A.Wayne

Yes and auratones ....

Yep .......

cabikefreak

OK so I'm a newbie here but thought I would weigh in. I haven't listened to all the brands/models in this thread, but many of them. The best I ever heard, and this was back when I was young enough to hear better, was an incredible homebuilt pair of speakers using JBL components that an engineer buddy of mine built. The limitation was definitely his house, including the HVAC ducts when the music found their natural frequency.

Aside from those I still love my Yamaha NS1000s with their beryllium mid ranges and tweeters. And they look good in their ebony cabinets. The bass isn't great but I really love the way they handle the sound of strings. Good enough for me and the room they are in. But I am thinking they need a nice old pre-integrated amp to sound just a little bit better...

Bob in NY

I had a pair of those many years ago, nice speakers but very critical of room placement and you need a really good amp to drive the bass. Get a nice Mac power amp and your speakers will sound better than new. Good luck

LT Texan

Just a bit legendary....


NS1000 Review

sig_a

I remember these Yamaha NS1000's were about the same in size as JBL L100's, but sounded even flashier. High quality for sure.

Tippy

I totally don't count since I haven't been around a lot of high end stuff but I got to demo everything in soundrooms in our only high-end shop here and these are my favorites:

B&W 805 Diamonds playing from a Peachtree(?) that sounded unbelievable.

Next would be some smaller M&K's - not sure the model.

I noticed some Definitive Technologies super towers paired with an integrated Marantz that sounded really nice. This combo sounded best for the money for me - less than $3,000 together.

All three of these above sounded better to me than the over-the-top McIntosh, 8ft. high super-duper towers(!) that used 40-mid-range drivers, ~30-something tweeters, with 4-10" woofers powered by I think a 1200 watt McIntosh amp. Not sure of the pre-amp used.

That was NOT a sound I would go after.

sig_a

My first audio experience came from working part-time in the stereo department of a local discount store. Early on, no reputable manufacturers would sell to discount stores. So our clever boss would bootleg brands like Fisher, AR, JBL. We used these hi-fi brands to sell cheaper quality brands like Aztec. Much of our early success came by the way we tooled off real hi-fi names like AR and JBL after hooking them up out of phase. Normally, this demo technique worked really well. But the surprising thing was the large number of customers who thought the out of phase AR's or JBL's sounded really good. So rather than turn away any sales, we "special ordered" them from our network of out of state bootleg dealers, and then delivered them at substantial discounts from full list price. Not only did they sound fantastic when they got them home, but within a couple of years our reputation for competitive prices eliminated the full list price, snooty hi fi competition. And the lasting effect was real hi-fi manufacturers began to sell us direct. Which is the long way around in explaining how I became familiar with some really great hi-fi brands.

cobalt

That is really cheesy. Don't recall Aztec but it must have been pretty awful stuff if the JBL and AR sounded better out of phase.

Back in the 70's I think the average consumer was more about brand recognition than anything else. I remember when Tech HiFi stores became popular and they pushed brands like Ohm, Sansui, SAE, Pioneer and others. Pioneer sold everyone on their full sound range of 20-20,000hz. Yet a lot of their lower end equipment lacked a lot in between. Their price break made them a top seller and I always wondered why some Pioneer models would sell over slightly more expensive superior equipment made by Yamaha, Sansui Onkyo and others.

Thank goodness there were real hi end stores to get a true education from around me.

doveq

Best I've heard... LINN speakers


http://www.linn.co.uk/music_systems_loudspeakers

whalebird

Seems I vaguely remember a speaker...maybe "Creek"? Anyhow, searching for such, I found "North Creek" speaker systems, anyone know about them? I enjoy a full range bookshelf in two channel, and they caught my eye (ears are a different thing). They listed a few reference recordings which I enjoy seeing. Anybody have any preferred listening when auditioning speakers?

Thoughts?

john weires

I've been in the high end audio specialty retail business for over 35 years and own Audio Video Logic in Des Moines, IA. There is no recognized best speaker in part because the audio industry can not agree on standards of reproduction for what would ultimately comprise and measure as a perfect speaker. Even if a standard was agreed on and achieved in practice, the majority of audiophiles and magazine reviewers would not like this speaker as they have no interest in accuracy of reproduction and or are unfamiliar with it. They want my-fi rather than hi-fi. This is their prerogative and perhaps ultimately unavoidable, at least with out training, due to the subjectivity of the listening experience. However it effectively creates a dog chasing it's tail syndrome where endless amounts of time and money, both at the manufacturing and consumer level, are wasted reconfiguring and recycling the same flawed ideas over and over in slightly different packages. This is much like rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. In lieu of these standards, I will therefore list some speakers, that despite obvious flaws, have over time provided at least elements of realistic music reproduction.
Magneplanars and Magnepans.
Big displacement JBL's like L-300's, Paragons and 43 and 44 series pro studio monitors.
Yamaha NS-1000.
Fulton J's.
Acoustat 6's.
B&W Matrix and latest 2010 Diamond series.
Dunlavy SC-4 and SC-5.
NHT Super Zero.
Wilson Audio Maxx 3.
TAD Reference One and Compact Reference One.
JBL Everest DD-66000.
Magico Q5.
Revel Salon 2.

Bob in NY

I'm very familiar with several of those speaker systems and they represent some of the best sounding products spanning decades of time. At least with analog gear it never really becomes outdated. So I didn't see a P car in your signature, are you a Porsche enthusiast?

Tippy

This post delivers......

cobalt

Fulton J's ?? Interesting, I never understood what the fascination with these refrigerators was all about. "Best" is subjective and there are no standards but that is one speaker i would remove from the list for many reasons and ridiculous size is not one of them. For large speakers I would replace them with the infinity IRS if you updated the amps and crossovers.

But what do i know.

sig_a

And isn't that "it".

Through thick and thin, JBL gets my vote.