Which speakers gave you the *wow* factor?

[Penelinfi]

Here's one
I had perfect centre imaging with some good depth. Seemed to lack a bit of bass (wasn't bass heavy song).
After 5 more seconds realised it was my phone sitting on my lap with one driver firing towards me and one upwards. Forgot to turn on the Bluetooth.
EQ'd the phone speakers too as much as that helps gain a bit more lower mid fullness. I hardly ever hit 100% volume on the phone and seldom use the phone speakers for serious music enjoyment. But it is interesting what those little drivers can do at close range.

Goes to show that when you don't know what's playing, it's easier to be tricked.

 

[darrellc]

Spica TC-50, enjoyed immensely. My wife loved the sound as well, much preferred to various expensive speakers I owned.

 

[Descartes]

I know they don’t measure all that well but 5 B&W 800D2 in surround sound listening to Berlioz Symphony Fantastique on BluRay was unbelievable! The sound stage was phenomenal there is something to be said for big speakers that can’t be touched by small bookshelf speakers!

The other one that blew me away were the Focal Grand Utopia III, I heard them at a dealer in LA, the sound stage was massive with incredible low end! Too bad I can’t afford with of these but at $130,000 not sure who can outside of the top .1% of the population!

 

[ding dong]

Mesanovic RTM10 !

 

[LTig]

I know they don’t measure all that well but 5 B&W 800D2 in surround sound listening to Berlioz Symphony Fantastique on BluRay was unbelievable! The sound stage was phenomenal there is something to be said for big speakers that can’t be touched by small bookshelf speakers!

It's the multi channel recording which does the trick. There is a reason why @amirm auditions only single speakers in mono. Even in stereo it's much more difficult to rate speaker performance reliably.

 

[Digital_Thor]

First time I heard the Buchardt S400. They were standing on some low furniture in a small exhibition room at some big hotel. They had a simple low-cost amplifier in front with a regular sensible steamer. No matter the amount of people in the room, or where you stood - they sounded coherent and just about right/natural. And on top of that, they are not stupidly expensive, so was any of the equipment used in the setup. Also, some of the first speaker with proper amt/theory and quality drivers behind them, at an obtainable price.
Of course there are other speakers that play louder, bigger and better. But for the price... nope - these are quite impressive overall - IMO.

In my home, I keep being impressed with KEF's Coax drivers. The undistorted and coherent frequency response, that present a rock solid phantom center between my speakers, letting me forget the speakers and electronics... focusing instead on music and movies/tv. That impresses me.... it simply works so much better in my room, than anything else.

 

[MEGB1262]

Hi there,
the biggest WOW Factor of speakers ever heard in my life was a concert in the Philips hall in Duesseldorf Germany many years ago, the "I'm guilty" tour of Mike Oldfield.

They placed a complete symphonic orchestra together with the instruments of a rock band like drums and electric guitar on a big stage and flanked on both sides them with towers of several dozens of Quad ESL electrostatic speakers.

This produced an unbelievable clarity of the sound with extreme SPL levels and a bass performance that i've never heard before and after this event in my hole life.

The other side of the coin was that Mike Oldfield went almost bankrupt for the cost of the tour, a large part of the too high costs because of the expensive equipment and the number of professional musicians of the orchestra required for the grade of perfectionism on stage of this legendary musician

I have desperately tried to find some press photos of a concert hall with the stage, the towers of speakers on both sides and the symphonic orchestra but no luck with that

 

[CapMan]

At the other end of the scale - our Sonos Roam has no right to sound as good as it does for the size and money. When I first used it it was a wow moment for these reasons.

 

[MEGB1262]

The second in the ranking of WOW factor speakers was a demo of the Beveridge 2 SW electrostatic loudspeaker at the famous german high fidelity shop Brandenburger again in Duesseldorf Germany

here a link to pictures

Beveridge 2SW loudspeaker system

This is an electrostatic column speaker, 6' tall and costing $6000/pair. An integral, fan-cooled amplifier is located in the base (footnote 1). The 2SW is said to cover almost the entire frequency range and is based on a patent, number 3,668,335, issued to manufacturer/designer Harold Beveridge...

www.stereophile.com

The third was a demo of the big Tannoy 15 inch coax loudspeakers at one of the "Hi-Fi Messe" fair again in Duesseldorf Germany.
Here the WOW effect came from the original master tapes played directly from a studio tape machine they used for the demo at the fair

last but not least one of my larger systems tested at home dismounted in the meantime because of the size that doesn't fit to the small room

 

[TylerR]

I'd probably say that the first speaker/subwoofer that really impressed me was a Paradigm mini sub that I heard in a hifi shop in Nashua, New Hampshire. Listened to I'm Afraid of Americans by David Bowie and had my jaw drop by how much bass it reproduced. Didn't even realize it was the little Paradigm until afterwards, since I was there to hear an old Mirage sub that they had on consignment. Thing had pretty impressive output into the 30s for being absolutely tiny.

My first setup that really impressed me was my set of Mackie HR-824's combined with an SVS sub, that was probably one of the best setups I've had to date.

My Klipsch CF4's with an 18 inch DIY sub was probably the most all around impressive setup I've owned. The sub could loosen lightbulbs out of their sockets on the other side of the house and play down to 15hz with authority. My friend ended up putting it in his Volvo station wagon which was pretty funny to see and hear, probably played in the low 140db range in there with a proper amp, and could still shake windows at 10hz.

Also got to hear the Genelec 8381's at AES last year, and I don't think anything will top that for a long time. Was a full atmos system with 8341/51s for surrounds, 8361 for center and 8381's for front left and right. Have a video that I tried to attach but won't post for some reason. Was recorded with a phone mic so I don't think y'all are too interested anyways

 

[mj30250]

Back in 2006 or so I visited a local high-end A/V shop just for kicks. They had several demo rooms, but there was one in particular that was extensively treated and furnished with a slew of luxury couches and fancy decor. In this room sat a pair of whatever the top-of-the-line B&W 800 series diamond speaker was at the time. They were playing a live concert recording, and I was immediately floored with how detailed and dynamic this room sounded. At that point, I had little awareness of high-end audio or really any experience with it. I had a $400 HTIB system at home which I thought sounded just super...until I heard these. I took a look at the price tag (well above $20,000 for the set), cried a bit, and moved on. I often wonder what I'd think of those speakers today, having amassed much more experience with a variety of speakers from decent to fantastic.

Since then, the speakers that have truly wowed me in my own home are Ascend Acoustics ELX ribbon towers. They're the first speakers I've owned that have truly contented me...as in...I find nothing lacking...nothing excessive. Whatever I've been carrying around in my head as to what fantastic audio is supposed to sound like, these have it, especially when integrated with subs.

 

[Davide]

First time I turned on an Amazon Echo Dot 3! The damn thing was so small and yet it made incredible sound.
I'm still amazed today by how overall enjoyable it is compared to my main system (price speaking).

Apart from this, Dali speakers for me have an unparalleled wow factor, especially in the midrange.

 

[LTig]

At the other end of the scale - our Sonos Roam has no right to sound as good as it does for the size and money. When I first used it it was a wow moment for these reasons.

Same here when I heard the JBL Charge 3 the first time in my life.

 

[geox]

At the other end of the scale - our Sonos Roam has no right to sound as good as it does for the size and money. When I first used it it was a wow moment for these reasons.

Sonos is coming out with HTA9 competitor. I suspect its going to kill a lot of entry level avr / speakers

 

[aoaaron]

Perlisten S5m. wow.