What is the best speaker you have ever owned ?????

I humbly submit my Totem Sttafs as the best speaker I have ever owned.

Magico Q5s are quite something if you have the cash, but im very fond of the Q1s they disappear and involve the listener emotionally at a level i have only heard live!

The best I have owned are my JBL Synthesis 1400 Array's. They are modified with berylium drivers and Charge Coupled networks. Definitely my favorites although my HT mains are not to shabby in comparison.

Rob

The best speakers I have owned are my present speakers.

The Infinity IRS Series V that has been tri-amplified with Pass Labs active crossovers.

MrAcoustat said:

To each is own, for me if i have to choose between a $2,500.00 bookshelf speaker or a Magnepan 1.7QR, there is no doubt in my mind wich one I would choose.

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Without hearing the new Evolution Acoustics, you can tell this.

midlandaudiox said:

Magico Q5s are quite something if you have the cash, but im very fond of the Q1s they disappear and involve the listener emotionally at a level i have only heard live!

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I have not listened to the Q1 time enough to have an opinion, but some people are becoming very fond of them and a cult seems to be starting. The editor of our national magazine on audio (named Audio ) raved about them and, supreme heresy, said they are the only speakers that could replace and surpass his Quad ESL63's in his own system. Considering he has owned the ESL63 uninterruptedly for about 30 years, it is an achievement.

MrAcoustat said:

Yes sir, you can only get so much for $2,500.00, a bookshelf is a bookshelf there are a few exceptions, this one being one of them BUT at more than 15k, i did say dollar for dollar and for ME at 15k it would be Magnepan's 20.7s

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I'm sorry but you haven't answered my question. The original question was about value and having heard a speaker, and all of sudden now you've changed the topic and are talking about to dollar to dollar.

MrAcoustat said:

Sorry i taught that i had already answered your question, for ME the Magnepan 1.7QR is a better value than the Evolution Acoustics MMMicro one for the reason that i wouldn't even compare a panel to a boxed speaker at the same price point, but like you say some may think different and that's fine to.

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Yes but I've heard both speakers in order to draw my conclusion.

I also have heard both; each does some things better than the other. IMO, the MMOne does more things better, but to a given individual the Maggie may still be preferred.

rbbert said:

I also have heard both; each does some things better than the other. IMO, the MMOne does more things better, but to a given individual the Maggie may still be preferred.

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I don't disagree but one can't simply dismiss a product w/o having heard it. Don't you agree. There will always be some planar lovers and some dynamic speaker lovers. But IMHO, the MMOne is one of the few speakers that provides competition and an alternative to Maggies. Plus you always have a placement problem and the issue of dynamics/type of music you listen to with the Maggies. In the end, both speakers are real accomplishments at the entry level! YMMV....

Absolutely. Even having owned and loved Acoustats for almost 20 years, I would still probably take the MMOne over Magnepan 1.7R's.

I’ve owned some of the mega speakers in my days - Meadowlark Ibis, Silverline Monte Christo, Montana WAS, Ascendo top of the line, Dali MegaLine, Vivid Audio GK1 and now Perfect8 Force with 4 sub stacks.
All of them ended up beeing modified in some way or another. All of them ended up with directly coupled woofers and active base x-overs/biamped.
Each of them had some strengths and weaknesses.
Based on my memory Medowlark Ibis for a long time was best in under 100K price range providing great balance of transparency/bass slam/ and naturalness with slightly warm and romantic tonal balance, and Dali Megalines with their ability to resolve micro-dynamics, and through incredible soundstage, openness and combination of micro and macro details after some serious modes are making great sound in our bedroom to this day - they are somewhat limited on the bottom and need to be agumented with subs - not an easy task as you need ultra-fast subs though. Montana were retired to HT were they truly belong - most dynamic loudspeaker of them all with good natural timbre. Silverline Monte Christos were very musical with warm midrange yet open highs and decent bass and Ascendos were extremely coherent throwing a best lateral soundstage I’ve heard and sounding great at the low volumes, they also had great bass integration but were anemic and did not dig down deep enough.

Vivid Audio GK1 ended up being my overall favorite speaker amalgaming most of the good feature of rest of the speakers reaching best compromise - preforming almost everything as good as best of the best. Lateral imaging almost as good as Ascendos, dynamics and bass close to Montana’s, coherency closed to Ibis, depth and details almost as good as Dali. In almost any area they were number one or close number two of the pack. Some of the areas were Vivids were lacking was micro dynamics, low-volume playback and sense of true air(as compared to either true ribbons of Dalli or Audax Golden Eye of Ibis). We do need to be mindful what this is not a true shortcomings as they are noticeable only when compared to mega speakers who’s specialty lies in those virtues.

Now let’s enter the Perfect8 Force. I was lucky to get only pair of Force in US (one of 4 worldwhide). These things are crazy. They do everything better than any of above mentioned speakers and by a wide margin. They dynamically outdo not just my mighty Montanas but any speaker I’ve ever heard including Clement Perry’s Sunny Kings and Avantgarde Trios. Their transparency and staging also outdo ANYTHING I’v heard by far. Midbass region - impact, presence and detail is impeccable and tweeters – hah – what tweeters. Adding 2nd pair of subs, replacing power amps on the subs to Symphonic Line Custom and having Rick from EVS to modify bass x-over – this things are heavenly now in the bass region. I’ve never heard any system provide true imaging of the drum set – exact position, depth, size and shape of the drums until day I’ve added 2nd pair of subs.
As far as midrange goes – well – prepare to be shocked. Perfect 8 in my system was able to execute what no over speakers I had even remotely attempted to try. It took PHY based single driver speaker driven by world class custom 300B SET and clearly outperformed it on both male and female voices.
I’ve yet to hear any other speaker capable of doing any aspect of sound reproduction as good as Perfect 8s
And it does all of the thing equally good with an exception of midrange – it does humane voice to the point were it passed my dog test – My voice reproduced through it was able to trick my dog in doing commands then I was standing between speakers .

Best speaker I have owned has to be a pair of Acapella High Violins. The ion tweeter is unmatched in treble performance and the horn midrange sounds great also. The problem was that they were too big for my room and didn't get a chance to integrate the drivers properly. So I went to some Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOnes which overall are the best-sounding speakers in my small room sitting nearfield.

rlawry said:

Best speaker I have owned has to be a pair of Acapella High Violins. The ion tweeter is unmatched in treble performance and the horn midrange sounds great also. The problem was that they were too big for my room and didn't get a chance to integrate the drivers properly. So I went to some Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOnes which overall are the best-sounding speakers in my small room sitting nearfield.

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I'm not sure it's just the room size which is responsible for the lack of driver integration. Reviews of the speakers often comment on that problem, and even in the huge room at RAMF 2011 the bass was noticeably disconnected from the treble and midrange (among other problems).

I agree that room size is not the only factor in lack of driver integration. I should have said that I sat too close to the speakers where I heard the drivers as separate entities, even though they sounded better than I expected.

HI

Magnepan MG 20.1

Kind of screwed my perspective.. I can't get myself to think about purchasing a speaker for more than what they cost and what the 20. 7 currently cost ... The few speakers that I have heard that surpass it are 5 to 10 times more expensive and even those don't outright surpass it everywhere...