To me, they've always been snake oil speakers. Even at a tenth of the price, I'm really not sure how good of a buy they would be, I certainly wouldn't purchase a pair even at 1/10th... Come on, 2 way, 1980s design, stick it in the corner speaker?! Wtf... I've always been extremely puzzled on how they sold for that much $$$... Probably the poster child for snake oil speakers.
What does that matter when they measure like poop and speakers costing much less than a 10th do a much better job as transducers?
IMHO, all about philosophy, as mentioned, you want to color your sound, do it via DSP, not speakers, amps, cables, etc. That's not the job of the speaker; your speaker isn't supposed to fix anything. Just accurately convert the signal to sound. Same for amp, cable, etc. 'Designer' speakers like these... Waste of $$.
It's wrong to charge $75 for a coffee because it's a designer coffee that contains cream made from special tits milk? Yes. See a fool and his money & absolute waste of money, like $1000 $6000usd hamburger with gold leafs. The notion that such products are worth the price is quite a bit BS, if you believe so, you should revisit your ... lack of common sense on ... on the topic. Really only 'good' for people who just have too much money and have ran out of things to spend it on... It's just excess; nonsensical.
That's a tough philosophical question. See a fool and his money. Should the fool be saved from himself? What if he doesn't want to be saved, and instead wants to continue acting like a fool, and wants to continue to spread BS in peace and encourage other fools to also be scammed? His choice right? Is it wrong to want him to stop encouraging snake oil and bs?
The problem with this - again - is you assume that I haven't heard all the best measuring speakers - I listed the ones off the top of my head - there are more.
In my case - I paid $2,500 for a pair of Audio Note J/SPe speakers in 2003. I sold the speakers in 2016 (7/10 condition) in their least popular colour black.
Let's enter your favourite $2500 speakers back in 2003, shall we? What would be your rough estimate of what you would be able to sell those speakers for in 2016? A $2500 Genelec or PMC or ATC - some of the studio standards. $1200 - $1400?
I sold the AN J/SPe for $2,900. 13 years of ownership and I made $400. Okay sure I lost on inflation but any of the speakers that I could have bought back then would have lost inflation AND at least $1100.
How about my Audio Note OTO Phono SE - I paid in 2003 $1800. I can sell it today for $2200-$2400. That's a 21 year old amplifier.
The reason for this is not that AN sounds the best - but what that brand does that virtually no other brand (none to my knowledge) is keep the same product in the line-up for decades. And the prices rise with inflation.
So a new AN J/Spe might sell now for $6500 - I put up my AN J/Spe for $3500 - Someone offers $2900. They got a great deal vs the new list price - I am happy because I enjoyed a speaker for 13 years for - as close to FREE as you are going to get. So suddenly when someone says AN is expensive - I can't really agree - the list price is high - they come well off their list price - but the resale is high if you keep the products long enough for them to raise their prices.
This will work for ANY audio company - what they have to do is keep the same model in the line-up for years - raise prices - and never discontinue the product or replace it with a new model.
This is what most companies do - they recycle the same products for a decade or more - I had a Rotel preamp (~$1400) they replaced it with a new number and a new exterior case - the inside was identical - same everything - they added an input but it was the same unit. The new Rotel came out at $1500. The old preamp is now deemed "broken" by the public - after all, it got replaced by a new more technologically advanced preamp - the $1400 preamp could then be ad for $550 second hand.
Bashing AN speakers won't get you anywhere with me - I consider it a troll - some of the best recording engineers and classical musicians and composers use AN speakers and equipment both in the recording and mastering studios - all of whom worked with ATC/Bryston/Genelec/PMC and others so they know those Professional monitor elite measuring speakers very well. And the REs who work with AN speakers have recorded some of the biggest acts in the music industry - not some forum nobody self-proclaimed RE who has "recorded" some nobody in his garage.
Audio Note and the old Snell speakers share exactly one thing - and ONLY one thing in common - the size of the cabinet which LL Beranek designed as being the "perfect acoustic box for a loudspeaker" - That cabinet design was what Peter Snell used and his speakers were award-winning designs in their day.
The AN K uses Scanspeak and are full 15 or so ply No Void Russian Birch and the AN J and E - are co-designs with SEAS
Their field coil is here
https://jeffsplace.positive-feedbac...w-audio-note-uk-an-e-field-coil-loudspeakers/
Their Engineer, Andy Grove talks about the design here file:///C:/Users/Richard/Downloads/FIELD%20COIL%20DEVELOPMENT%20ANDY%20GROVE%20OCTOBER%202023(1).pdf
This isn't meant to try to sway anyone into liking them - that is a subjective response - I liked them without reading a peep about the company - I liked them way back when all it was was an ugly retro-looking box and I was comparing them to all the "technically superior" narrow baffle speakers and I kept thinking "why does the ****** looking box sound so much better than the NRC approved speakers that are supposed to be much much better? Why in the direct comparison does the goofy 300B amp sound so much better than the 600-watt Classe and the top Sim Audio SS amps or any other SS amp I try - Even with DSP on the SS - I could not recreate that 300B - the ole - add a resistor to the cable to make it sound like toooobs didn't work. The best I could attain was the "stereotype" of a tube amp like ST70 but then I never liked the ST70 so it seemed to me that was the "basis" for people think of when they think of tubes.
