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What speaker/ monitor gave you the most "I never heard that before" moments?

Feanor

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For me no doubt in terms of my reaction at the time it was the Ohm F speaker. I bought a pair a few months after hearing them in a dealer showroom. They had -- as it then seem to me -- extraordinary soundstage and better transparency than I had previously experienced. (My previous speakers had been Braun L710's which were pretty good for that matter.)

I kept the Ohm F's for a few years but sold the in favour of B&Q DB7's -- a mistake: "BBC" midrange dip plus woefully deficient dynamics even with powerfuls amplifiers.
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Ohm F
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Braun L710
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B&W DM7
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Snarfie

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When making use of roomcorrection: Monitors IMF compact II full range Vandersteen model 1c if you put them on the wright spot (incredeble staging depth) All depending how good of bad my/your acoustics is.
 

highender

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Merlin Music TSM, I never heard such a level of resolution, imaging and soundstage before.
AVI Trio and Brio, I never heard such a defined bass response before.
 

Duke

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@Duke you don’t happen to have or know of any measurements of these or other Millennium speakers do you? :)

I don't know of any published measurements of SoundLab speakers, but I watched one being measured and looked at the curve.

A bit of background: The Millennium series has been discontinued but its equivalent is the Majestic series, which includes a wider range of models. The panels are all the same between the Audiophile, Majestic, and Ultimate series - it is the frames which differ from one series to another. So what I'm about to describe applies to all 7 foot tall SoundLab panels, with the bigger models going deeper and the smaller ones not.

I was at SoundLab's factory several years ago and they were testing a Millenium 1 speaker prior to shipping. There was a microphone on a stand about ten or twelve feet from the speaker, at mid-panel height, connected to a real-time analyzer. Pink noise was being played through the speaker. The room was very large and the SoundLabs are very directional in the vertical plane, so even though the measurement was ungated, the direct sound from the speaker would have been dominant. The curve was gently downward-sloping from the lower-20's to 20 kHz or so, and was very even except for a 2-3 dB jog up and then down at about 500 Hz, the crossover between the two transformers. I was absolutely amazed, as I had never seen an unsmoothed curve look so good. Aside from the jog, it looked like a virtually textbook in-room target curve. And the peak and dip of that up-and-down jog were close enough together (within 1/3 octave of one another) that the ear/brain's averaging characteristic would have smoothed it out.

I told designer Roger West that this curve was amazing, why didn't he publish it? He said that he was afraid others would measure the speaker improperly and get different results and then accuse him of falsifying his curve.

The geometry of the SoundLabs implies an unusually smooth "spin", wherein the off-axis curves would track the on-axis extremely closely out to the edge of the panel's coverage pattern, and then fall off rapidly. There would presumably be some unevenness at the edge of the pattern, but its contribution to the whole would probably be negligible.
 
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HooStat

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I listened to the Paradigm Persona 5F (I think it was this one). It was just an afterthought -- I knew nothing about the speaker and had asked the dealer what he liked. I could not get over how clear the sound was. Maybe that is a euphemism for "detailed" but I thought of it as clarity. This was right after listening to a pair of Magnepans. Anyway, I was very impressed.
 

phoenixdogfan

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The thing is, more detail is not always a good thing. You can add "detail" to any system with EQ. All you need to do is boost the presence region (c. 2kHz-5kHz).

More detail can also be revealed by increasing the ratio of direct-to-reflected energy, e.g. by increasing the amount of absorption in the listening room, or using more directional speakers. One reason the Kii 3 and D&D 8C speakers tends to sound more detailed in the lower midrange is that they are more directional in this range than most speakers, so the ratio of direct-to-reflected energy tends to be higher.

For maximum detail, listen to highly directional speakers in an acoustically dead room with an upper-midrange/lower-treble boost (Yamaha NS-10 in a highly damped control room gives something of this kind of effect). This will sound awful, but you'll hear maximum detail vs any sane/desirable speaker/room setup.
Makes the NS-10s good for monitor duty and little else.
 

lovemusic

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As mentioned in a previous thread, the new Revel F328be opened a new light on a famous piece I had listened for ages. None of the other speakers from B&W 800d3, Paradigm Persona 9F, Kef Blade 2, Wilson Alexia, Sonus Faber Serafino were even close to such detailed, undistorted, neutral performance. It sealed the deal when I was in the market for a new high end speaker.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...28be-speaker-review.17443/page-21#post-566876
 

Senior NEET Engineer

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Surprisingly, speaker upgrades and 100+ SINAD DAC's have never led to "I never heard that before" moments.

Infinity P362 - First introduction into hi-fi. Heard a sound image, clarity, and tactile bass that could not be reproduced by economy car speakers or earbuds.

Dirac Live - Now I can actually hear multiple bass notes. A lot more pleasant and impactful.

SVS SB-2000 - This one is straight forward... I was literally not hearing these sub bass frequencies. Surprisingly it helped with the soundstage.

Surround Sound - Test out some 5.1 and 7.1 content... oh... this is what stereo imaging is supposed to be.

"Dedicated" room w/ hard floor and GIK Acoustic Treatments - By far the greatest sounding improvement. Precise imaging and spacious envelopment.

Sony IER-M9 - I can hear reverb tail much more clearly than my speaker system. Just something that I haven't heard before... it didn't add anything to the enjoyment.
 
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Ziltoe

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For sure it was a pair of my first active speaker [Genelec 8050B] placed in an acoustically well treated room. I mean it was so unspectacular but the music was just there, with a presence and clarity I've never heard in such a way.
 

direstraitsfan98

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Ontario Place, 2014 I saw Interstellar at the IMAX screen there in 70MM... was only later I found out how advanced the sound system are in an IMAX screen and how advanced the calibration process is. They re calibrate after every show, and factor in things like humidity of the hour. Aside from the actual IMAX venues there are probably only a handful of audio systems in the world capable of that level of power. And I’ll take a solid guess that most of them are in private homes in Hollywood...
 

direstraitsfan98

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I still remember every moment of that day sitting in the theatre and experiencing it.. the scene they come out of the wormhole there is a LFE sweep and the whole room pressurizes... stunning moment like no other I’ve ever felt. The image on screen in that moment is so breathtaking, crystal clear and grand in scope (100 foot tall screen, entirely filled by full frame imax) that you feel like you’re falling over as the craft slides out of the worm hole. So good.... brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it
 

DSJR

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Sometimes, frequency response alone isn't all the story (he says before running for cover ;) )

Rather than being blown away by the gear in later years, I've just got a short list of memories of systems which allowed me to relax into the music better (maybe not the same thing as 'loads of extra 'deeeeetail' turning me on).

I have a longer and longer list of speakers and systems which have impressed me, but standouts were Quad 57's in a near to mid-field situation, Spendor BC1's heard similarly, the rather naughty crown ES 224's years back along with Crown driven IMF Pro Monitors III and IV, A late 70's era Linn/Naim tri amp active Isobarik system (*very* dependant on the particular pair of speakers heard and especially the room they were in - one particular system/room combination was incredible I remember on many genres of music), I still shed tears at not having my beloved ATC100A's any more (I gave them up for marriage.....) but the real impression was the 200A's I heard once in a fairly close-up setting.

None of the above threw details at me (well, maybe the Linn-Naim one did, but in this room it was unforced clarity rather than shrill upper-mids from which they mostly suffered

Lastly, recent exposure to JBL 4367's, Kii Threes and the latest version of the ATC100A's brought a joyous tear to my eyes. Apologies, I've not heard some of the seriously high-tech acoustic-lense types, let alone top current Revels, but some expensive High End speakers are more detail reproducers rather than accurate reproducers of timbre (top Dynaudio Confidence) or just very VERY naughty LOUD high end speakers (PMC Fenestrias)
 

anmpr1

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I tried to talk several of my local hifi dealers into carrying SoundLab but they were uninterested. So on a whim I did something really strange: I asked SoundLab if I could become a dealer for them. I had no idea if home showrooms were even a thing at the time. SoundLab said yes... and even said that with my enthusiasm for the product, I just might become their biggest dealer. So I changed careers and became a high-end audio dealer, and subsequently became a manufacturer.
SL were/are good examples of electrostatics. But there is a 'cult of weirdness' that surrounds them--or should I say some of their dealers. I'm not including you since I don't know your situation at all, so don't take this personally. Anecdote follows.

I had a colleague who flew out of state to visit a Sound Lab dealer, because there was no local seller. The dealer PT Barnumned my not very technically oriented friend, telling him that in order to experience the SL magic he needed a pair of special 'computer controlled' self biasing mono tube amps ($$$), special speaker wire ($$), and these little speaker riser thingies ($) supposed to keep 'stray' electromagnetic interference from messing with the coherent sound emanating from the panels. Then it was tubes. The 'factory' tubes were OK but not good enough. So the dealer talked his customer in to buying special 'high performance' tubes. I think there were about 24 total between the two amps.

The dealer must not have cared much about his customer's listening room, since the speakers overwhelmed the smallish space, making the resulting sound closed in. The large panels were being used in the nearfield, for crying out loud. The customer would have probably been better served buying a set of STAX headphones.

In the end it's buyer beware. But just because a speaker does one thing in one room does not mean it is suitable for all installations. You'd think that a dealer would direct the buyer in choosing something suitable for their listening environment. At the very least a dealer should discourage their customer from buying tweaky idiotic accessories, and advise them to eschew weird amplification schemes by questionable manufacturers. But, hey, dealers have to make a living too, I guess.

Maybe this particular dealer did advise him against it, and the customer just wouldn't say no. Maybe the dealer told him he didn't need those special tubes in that magic amp, special wires to hook it all up, special risers to fix the problems with the special wire, and all the rest. That is possible, I guess. But I know how most dealers work the spread. LOL

In any case, that is one of the problems with buying a large expensive loudspeaker long distance. Even if it is the best speaker in the world, it makes it almost impossible to return if it doesn't work in your living room.
 

Snarfie

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It was not a specific speaker brand that gave me the "i never heard that before moments" It was the deployed Room correction software (Mathaudio Room EQ) in combination with Vandersteen Model 1c (farrfield) & IMF Compact II (monitors) that gave me those moments that because of my horrible room accoustics. For sure there will be other speaker brands in combination with room accoustic software that will sound probably better but reality demands can't test them all:facepalm: An for what it's worth i'm happy with them. The difference an never heard before experience is hugh atleast 60 a 70 % improvement no amp, cable, DAC can beat that IMO.
 
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Purité Audio

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Zu, I have sounds from Zu loudspeakers that I have never heard from another loudspeaker, although a Kazoo comes pretty close.
Keith
 

Lorenzo74

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I still remember every moment of that day sitting in the theatre and experiencing it.. the scene they come out of the wormhole there is a LFE sweep and the whole room pressurizes... stunning moment like no other I’ve ever felt. The image on screen in that moment is so breathtaking, crystal clear and grand in scope (100 foot tall screen, entirely filled by full frame imax) that you feel like you’re falling over as the craft slides out of the worm hole. So good.... brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it
Surprisingly, speaker upgrades and 100+ SINAD DAC's have never led to "I never heard that before" moments.

Infinity P362 - First introduction into hi-fi. Heard a sound image, clarity, and tactile bass that could not be reproduced by economy car speakers or earbuds.

Dirac Live - Now I can actually hear multiple bass notes. A lot more pleasant and impactful.

SVS SB-2000 - This one is straight forward... I was literally not hearing these sub bass frequencies. Surprisingly it helped with the soundstage.

Surround Sound - Test out some 5.1 and 7.1 content... oh... this is what stereo imaging is supposed to be.

"Dedicated" room w/ hard floor and GIK Acoustic Treatments - By far the greatest sounding improvement. Precise imaging and spacious envelopment.

Sony IER-M9 - I can hear reverb tail much more clearly than my speaker system. Just something that I haven't heard before... it didn't add anything to the enjoyment.

Room treatment and Dirac live did most that any passive speaker or dac or amp swap...
 

Lorenzo74

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