Best speakers in the world?

[Ron Texas]

Best for what?

 

[Count Arthur]

Best for being burried in.

 

[digitalfrost]

Spooky.

 

[Lonestar1027]

My 14 year old tells me it's a Bugatti
So much for consensus....

Bugatti is so last year.. Tell your kid to check out the Shelby SuperCar Tuatara

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/supercars/sscs-tuatara-fastest-car-world-331mph-top-speed

 

[Helicopter]

This is so subjective and complex. Focal Utopias seem a little silly to me, though I am sure they are great if you want partially passive speakers for a 2.0 setup in a giant space. If I needed to spend a quarter million dollars on a pair of speakers or more for a custom finish, for a palace or something, they seem like a good choice. I do not see myself going that big.

You get very deep into diminishing returns by $5k per speaker, and at that point, you need to consider a lot of things, like subs, surround, treatment, dsp, sources, electronics.

Focal is a good brand for this discussion because they have a big factory in France, they do make good speakers, and they go up to some extravagant stuff. They even offer custom finishes like gold.

Of course a Klipsch fan would probably tell you to get the Belles off the secret menu or Khorns or something that cost far less and have much less impressive objective performance.

And then there are Revel Salons, all the good powered speakers, the good JBLs, all the botique stuff, some of which is not bad, and on and on.

 

[Pearljam5000]

So you're saying a pair of $10K active monitors like Genelec 8361A or Kii Three will sound as good as these giant Focals?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar, and Dave Ramsey.

 

[Helicopter]

That is going to depend more on the size of your room than anything else, I would expect. In a room built for 8361a, I would be surprised if Utopias sound better, though I bet they sound excellent. In a room built for Utopias, the Utopias are going to dominate completely. No contest.

At least that is where I would put my bet.

 

[Helicopter]

A double blind test in scenario A would be interesting. I guess nothing would surprise me there.

 

[Helicopter]

Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar, and Dave Ramsey.

Khorns, Utopias, Salons, not in that order.

 

[Sancus]

@Sancus
When I'll save enough for either 8351B or the 8361A I could never buy the 8351B because psychologically the 8361A is the flagship and is much bigger and has much more bass and SPL and that's important if you don't plan on buying a sub, and you'll also feel that you have "the best" vs having the 8351B

Oh, sure, I agree -- if you're just using the speaker alone with no subs or W371As the 8361A is definitely an upgrade. But the ultimate setup definitely must include W371A modules, for SPL and prettier in-room response graphs if nothing else. For real-life budgets I don't think they are cost effective for multi-channel setups

 

[Helicopter]

For my room and tastes, Focal Kanta #3 would have been the ultimate, cost-no-object speaker, but I ordered Aria 948s because I really doubt the difference in sound is anything I could perceive and I know the extra money will be better spent on other stuff like some window treatments, acoustic panels, whatever. If I like the Arias for a long time, I will look at something like the Kantas next time around.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Why didn't you go with active monitors? You said yourself they're better than passives.

 

[SKBubba]

Xynophlibic 863's. Modded 861's are a close second.

 

[Helicopter]

I like to play around with different amps, and I like the way floorstanders look.

 

[EchoChamber]

Bugatti is so last year.. Tell your kid to check out the Shelby SuperCar Tuatara

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/supercars/sscs-tuatara-fastest-car-world-331mph-top-speed

I never liked the reborned Bugatti brand... not my cup of tea... I’m more of a Koenigsegg myself.

 

[richard12511]

The 8361A has no advantage whatsoever over the 8351B except for the woofer, and the W371A takes over completely(20-500hz) and is a much, MUCH better woofer than anything in either with specialized directivity control.



Yeah, you could hang the W371As I guess but I'm not sure there would be any audible benefit at all, as I've never encountered any music where the height channels are used for anything other than reflections/ambience. But for bragging rights, sure.

And yeah, I know you can get way way more complicated(and large) with the subs and bass management, but you'd have to go outside of GLM to do that so I left it out for simplicity's sake And again I think audible benefit would be minimal with the W371As involved. You probably don't even need subs. For HT it would be a different story.

I think if you're spending this kinda money on a system like this, it's criminal to just let GLM do it's thing and call it a day . Even Dirac is probably suboptimal. There's probably more expensive commercial solutions out there, and might be worth it to hire a professional to come calibrate it for you. Now I'm curious...

 

[Sancus]

I think if you're spending this kinda money on a system like this, it's criminal to just let GLM do it's thing and call it a day . Even Dirac is probably suboptimal. There's probably more expensive commercial solutions out there, and might be worth it to hire a professional to come calibrate it for you. Now I'm curious...

Yeah, most likely a professionally-calibrated Trinnov would be the way to go.

 

[A800]

Horns.

 

[richard12511]

Xynophlibic 863's. Modded 861's are a close second.

I have no idea what this means