2. speakers
  3. 1139615240

If $ was no object what speaker would you buy?

Products of the year award in TAS of March of 2006 gave the top award to MBL. When TAS staffers were asked which speakers they'd most like to own, virtually everyone from music editor Bob Gendron to Ceo Tom Martin(who actually does own a pair) would answer : the MBL 101Es.IMHO the MBL's sounded closest to me what a live event sounds like, it was amazing. They were so pleasant to listen to that I even appreciated music that I typically didn't like prior to hearing it on MBL's. For me that is significant, it provides me with an opportunity to start appreciating other genres.
In the same issue there is a pressing article suggesting that makers of high-end audio could be in financial trouble. In the same article the panel discusses how to get the word out about high-end audio, and how to increase the number of people interested in buying high-end audio equipment.
I believe in the awe effect, if the audio showrooms could display a playback system that simply awed the newcomer, they just may be swayed to make a purchase before walking out.
Perhaps we can get the attention of audio engineers and designers and suggest that we audiophiles have discovered a music playback system that awes us, and are willing to purchase a system of that caliber providing it is within our means.
For some of us MBL has got what we want. For others it may be another brand. Maybe in the near future we can find affordable speakers that will near that magical sound that our favorite super expensive speaker have.
What speaker would you love to own that is out of your price range. The speaker you would like to see used as a reference point for engineers and designers to make an affordable model yet completely awesome.
Then maybe they can be used to catch the attention of non-audiophiles at demonstrations of high-end in shopping malls or luxury car dealerships.
pedrillo
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,333 posts
 
French-Fries,

I have not heard the Alexandria's but when you mentioned the $ 135,000 price tag I thought I would have a look at the reviews. I have heard other lower priced Wilson's before and thought they sounded very good, although a bit too much harmonics (resonance) for my taste.

I was shocked to read that Wilson still uses ordinary commercially available driversin these exceptionally priced speaker; drivers that are used by many other speaker manufacturers.

Reasonably priced speakers naturally use third party drivers. This reduces construction costs by outsourcing the most significant components and leaving only cabinet design and driver integration to the speaker manufacturer.

I would demand unique higher quality drivers for that kind of price....not just good "modified" commercially available drivers.
mauiaudioman
171 posts
 
The ones I have on order: The brand new Green Mountain Audio Calypso's. I get the 1st pair even.....
robm321
932 posts
 
The Von Schweikert VR-11's

$120,000

Unfortunately, money is an object that doesn't grow on trees.
audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 
If money was no object? I'd build my own. Not that I think I'm smarter than experienced engineers, and in fact I'd hire one to do some of the more critical design work for me. But I have a few ideas about what an "ideal speaker" would do, and would like to try my hand at it one of these days.

Or as an alternative, I'd fund the development of a high quality direct-drive electrostat/amplifier combination. The idea is to purpose-build a (most likely tube) amplifier that could drive electrostatic panels directly with no intervening transformer. The voltages required may be prohibitively high, so that might not be a feasible project after all.

If I had to "settle" for a store-bought speaker, I'd invest heavily in airline tickets and have some serious fun travelling and auditioning. There are too many fine speakers that I haven't heard for me to make a choice just yet, especially if money is no object!

Duke
pedrillo OP
560 posts
 
I would like to thank you all for the valuable input, and would like to add to this again. I thought the mbl's 116e to be amazing as well and the fact that they are not so rediculously priced gets me to dream about owning a pair some day. But before I start to think of going that route I must consider the reality of trying to driver these speakers, it supposedly takes $25,000 of amplifiers to drive them correctly plus the $18,000 for the speakers. So I was supposing if I am not alone on this to let audio engineers and designers know that this is the sound we like, can you build a product that gives us the same sound with a price not so high?
More to discover