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Cannot find perfect sound

I've been listening to supposedly some of the finest speakers that currently exist. These include b&w 800 Series, revel high end, vivid audio, Psi audio and kef blades.

None except the kef blades satisfied my high level standards.

When I play my reference tracks on cheap earbuds I hear timing accuracy that is missing on all the above speakers. Only the kef blades came closest to what I hear from cheap earbuds. 

Explanations please?

I really suspect that none of these high end speakers are accurately reproducing the sound on my CDs despite all the marketing claims about accuracy and high quality sound.

What could there possibly be that my cheap earbuds can do that eludes these super high end speakers?  

I'm not so eager anymore to spend any money until I have a good explanation.

kenjit
stevecham
3,298 posts
 
You have a couple of choices and all are time and phase coherent designs. This is the key as why you like that sound.

Meadowlark - preowned.

Thiel - preowned only these days unless Tom Thiel (please!!!) can find a way to restart the REAL Thiel.

Vandersteen - NEW or preowned. (recommended even though I am a big Thiel fan)

Dunlavy - preowned.

Wilson DOES NOT DO THAT but instead inverts the polarity of the mid drivers so as to minimize the phase distortion caused by high order crossovers. From Stereophile for the Sophia:

"The initial up/down spike is the tweeter output; the negative-going decay of the tweeter's step blends smoothly into the midrange unit's step response, the positive-going decay of which blends smoothly into the start of the woofer's step response. (The tweeter and woofer are connected in positive acoustic polarity, the midrange unit in inverted polarity.)"
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-sophia-series-3-loudspeaker-measurements#eASZCHpoiE...

And it's not just this model but other Wilson models too.

Based on you description of what you like about headphones and your disppointment with the speakers you’ve listened to, these are your choices.
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I use headphones only during late night reading or when recording music, and am currently using a Schiit Magni III with Audioquest Nightowl Carbon headphones. Also, I don’t like the way earbuds feel...never have, never will...the Nightowls, which maybe aren’t broken in yet, sound great.
cflayton
8 posts
 
As someone else mentioned, try planars: Magnepan (ribbon), Martin Logan (electrostatic), etc. Completely different sound from multiple driver box speakers.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
1,457 posts
 
I agree that you need to cast your net wider.  These mainstream "supposedly some of the best" speakers don't always turn out to be that.  Speakers vary A LOT.  You've heard one you like; there are hundreds of brands out there, and I'd bet there are 4 or 5 out that you would like as much as, or more than, the KEF.
jond's avatar
jond
3,400 posts
 
You should read this..........
https://www.audiostream.com/content/problem-loudspeakers
More to discover