The best speaker you ever heard?

My company (not in the audio business) is doing research on how the ear/brain system perceives music. We designed and built special loudspeakers to deal with some issues in commercially available systems. Audio has been a hobby of mine since 1951, when my Dad brought home an Altec 757a studio monitor, but these speakers are my favorite. (They have no name, but in-house we call them Wh-3’s.)

They have a very strange design. They look like they came from outer space, and they are huge – only a serious audiophile would consider having them in the living room, but people who hear them are usually amazed. Just for fun, I’ve been recording the sound of very high end speakers and playing it back through the Wh-3’s. It’s amazing. Some of the videos are on my channel on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search for listiac. Of course, the YouTube audio is not very good, but you can catch the flavor…

Well, I am an old faithful to the old kef 104/2 speakers. I own two pairs for my stereo A+B and front+surround until recently I replace my Kef C55 by a pair Kef iQ3 (2005 EISA Winner) for surround back. My center is Kef 200C and sub is Velodyne F-1200B.

I am also entertain the idea of "upgrading". I listened to many speakers. So far, I have found many good speakers but just haven't found anything "better". This may not be fair to other speakers for I couldn't give them the chance to burn-in.

I am a firm believer that speakers are like women. They are some very beautiful ones, some high maintenance ones and some cute ones. But, if you define "the best" for a woman that you can marry to and spend the rest of your life with, then "the best" for speakers should mean some speakers you can happily live with for quite some time. Hence, my choice is still Kef 104/2 despite their bad customer service.

Besides biasd by one's personal experience, one can only truthfully distinguish which speaker pair is "better" than the other by placing them side-by-side and driving them by its proper amplifier. Pick and choose the right format of source to play is also important. There is absolutely no so-called "the best" one can claim fairly and squarely.

A beautiful pair of 20 year old Yamaha TX-1 powered cathedral monitors.

why are Vandersteen so seldom mentioned???

Aren't their 5A the best at any price point???

almost comitted on a pair of quatro now :(

I have owned B&W 802, 803 and 805 all N's. I have also owned 801 matrix. I also had the htm 1 and the scms as well. I have owned Merlin, Dali, Wilson watt puppy 6's, 7's and sophias as well as a host of others. I currently own Eggleston Andra II's.

How anybody can even think the B&W offerings compare even remotely to the others I have listed, I'll never know.

The B&W speakers have two things going for them.

1. They look great
2. When you wise up, get smart and sell them, they sell quickly!!

There are so many fine speakers in this world today it just blows my mind. If i had to pick the top 25 I seriously doubt B&W would make the list. Dont get me wrong they sound good but there are far better choices to choose from.

My two cents worth