickness. Of cause the use of Timber., is restricted to the higher priced Italian makes, with high prices to match. BUT people the like of Wilson use a composite which is claimed to be 10 times denser and heaver then your standard MDF. Others like Magico, in there top of the line models use Aluminium which is machined on giant CNC machines, In some models the front baffle is six inches thick. As to timber costs. I'm lucky where I am on the north coast . I'm inland off the coast and many years ago it was all hardwood forests.Then the timber cutters arrived and small settlements sprung up round the sawmills. Once the timber ran out, people moved away, and the land was used for beef cattle . Some re'growth took place together with planting and was ready for cutting 25 years later.. I live in one of the small settlements with less then 50 houses, A small sawmill is still working and I can buy a range of hardwoods for practically nothing. But once that timber gets to the cities the costs really increase. Here's a couple of links to a big sawmill which is on the north coast and also has showrooms in Coffs Harbour.. https://coffshardwoods.com.au/product/sawn-hardwoods/ HTTPS://coffshardwoods.com.au/ Which show the range of hardwoods availlable.

Not looking for an argument but associated your comments about the pole (poll) comparing cardboard with hand crafted cabinets, then mentioning speakers up to $50K. My mistake.

Several areas of the US have large supplies of high quality lumber, but it may not be premium grade, which is often subject to hype, unfortunately. In the area where I live (SouthEast Wisconsin), many areas had Elm trees for decades, until Dutch Elm Disease wiped them out in the 1960s and then, they chose species they thought would be hardy and would grow relatively quickly because part of the visual quality of the area was due to the tall trees. Well, that backfired in some ways- Ash trees are now the victim of another insect pest, the Emarald Ash Borer and they're being cut down preemptively, to slow the spread. Some of the other species they planted were Silver Maple and as someone who has too many of those surrounding my house, I can say that they should have chosen something else- they shed bark, small-mid sized branches and the seeds clog gutters, sewers and cover yards and roads. Then, there are the Cottonwood trees that release their fluffy seeds that float for over 1/2 mile before landing- if they can, they blow more than a mile from the trees and clog air conditioning compressors, fresh air inlets. They look nice and provide a lot of shaded areas in parks, so I guess they serve a purpose.

The city's forestry department used to grind the branches and take the trunks of any trees they harvested due to road widening, adding driveways for new homes or because of disease- the species include Maple (many types), Oak, Ash, Beech, Walnut, Elm and others that are now selected for their trunk when large & straight enough. One commercial arborist has been selling slabs for quite a while, but they don't have a monopoly on the supply, fortunately. They price their lumber as if they do, but I found an alternative who sells at a discount and that place has a huge supply.

Your area has some interesting species- have you worked with Blackwood?

 

[mono-bloc]

Thank you for your informative reply. We are fortunate here and don't have any disease on our timber forests. Many timber area's are now taken over by National Parks, which safeguards there existence for the future. Unfortunately most of the timber forests in Tasmania, are being destroyed and the timber used for wood chip. With ton's and ton's being shipped to China, for the production of MDF. The area's are then planted with Pine, which grow a lot quicker then hardwoods. As to the speaker pole, poll, census . My problem is it's not specific with regard to speaker type and value, It asks the reader to select a brand, but not a type or model number So in effect a B & W could be a small $250 bookshelf or a huge floorstander, weighing a ton and costing a small or large fortune. Which is it, you tell me, ?

 

[Mike Up]

How clear is the bass from those subs ? I’ve heard of them going on sale for pretty cheap .

I had the Klipsch R-12SWI for a while and finish was horrible, looking at it would scratch it. Sound was good but did have some higher bass emphasis. I returned it.

I now have the Klipsch R-120sw and I can say this is a much better subwoofer than the R-12SWI. The sound is more accurate with less high bass emphasis, the bass is tighter and more musical, and just much better sounding. It goes easily under 30Hz in my room strongly. One youtube reviewer had a measurements and it went well below 30Hz, close to 27Hz or 28Hz within -3db.

I know it sounds much better than the Velodyne CT-100 it replaced. The Velodyne was rated to 28Hz -3db as well as it's newer Velodyne HTS-10 brother which were nearly identical and rated identical. The HTS-10 measured around 32Hz -3db. The CT-100 was a 10" woofer and 100 watts RMS/250 watts peak. The Klipsch R-120SW is a 12" woofer with 200 watts RMS/400 Watts peak.

I was so impressed with the Klipsch R-120SW for the living room, I bought the Klipsch R100SW for the media room system.

Both these subs are smaller so they fit nicely where I needed them. SVS and the other expensive subs were to big to fit into my spots as I wanted a Bass Reflex Subwoofer. I can say I'm NOT disappointed at all. Both subs sound excellent with great bass extension.

Now I'm not a fan of Klipsch speakers in any way but these newer subs are impressive. While they may use similar cabinets and amps of the R-10SW and R-12SW, the drivers are completely different in color and surface texture. Old were more yellowish and smooth where newer are more orangish and have ridges on surface.

I bought my R-120SW for $300 a while ago. Now that seems to be the normal price. They had been going for as high as $600 from Best Buy and Crutchfield.

 

[Kingnoob]

I had the Klipsch R-12SWI for a while and finish was horrible, looking at it would scratch it. Sound was good but did have some higher bass emphasis. I returned it.

I now have the Klipsch R-120sw and I can say this is a much better subwoofer than the R-12SWI. The sound is more accurate with less high bass emphasis, the bass is tighter and more musical, and just much better sounding. It goes easily under 30Hz in my room strongly. One youtube reviewer had a measurements and it went well below 30Hz, close to 27Hz or 28Hz within -3db.

I know it sounds much better than the Velodyne CT-100 it replaced. The Velodyne was rated to 28Hz -3db as well as it's newer Velodyne HTS-10 brother which were nearly identical and rated identical. The HTS-10 measured around 32Hz -3db. The CT-100 was a 10" woofer and 100 watts RMS/250 watts peak. The Klipsch R-120SW is a 12" woofer with 200 watts RMS/400 Watts peak.

I was so impressed with the Klipsch R-120SW for the living room, I bought the Klipsch R100SW for the media room system.

Both these subs are smaller so they fit nicely where I needed them. SVS and the other expensive subs were to big to fit into my spots as I wanted a Bass Reflex Subwoofer. I can say I'm NOT disappointed at all. Both subs sound excellent with great bass extension.

Now I'm not a fan of Klipsch speakers in any way but these newer subs are impressive. While they may use similar cabinets and amps of the R-10SW and R-12SW, the drivers are completely different in color and surface texture. Old were more yellowish and smooth where newer are more orangish and have ridges on surface.

I bought my R-120SW for $300 a while ago. Now that seems to be the normal price. They had been going for as high as $600 from Best Buy and Crutchfield.

Electronic prices seem to have shot up a lot , dono how I’ll find a non physical job something easy preferably not standing. I need new tv stands, and lots of stuff. plus my car is disintegrating, running terrible. It’s probably worth less then the cost to fix it !

 

[Teetertotter?]

As for the best speakers, many are stuck getting the best set they can afford, but some brands that are expensive aren’t worth it .
diminishing returns, and some gimmicks?

Well said. What is your budget and priorities?

 

[Kingnoob]

Well said. What is your budget and priorities?

Running Klipch icons , on onkyo 818 avr , jamo and old klh 10” subs together I really hate these subs but got them less boomy.
Jamo actually isn’t bad
I had it sounding fine , but then I moved my system downstairs leaving my best sub to collect dust in my bedroom for 2 years now . Doubtful I can convince my mom to let me bring it downstairs. My 55” tv non hdr tv also not being used .. I’m using a baby 40” Sony lcd .
I’m looking for a job , but I can’t sleep at night . Gotta either call doctor about it and my migraines or do something. Can’t apply for many jobs when you can’t stay awake , need a desk job preferably bad knees , ankles , back injury .
I got no audysee mic stand I been using decibel x to calibrate my system : got it sounding pretty decent have double bass off not sure if that’s correct or not ?
. my focus gotta be to get the ability to just function normally and get a job .

 

[MrBoat]

Had to break these bad boys out. Love these damn things near field. Now THIS is a good rock and roll party speaker and it will do even more justice to better recordings or unplugged acoustic better yet. I brought them out to give them a detail job and they still sound fantastic. Even if you are used to better speakers, these will lull you away from that and draw attention to the music.

Not bad for $75. This was a budget speaker (IIRC, depending who you ask) and this is the kind of thing that makes me think JBL can play funny on the speaker industry with these random budget designs they toss out there occasionally. I had forgotten just how capable these hunks are. Imaging for days and powerful as all get out and what I believe is that sweet spot sensitivity range for a 'fun' yet serious speaker of this size.

This is the kind of speaker that makes high performing 2-channel amplifiers enough, even without tone controls.

FTW point blank like. Fun stuff.

 

[Kingnoob]

Had to break these bad boys out. Love these damn things near field. Now THIS is a good rock and roll party speaker and it will do even more justice to better recordings or unplugged acoustic better yet. I brought them out to give them a detail job and they still sound fantastic. Even if you are used to better speakers, these will lull you away from that and draw attention to the music.

Not bad for $75. This was a budget speaker (IIRC, depending who you ask) and this is the kind of thing that makes me think JBL can play funny on the speaker industry with these random budget designs they toss out there occasionally. I had forgotten just how capable these hunks are. Imaging for days and powerful as all get out and what I believe is that sweet spot sensitivity range for a 'fun' yet serious speaker of this size.

This is the kind of speaker that makes high performing 2-channel amplifiers enough, even without tone controls.

FTW point blank like. Fun stuff.

Wow what bookshelves are those 8-10” woofers , don’t hardly ever see Those anymore except towers. Just baby bottle bookshelves..
$75ea Budget maybe but look nice for music . How so cheap used?

 

[MrBoat]

Wow what bookshelves are those 8-10” woofers , don’t hardly ever see Those anymore except towers. Just baby bottle bookshelves..
$75ea Budget maybe but look nice for music . How so cheap used?

JBL S312 floor standers. They're 41" tall and the tweeter ends up at ear level from my desk. I paid $75 for the pair in 2016. Also got two Denon 3805 (one still in original box) AVRs for $75 (actually one was free and I found one for $75 so I got it too) as well. I was up and running again in 2016 for $150. I really could have stopped at that and been fine for years.

 

[MrBoat]

A note about the S312. Some reports of them being harsh. I found instead that the crossover merely compensates for the grilles and other than that, EQ for room.

 

[Milty]

We'd like to get your opinion on who you feel makes the best built and best sounding loudspeakers in consumer audio. Your opinion should be based primarily on sound quality followed by build quality and durability. This choice should be based on the overall product line of a particular company and not just one or two products that may excel.

If you find a particular brand on this list lacking, please indicate why.

Give us reasons why you chose a particular brand or why you feel that particular brand shines above the others on this list. If your brand isn't listed here (sorry only 10 polling options allowed), please post the brand name in the thread along with your experiences.

Wilson, Sonus Faber... I don't own either brands but my friends do and they're really good. I can't afford them but they should be on the top 10 list.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

A note about the S312. Some reports of them being harsh. I found instead that the crossover merely compensates for the grilles and other than that, EQ for room.

Hey boat! Hope you’re doing well.
I still use a pair of s312’s in my system. Yep, the same ones that used accompany the s-38’s that you now have!
I have never found the French sourced titanium tweeters to be harsh. In fact when I measured them, they fall off around 12k which I’m not happy about. Gonna look into that.

 

[MrBoat]

Hey boat! Hope you’re doing well.
I still use a pair of s312’s in my system. Yep, the same ones that used accompany the s-38’s that you now have!
I have never found the French sourced titanium tweeters to be harsh. In fact when I measured them, they fall off around 12k which I’m not happy about. Gonna look into that.

I think mine are the 1st series because they have the copper colored drivers. In room their fine, really. But I like listening a little more near field.

The S38s are winners. I love those speakers and there is nothing harsh about those. The mid bass is too nice to stay away from for too long. When I don't feel like fiddle fartin around and just want to jam out, I grab those because they really don't need anything else. The world needs more high performing 8" 3-way speakers like those. Recently I had them set up on stands on either side of my desk, accompanied by two 12" Dayton Reference series sealed subs and holy crap. . . I was glued in that spot for 3 days.

I have seriously considered building a set of veneered copies of the stock cabinets for them and copying the crossovers with some higher end electronic components just because they deserve it.

Hope you are well, too.

ETA: One of the things that JBL does that amuses me is evident in this S38. A chunky little 8" 3-way monitor, reasonably sensitive, and 175WRMS. That's pretty ballsy to turn something like that out as a budget model to the general public. To me it's as if they are almost daring the competition.

That and, even under the coattails of Harman, they still seem to be able to keep JBL true to form. This gives me a more open mind to both brands, really.

 

[blanddawg62]

no doubt, those would fill a stadium ... where's the sweet spot?

I would love to see a speaker shootout/review on a $20K-30K range.

1. Wilson Audio - Sasha
2. Von Schweikert - VR-5 Annie
3. Canton - Reference 2.2
4. B&W - 800D
5. Focal - Scala Utopia
6. Aerial Acoustics - 20T V2
7. Klipsch Palladium - P-39F
8. Vienna Acoustics - Klimt The Music
9. Martin Logan - CLX
10. Revel - Ultima Salon2

I believe the above list constitutes a nice variation in the latest driver technology and innovative cabinet designs.

What about Legacy?

 

[fallawayj]

Add Canton 9k reference stand mounted to the list of excellent speakers. They are from Germany so scarce here but Wooo. I venture these speakers can run with any in the stand mounted world in there price point and beyond . Just a beautiful speaker with quality internal parts.
These are highly detailed imaging and sound stage beasts. So laid back these ain't. Instruments sound like they should through these neutral sounding speakers. If anything, they lean towards a less meat on the bone ( 7"and 1" transducers) but detailed sound. So I also use a SVS SB 1000 Pro sub which easily mates very well with the Cantons. Oh yea.