What is under $5k speaker with best bass slam?

Hi Dh4kim

Asking for the "best" of anything will generate multiple impressions. For slam, a driver/drivers with a large radiating surface is necessary. Slim towers with multiple 6 or 8-inch drivers won't do. At least 10-inch driver(s) are needed. The amount of slam is also room dependant. A pair of speakers with 12-inch woofers in a small to medium room can provide slam, but in a large living room their slam will be lost. The aforementioned JBL, Klipsch, Tannoys, ATC, and maybe the Von Schweikert speakers will all give you slam. I will add B&W 801s to the list. But you can't get away from large speakers if you really want slam.

Bill

Wbs,
Your advice gives me a hint that I might have to set up my "slam" system in a smaller space? What do you think? Will a 12" woofer speaker in, say, 12'x12' room do some slam?
Doug

Get some used Vandersteen quatro speakers...they slam all day long and are tunable to your room with 11 band Bass EQ, also powered woofers to let your amp sail along with a nice easy load...Stereophile Class B speaker.

I really like my Emerald Physics CS-2's..Man can they do bass!! I wont get "too" carried away here..just go hear them..The buzz is true. Watch out for these! I hear rumblings from dealers about guys selling their $20K Vandy 5's.. 13K Merlins, and Quad 2905's to get these..I dont know for sure, but from what I hear in my system..I could see that happening.

Granted there are obviously some speakers better than others in every price category but forget everything else? No component is an island and the speaker is perhaps more affected by every other element of a system than any other component.

How can anyone possibly tell a speakers' true capability without serious attention given to the electronics, room acoustics, speaker placement, cables, line conditioning, the amount of juice coming from the wall, and vibration management applied to the speakers and to all the other components?

Fall short in any one or two of these categories and you could end up with some of the sloppiest, rolling earthquake-like, ill-defined bass you'd never care to hear unless your cruisin' in your low-rider.

Get all of these elements right and you're in a whole 'nother league and you may find that it matters a little less which speaker you chose. Assuming it's a full-range speaker of course.

All that taken into consideration the tightest, most well-defined, and most realistic bass I've ever heard by far came from a pair of used $4K (new $8700) Aerial Acoustic Model 10T speakers mated to a pair of Nuforce SE Class D amps. Never heard anything even close to it. At least until recently.

Case-in-point, there are plenty of people who will claim the Aerial Model 10T's bass was some of the worst they've ever heard.

-IMO