Most beautiful speakers in the world ?

[Wes]

Sir Mix-a-Lot wants to know the most bootyful speakers in the world

 

[richard12511]

That's the look of serious muscle, you need to learn appreciation for what they can accomplish.
My JBL HDI-3600 are beautiful to me.
View attachment 90964

I actually love the looks of the HDI series. It's speakers like these that I'm not a huge fan of. I know a lot of folks love that vintage look, though.

 

[richard12511]

Ok, sure. Here you go.

The first pictures show my Thiel 2.7 speakers set up (in ebony) in the home theater/listening/living room.

You can see the projection screen to the right of the images. The screen is very large, almost the size of the entire wall, however it uses a 4-way automated masking system that changes the image shape depending on the aspect ratio of the movie (e.g. widescreen, regular, or old 4:3 shape), and can change the size of the image as desired. So the screen wall is surrounded in black velvet. To make the home theater speakers blend in (I use Hales Transcendence L/C/R speakers), I had custom black velvet covers made for each, and their stands. So they visually tend to blend in with the screen wall, and completely disappear with the lights out, so all you see is the image, no technology. I made the first few feet under the screen black velvet as well, to give a sort of "stage" effect that the L/C/R speakers are placed. To me this gives a more cohesive, deliberate look to the screen area, rather than the "speakers placed randomly on the floor around the screen" vibe. Plus it makes the speakers disappear even more, visually.

The room is done in a dark brown scheme for the rug, sofa. And the ceiling was a special design: we built a drop down area for most of the ceiling that not only holds the room lighting, but conceals a bunch of acoustic treatment (done with an acoustician). That drop down ceiling is actually stretched dark brown fabric, even though it looks like a solid ceiling. Dark fabric is better than almost any dark paint for rejecting light reflections, due to the structure of the fabric catching stray light (I didn't want light bouncing from the ceiling back on to the screen to wash out the image).

Thick brown velvet curtains are draped in the room corners to the side of the screen, for nice aesthetics. But in fact they hide behind them thinner black velvet, acoustically-transparent curtains, which can be pulled out along every wall surface in seconds. So I can have my light, cheery wall color for day and hanging out, but turn the room in to a "black box" for watching movies where the room completely disappears. It's very transporting and immersive!

Finally, there's surround speakers on the side and back walls, and the projector itself is hidden behind the big sofa. It's on a telescoping lift that, on command, lifts the projector up over 6 feet high for projecting moves, and then it sinks back down hidden behind the sofa again when powered down.

Originally my old listening sofa was against where the projection screen wall is now, facing the bay windows, with speakers set up near the bay windows, which made aesthetic and ergonomic sense. I had to switch the seating 180 degrees in order to use that wall for the projection screen, making placing of my 2 channel speakers more challenging (can't block the room opening, so limited position options). Fortunately I'm ok with the compromise, still like the looks, and the sound has been great. I like speakers pulled well out from the back walls in any case.

Also, one of the things I like about the shag rug is that the speaker cables are completely buried, so they become invisible. (I don't like seeing cables).



View attachment 90969
View attachment 90970
View attachment 90971

This is with the Thiels replaced by my Joseph Audio Perspective speakers (I switch between the two sets of speakers as I feel like it):

View attachment 90972

Those are beautiful.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Amazing room

Ok, sure. Here you go.

The first pictures show my Thiel 2.7 speakers set up (in ebony) in the home theater/listening/living room.

You can see the projection screen to the right of the images. The screen is very large, almost the size of the entire wall, however it uses a 4-way automated masking system that changes the image shape depending on the aspect ratio of the movie (e.g. widescreen, regular, or old 4:3 shape), and can change the size of the image as desired. So the screen wall is surrounded in black velvet. To make the home theater speakers blend in (I use Hales Transcendence L/C/R speakers), I had custom black velvet covers made for each, and their stands. So they visually tend to blend in with the screen wall, and completely disappear with the lights out, so all you see is the image, no technology. I made the first few feet under the screen black velvet as well, to give a sort of "stage" effect that the L/C/R speakers are placed. To me this gives a more cohesive, deliberate look to the screen area, rather than the "speakers placed randomly on the floor around the screen" vibe. Plus it makes the speakers disappear even more, visually.

The room is done in a dark brown scheme for the rug, sofa. And the ceiling was a special design: we built a drop down area for most of the ceiling that not only holds the room lighting, but conceals a bunch of acoustic treatment (done with an acoustician). That drop down ceiling is actually stretched dark brown fabric, even though it looks like a solid ceiling. Dark fabric is better than almost any dark paint for rejecting light reflections, due to the structure of the fabric catching stray light (I didn't want light bouncing from the ceiling back on to the screen to wash out the image).

Thick brown velvet curtains are draped in the room corners to the side of the screen, for nice aesthetics. But in fact they hide behind them thinner black velvet, acoustically-transparent curtains, which can be pulled out along every wall surface in seconds. So I can have my light, cheery wall color for day and hanging out, but turn the room in to a "black box" for watching movies where the room completely disappears. It's very transporting and immersive!

Finally, there's surround speakers on the side and back walls, and the projector itself is hidden behind the big sofa. It's on a telescoping lift that, on command, lifts the projector up over 6 feet high for projecting moves, and then it sinks back down hidden behind the sofa again when powered down.

Originally my old listening sofa was against where the projection screen wall is now, facing the bay windows, with speakers set up near the bay windows, which made aesthetic and ergonomic sense. I had to switch the seating 180 degrees in order to use that wall for the projection screen, making placing of my 2 channel speakers more challenging (can't block the room opening, so limited position options). Fortunately I'm ok with the compromise, still like the looks, and the sound has been great. I like speakers pulled well out from the back walls in any case.

Also, one of the things I like about the shag rug is that the speaker cables are completely buried, so they become invisible. (I don't like seeing cables).



View attachment 90969
View attachment 90970
View attachment 90971

This is with the Thiels replaced by my Joseph Audio Perspective speakers (I switch between the two sets of speakers as I feel like it):

View attachment 90972

 

[MattHooper]

Amazing room

Thanks!

It actually worked out better than my wildest dreams. I didn't like the idea of the typical basement home theater, or even the dedicated room home theater one often sees (e.g as many show in the AVSForum home theater build threads). I totally understand many others like the idea, but for me I don't like feeling sealed off from the home and don't care for spending time in basements. And there are numerous stories of people who go through building a home theater, have enthusiasm for a while, but then it becomes the unused room because it's so separated and distinct in use from the rest of the house. I wanted an all around use room. So the fact it's the main floor room means it's so accessible, I spend tons of time there reading, listening to music, watching movies. In fact, 10 years after it's construction, literally every time I fire up a movie I'm giddy by the fact I have this experience in my home. And the same goes for listening to music. I was listening to some well recorded brazilian funk tracks from the early 80's last night and, sitting between the Joseph speakers, well spaced apart, almost nearfield, it's like the walls just melt away and this huge stage appears with vivid, dynamic voices and instruments. A magic show. And, again, I felt like pinching myself with happiness.

Anyway, back to other beautiful speakers. I was a bit cynical about this thread at first, but it's turned out to be fun.

 

[Juhazi]

How about lifting my tail a bit? (actually GradientLabs clones)

 

[peanuts]

not "beautiful" but still cool. front is up/down adjustable by remote.

 

[Pearljam5000]

 

[sergeauckland]

Although I've had them now some 10 years, I still find myself admiring the design of my 801s. Reveneered in Zebrano by a local antiques restorer, they are both a tool for playing music and an attractive piece of furniture.

S

 

[StefaanE]

View attachment 90984

Interesting, they look like upright canoes , what are they?

 

[Audiotone]

another Belgian design speaker

 

[Pearljam5000]

Sorry, unfortunately I can't find the original link for them.

 

[Pearljam5000]

 

[peanuts]

Sorry, unfortunately I can't find the original link for them.

you can do image searches here www.images.google.com by clicking the camera icon
https://www.elac.com/series/concentro/concentro/

 

[Omar Cumming]

Revel Salon 2:

- Look good
-Sound good
-Can't afford them

Cheers

 

[Fledermaus]

These are mine, Klinger Favre Studio 30 - serious furniture grade I'd say:

 

[MattHooper]

not "beautiful" but still cool. front is up/down adjustable by remote.

My buddy had some Estelon speakers for a while at his place. They sounded really good, very controlled from top to bottom.

 

[Shorty]

I enjoy some weird looking speakers, but was never a fan of the look of those Revels. They don't look "form follows function" but rather "how can we make these look different?" So you have this sort of awkwardly designed, curved out grill "because we can curve it" and these awkward "after-thought" looking bolted on panels on the side. It's like a conservative pair of speakers underneath there trying to dress up for a party, with no sense of what style it's actually going for, so it's "let's keep piling on different shapes." The speaker equivalent of 80's new wave clothing. ;-)

Well, you’re right in that the Salons’ form did not follow function, and so what? FFF is not the only worthy design concept.
I for one can’t stand another shoe-box - we’ve all seen millions of those, and they even turn up in this thread.
(And most shoe-box manufacturers STILL do not even bother to round their boxes‘ edges. )

 

[JeffS7444]

Sonos does a good job of design, from packaging, power cords and apps. Clever force-canceling subwoofer design moves air, not the floor. Downside is limited shelf life with Sonos now requiring cloud connection in order to configure a system, and removing that functionality from PC / Mac apps.

 

[paddycrow]

I like the new Olympica Nova line, too!