Favorite Loudspeakers of all time whether you owned them or not

[dlaloum]

Quad ESL (originals) - Midrange to die for.... but oh so delicate, prone to arc-ing.... but the sound is so sweet..... !!

Quad ESL63 - lost a bit of that midrange magic, did so much more just right!

Quad ESL989 - an ESL63 with more Bass - fantastic speaker

Martin Login CLS - the full range ESL from ML - with no "dynamic" drivers to mess things up

Boston Acoustics A400 - a surprising speaker - could really rock, with excellent control - had it back to back with ESL63's and was back and forth on which one I preferred depending on the music genre....

Anthony Gallo Reference 3.2 & Reference AV - Replaced my Quad ESL's, primarily due to WAF.... tends to dominate the room less!! - Of the many speakers I auditioned, this was one of the only ones that truly sounded "ESL- like " (for me, as per my above preferences, that is a big positive!)
These are still my current speakers and I have been very happy with them for over 10 years now.

(Images borrowed from various sources...)

 

[fuzzychaos]

Owned - Dynaudio Contour 20, Q Acoustics Concept 500, Buchardt A500

Want - Dynaudio Contour 60, Dutch & Dutch 8c, Kii Three

More and more I am starting to desire active speakers.

 

[westyjeff]

Magnepan 3.7 and or Spatial Audio M3, I like dipole speakers! Paradigm Atom monitors have been great at the desk for years, Kef Q series before that always made me go wow when set up right. I have listened to Klipsch corner horns, I had RF7 once a long while ago, and others at the stereo stores, Speaker lab DAS 8 really impressed me as a kid.

 

[Stephen]

I started my audiophile journey thirty years ago. At that time I was conquered by a brand quite known in France: Elipson, and to have compared many speakers they really stood out for an average budget. I had prestige 4 then prestige 5 and finally Signature 301. The brand went bankrupt around 2010 and was bought. The new production are not so exceptional anymore.In 2016, I fell to the floor while listening to "Pierre Etienne Léon" Maestral passiv speakers. They have a special 'trick': a speaker (woofer) positioned flat up in the cabinet. In my listening room they go down to 20hz at -3db with minimal distortion. Calibrated with a DSP, it's just beautiful and I have to say that I love to see the faces of my guests when I turn up the sound!

 

[sch8mid]

owned and loved from 1970 > now = Klein + Hummel OZ - Quad ESL 57 - LS 3/5 A BBC - Neumann KH 310 + 2 x KH 750

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[stevenswall]

Genelec 8260. It finally fixed the issues with coaxial speakers up until that time, along with having built in DSP, excellent chassis engineering, and frequency response that was +/-1dB with measurements to back it up... rather than the common +/-3dB with no backing measurements that other speaker makes typically go with.

To this day it and The Ones that it led to are an example of why almost every other speaker is busted, as there are ZERO inherent drawbacks with these coaxial drivers when it comes to sound quality, and with the 8361+W371 you can even get high SPL if that is what you need.

When it comes to a state of the art speaker:

-Boxy speakers are limiting. Internal reflections, decreased cabinet volume for a given size, and diffraction are inherent issues.

-Non-coaxial speakers are limiting. Lobeing, mismatches between horizontal and vertical dispersion, and longer minimum listening distances are inherent issues.

-Passive (lossy) crossovers are limiting. Increased heat, lack of compensation as components and drivers heat up, and lack of precision are inherent issues.

Sure there are speakers with any or all of these drawbacks that sound good, but they are like my report cards in elementary school where the teacher keeps writing "Could do better" because she knew I wasn't giving it my all.

I'd love to see a coaxial D&D 8C or Kii Three with more rigid cabinet design that doesn't require as much bracing on the inside and sounds good oriented vertically or horizontally.

...Or a cardioid bass Genelec that doesn't have the W371*2 price tag.

 

[Timcognito]

KEF 105

 

[Ken1951]

KEF 105

View attachment 213024

A housemate had these back in the day. Sounded great with a variety of electronics and TTs.

 

[Goldie42]

My new (to me) Linn Ninka's, the sound stage is much more involving than I've experienced before and songs seem more stereo. Also like that the bass is clear although I'd love to hear them active. I've heard but not owned some more modern 'supposedly' amazing and expensive stuff but most either feels clinical or missing some warmth. All this of course is probably just placebo because I'm in my warm and happy place, finally owning some speakers from a brand my dad always raved about

 

[DSJR]

All my old favourites are ancient (mostly UK sourced) UK relics now and I'm sure all surpassed.

Crown electrostatic hybrids
IMF RSPM IV and later reference standard models they did
AR3a Improved, leading to the 10 Pi they did
AR LST
JBL L200
Spendor BC1, 2 and 3, SP1 depending on the room and music played
Harbeth 40.1 and later
Harbeth C7-XD (and SHL5+ onwards by default)
ATC - almost all of them, the later the better...
PMC Fenestria's if they have a barn conversion with vaulted ceiling to fill
Kii Three's - I loved these, so it bodes well for Neumann and Genelecs too?
JBL 4367 - Don't care a damn how old fashioned they may be, I loved 'em!
Quad 57's heard pretty nearfield (30 seconds to acclimatise and they 'disappear' as long as you don't place too much demand on them)
Quad 63's - First heard in a disastrous demo - ghastly muffled noise - heard better and raised plus tilted back a little and they're bloomin' marvellous! Surviving ones falling apart now though

Apogee Duetta Sigtnature - get them right when new and driven properly and they were excellent. Too easy to get 'em wrong in UK rooms though - ugh - and I suspect most now are knackered/worn out

 

[DSJR]

My new (to me) Linn Ninka's, the sound stage is much more involving than I've experienced before and songs seem more stereo. Also like that the bass is clear although I'd love to hear them active. I've heard but not owned some more modern 'supposedly' amazing and expensive stuff but most either feels clinical or missing some warmth. All this of course is probably just placebo because I'm in my warm and happy place, finally owning some speakers from a brand my dad always raved about

Ninka's passive were about as good as active Keilidh's (Ninka's slightly grubbier in passive mode). You'll LOVE them active though We used LK140's (try to get the later ones with coarse case finish) and the 5125? five channel amp with the aktiv boards fitted and a channel not used, used to offer great sound as well (don't use the black RCA interconnects though - oh Gawd, here we go )

 

[F1308]

Buchardt A700 are most probably my next buy as soon as they release a signature edition, if they are supposed to follow the path already made good with the A500.

 

[steve59]

I was raised by a heavy handed realist so I struggle to see even fantasize about owning things i can't justify, that said i've managed to own all my dream speakers
Bose 901 VI
KEF R105/3
KEF R107/2
Vienna Acoustics Beethoven
VA Strauss
Revel salon
Revel salon 2
Usher Be20 Dmd
Paradigm persona 7f
Meridian dsp 8000 upgraded to special edition
KEF Blade
Buying and selling on the www used provides opportunities previously unimaginable.

 

[sprellemannen]

For me, only speakers made based on good research showing great measured performance make sense.

Winner for me: Revel Salon 2 (owning them, amazing sound, great finish, practical physical size).

Honourable mentions (in no special order and I have never owned any of them):
KEF Blade (great finish (in white), great sound).
Genelec bookshelf speakers (the brand has impressed me soundwise and I like the finish. Amazing value for money.)
Other Revel speakers (great sound, competitive price/performance IMO).
TAD Reference One (they are a little bit inconvenient because of their size and I do not like that TAD are making snake oil and some extremely overpriced products, great sound, excellent finish in red).
JBL Everest DD66000 (great sound, nice finish, but they are very wide which may be impractical in some rooms)


(the below photos of the Salon2's are not photos of mine)
Some great Salon2 photos are found here.

 

[rgpit]

TAD Reference One

 

[steve59]

picking the salon 2 on this forum isn't very imaginative. The next speaker on my list is the Vienna Acoustics 'The Music'. From what I can find the measurements look like an earthquake, or ekg machine, lol. My VA Beethovens have a way with music at their price that other brands have to spend much more to achieve. anyhow VA is the reason I question speaker measurements, or at least how much measurements affect my listening enjoyment.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Apogee Accoustics "Full Range" Loudspeakers aka The Apogee Loudspeaker

 

[MaxBuck]

I really loved Dahlquist DQ-10s back in the day.

 

[sarumbear]

Crown electrostatic hybrids

 

[jsrtheta]

Which Meadowlark sgpeakers do you like? (And did you own them?)

I had the Meadowlark Heron i speakers in my place for a while and enjoyed them quite a bit. (I also owned some Meadowlark monitors for a while - among the craziest imaging I've heard!)

Kestrels. I took them home years ago for an in-home tryout, and for some reason didn't buy them. But I remember being highly impressed.

I think I got Whatmoughs instead. Which were pretty damned good too.