Some of the best sounding speakers, and the best live sound I’ve heard
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- This is by no means a complete list, just an introduction.
The Best Sounding Speakers:
Focal Grande Utopia EM, www.cepro.com/article/focal_g...
Quad 57, www.stereophile.com/content/q...
My video on the Diesis Roma speakers, • Dazzling Italian horn ...
My video on he Alta Titanium Hestia speakers • I heard one of the bes...
Stax F81 speakers www.audiogon.com/listings/pla...
Best Live Sound
Beatlemania, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatlem...)
Jon Faddis Remembrances www.chesky.com/album/remembran...
My CNET blog on Dizzy’s www.cnet.com/news/the-best-so...
Dizzy's Club, www.jazz.org/dizzys/
Follow me on Twitter / audiophiliacman 
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The best concert I ever experienced was inside my own car. The story is, I was a student and we had a student evening with a band. In fact, a very good three-man band. The next day I would drive them to the next location, two hours drive. Well, they brought a guitar and some rhythm instruments into the car and made a two hour concert for me while we were driving. Greatest musical experience I've had.
Wiild
I have no real interest in audio systems but listening to people talk with such passion is always good. I strangely love these videos.
He is not passionate for nothing theses audio systems are truly magical, so much they would make you cry.
2:43 I didn't even listen to the video but we used the same term.
@@tshaolin971 I'm afraid I disagree. These systems require a certain set of values, knowledge and mindset to hold value. I'm glad you're passionate too but please don't project that onto me. I don't care about sound on anything approaching that level and certainly would never cry at audio playback
@@TomHigson1
Given the tone of your first comment I already knew you'll be in disbelief with my statement.
"What is he talking about ? No way a high end audio system could make a grown man like me cry, it just happens to hypersensitives audiophiles... " Ignorance is double, we don't know that we don't know. We men are 8 times less emotional than women and yet, unless you're a psychopath, here's the proof ruclips.net/video/DT3SInHr9ck/видео.html
@@tshaolin971 Fair point, well made. I still disagree but you went a little way to convincing me so thanks for sharing 😁.
Hopefully one day I'll have the opportunity to try such a system and find out, though for now I'm reasonably confident that any audio content able to make me emotional will have a similar impact regardless of playback quality.
go away
Well done, Steve! Great concept for this one.
Best Speakers: Klipsch Horns! The full size floorstanders. It was the fall of 1971, and I can still feel the thrill of hearing them like it was yesterday.
Best Live Concert: Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, 4 Way Street Tour, Chicago, Auditorium Theater, July 5, 1970. We were in the cheapest nosebleed seats, but the sound was magnificent, for both the acoustic and electric sets. We shouted ourselves hoarse, and the band came back for three separate encores.
Leonid and Friends live! Amazing sound! After the concert I wanted to thank theur sound person it was so well done.
Steve. You are taking things to the next level. Terrific knowledge and , as always , judicial insight. So interesting.
Love your comments here early on about 'feeding your system music that you know will sound good, as it's not a recipe for long term satisfaction'. Wise words indeed and insightful vid!! Cheers
So many great audio experiences!
I feel fortunate to have had one or two myself.
What an excellent video and presentation, thank you and well done
This was great. I especially liked the 2nd part and found myself pausing to reminisce on experiences where I've heard great live sound. Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA came to mind. Can be hit and miss depending on performers and their equipment but when they know what they're doing, that outside venue in the mountains and trees, with that massive array of speakers, it's so clean and tight and clear that you feel like you're in a controlled environment, yet you are outside, in this beautiful amphitheater.
I agree with you about that venue. When I saw Pat Metheny there they maintained instrument separation and a clear sound. A couple of nights later at the venue in Sonoma County the music was still great but the sound just wasn’t nearly as clean and defined in space as at the Mountain. It’s been rare for me to experience great sound outdoors but somebody at the Saratoga venue knows what they’re doing.
Great videos Steve love your modesty you know a lot more than most but deliver in such a unassuming way.
SG, perhaps the best video you’ve done in this series. Love it.
Western Artifact thanks
Steve - I absolutely love your videos and your sharing of your musical listening experiences. So glad I found your honest and wonderful channel. I DJ in and around Boston doing private parties for the last thirty years. I love the music and all the gear and am a stickler for getting my system to sound the best it can in each room. I was hoping you could make a video on using a digital audio processor to auto EQ your system (some people call this "room correction") by blasting pink noise, measuring the frequencies with an RTA mic and automatically adjusting the EQ in tiny increments until it hears a totally even and flat response across all frequencies. Sometimes you think your system sounds only "meh", when in fact it can sound surprisingly better with an accurate equalization.
it's nice to hear the stories about live music that stir something inside. There's no other feeling like it.
Liked this video a lot.Can't tell you what I had for dinner ...but some concerts are ....tattooed /into my brain. It's nice to have good memories .Have fun and keep up the good work.Thanks.
Always nice to have a list of top speakers especially if they span over a decade or three...those horns looks awesome!
That "ah-ha" moment when you realize "everything is a compromise". IMHO the challenge is learning what kind of "sonic signature" makes you happy e.g. dynamics, imaging etc. based on music preference. Everyone has a different budget which also affects the decision making process. When possible, working with a dealer that does a "problems needs and goals analysis" prior to recommending a solution makes a ton of sense.
Glad you mentioned the Focals. I’ve got the Chorus 826W series & they’ll do me. 👍🏼
I love your channel!!❤️❤️ I’m a subscriber and really enjoy listening to your commentaries,cause you never had to yell to get your point across 🤓 cheers!!🙏🏼
well, now that you brought up Beatlemania, i saw it with my girlfriend at the Schubert Theatre in LA where we had seats on the main floor just under the riser where there were speakers built-in all across the width of the riser which was the underside of the balcony. behind us were additional loudspeakers. the sound was so natural that they had to be using digital delay as well as top-notch speakers and electronics.
the use of multimedia including video, static images on slides/screens, newsreels, and text scrawlers like on buildings, the total package was near perfection. even the sound levels were just loud enough to just cause hearing fatigue just at the end of the program. this may have been the best live production i ever had seen.
about a year or so later, Beatlemania returned to LA at the greek theater with a different cast i think. not as good but still, pretty damn good. to my good fortune, i was in the john when i found a cigarette pack with a couple of pre-rolled items that proved to be some of the best i was ever exposed to.
all in all, Beatlemania was a fantastic occurrence that i was lucky enough to experience.
...hifitommy
Orchestra sized , huge scale sound, from 2 thumbprint size tweeters is not something you usually endorse Steve, i so much respect you recognizing Focals speaker technology in one of your fond memories.
Steve, you have an incredibly soothing voice and cadence of speech. My blood pressure drops when your videos are on.
I always enjoy your opinions, which I find often reflect my own thoughts on what truly is, "quality sound." Unlike many, I value bass purity over exaggerated bass that is all too common, and prefer a lean, tighter bass of speakers with a relatively low Q of .5 or .6. According to most so called experts, .7 is the flattest response curve down to the cutoff without peaking. And my finding is that most speaker designers aim for that parameter, and some audiophiles look for a Q of .7 or higher, upwards, and often above 1.0.
My brother absolutely loves his Infinity Studio Monitors, and his Cerwin Vega speakers, both sporting huge 15 inch woofers that are loud enough to produce a powerful bass you can feel in your bones, and pounding in your chest, and drives them at full volume with a Crown amplifier with enough power to push your insides out. Meanwhile I find myself perfectly content playing my music and moderate levels on my small, relatively low powered, vintage Marantz 1030 integrated amplifier through my small Soliliquy 5.2 transmission line towers by Cary Audio. To each his own, I guess.
Nice to see focal get some love! Americans tend to sleep on them but a pair of mid tier focal's on the used market are one hell of a bang for the buck!
I love your room (the background). I can see it is a working room!
You can't beat the real thing when it's done well.I'd have to say that,one of the best live experiences for me was going to see a signed artist (Adem) ,at a local Church.The audience was very small,but this meant that the musicians decided to come away from the stage into audience,so we got to hear them unamplified, and just a few feet away.That's as close as you can get to the music,and an unexpected treat.
I've been blown away by Focal speakers, as well. Someday I'll have a set.
Thank you for sharing magic moments.
Best live for me was an outdoor Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Portland (OR) zoo July 1989. Not sure how they did it, but they had tall cylindrical speakers spread throughout the audience. The sound was big and full, not loud, clear and detailed, and a sort of stereo everywhere effect almost like wearing headphones no matter where you sat. Really amazing and has stuck with me even til now.
Just an unrelated comment I have been thinking about for awhile now. I am amazed at how rude, crass, offensive or just not funny some of your followers can be to you or to each other, despite your continued requests to be civil, whether we agree or not, which is absolutely fine. Pretty sad but that's the world today. Just keep doing the great job that you do, engaging the serious comments and simply ignoring the rest.
Michael Thanks
if this is a issue?! Don’t be in this hobby on a social media level. You want to hear what you want to hear, but you want to ignore when someone steps on your toes..
People always think they found the holy grail, and are not to shy to relay it let alone defend it. As much as I agree and even sympathize with your views here. There is also a flip side to this coin, how can you sit there pretending a boomer like
Steve has the ears of a hawk on his age. He doesn’t and Steve knows it too , his videos are very conservative and very carefully thought out so far. I wish we had him back in those days as he seems (correct me if I am wrong) to realize there is nothing bad about failing a blind test. It’s good research and personal growth can come from it too .
The amount of blind testing we done in the past 2 decades. Has proven one thing, that most audiophiles actually have ridiculously subpar hearing. All the while, they try to sell the idea they can hear a different between a good compressed mp3 and lossless.
We’ve put that to the test (me included a 39 year old, young buck in comparison ) and failed. To hear a true difference, we stopped those type of tests because we got people angry enough to try and become aggressive afterwards towards us. Especially AUDIOPHILES that pretend it’s magic they are doing.
We actually lost friends over it good ones .. because we made it a point. Rude would be ignoring facts and audiophiles are stars at that ! And this was just an example..
We (we were part of a huge forum in Europe) stopped conducting these blind tests. Unfortunately, as we would have been able to make interesting articles and such debating it.
Instead we almost always got met with “weak” excuses , and finger pointing ☝️ audiophiles that even refused to do a simple hearing test prior to conducting the blind test. To get a baseline ..
There is two sides to this coin, and both sides should be considered equally as valuable. We don’t see that anymore. Let’s ignore the other side and stick to the just positive rainbows comments ..
That’s jargon for “ sticking your head in the sand and cower away “
One of the best speakers I heard at AXPONA was the Legacy Audio Valor. I was instantly wowed by this builder from Springfield IL.
Uncle of mine had an all-Quad system including the ESL-57. For a 10-year old boy these "standing curtains" were magic.
Best sound I’ve heard: Stacked Quads with a Decca ribbon between the stacked pairs. 6550 Tube amp powering them. Stacking the Quads picks up a little more bass. The Decca ribbons were the best in the world at the time.
Best Live Sound: Kennedy Center, National Symphony. Gut reaction at the time. A little dry if that was speakers.
Many Magico models, JBL Everest and K2s, Rey Audio, Pioneer Exclusive, Augsperger monitors, Large Oceansways. Day one appetizer.
Steve , my deepest sympathy to you, your time and love for the things I love too.....
Steve; As a retired both classical and Jazz musician, you have just affirmed what all of us players know, there is no electronic method or means that can duplicate the experience of hearing live, great music being played by great musicians.
I wouldn't entirely agree, but I would say its a one in a million systems, or even less; and often with specific music... But it does happen. I've heard it happen with one system in my life so far.
Yes, you`re correct about Dizzy`s club. Saw Monty Alexander there, incredible show. Allman Bros. Band at The Beacon is another memorable "great sound" experience. There have been countless others at small venues like Mikell`s, Seventh Ave. South (The Brecker Bros. old place), that little 2nd floor jazz loft down on 23rd St., where Woody Allen used to show up occasionally. I miss those days ....
Live performance that I can always remember ...
in the choir loft of the National Cathedral when the organist played Toccata in D. I was commenting to my fellow choir boy won’t it be nice if the organist made the organ demonstration in Toccata in D. And I got my wish!
In a private corporation holiday event that I was literally less than five feet from the band Chicago.
The last was at Wolf Trap when the Pink Martini performed. Will find out if the Sting concert can top that.
Henry, I have sat in that choir loft many times, listening to that organ and your choir. Bavk in '95 the choir performed a piece by Orlando Lassus that was so good! However, the best choir loft for a concert if that in St. John the Divine, in Manhattan. That Skinner is phenomenal!! Cheers! Allen
The best live sound I have ever heard, by far: The Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Concertgebouw. Malkki filled in for Janssons, and conducted Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. The music washed over me.
The observation about the utter transparency of the sound reinforcement in that 1,500-seat theater is another type of high-level magic on the pro side with audio and acoustic engineering working together. The lower-end live scene, in terms of the audio work, is often handled by those who don't know any better and treat sound reinforcement as just another instrument, often one needing to be on the threshold of serious distortion if not pain. Others who do know better sometimes just hold a philosophy of using reinforcement as an obvious, instrumental part of the performance. And then there are those in a case like this who are embarrassed if you can tell that the sound you are listening to has been reinforced at all. That is really the highest form of the art.
Best driver: Fostex FE126En.
Not sure I found the ultimate cab for this, but this has the transparency of electrostatics combined with “something else”.
Yeah I love those grande utopias, I'm not completely sure if I like the utopias more or the infinity rs the biggest ones with the ribbon tweeter array. I just love the Epos es11 little bookshelf speakers. The Usher version of the grande utopia sounds decent too. I once went to a very luxurious house party in a castle. Where a huge collection of infinity speakers with krells were used as sound system. For many reasons that was a special night. The whole ambiance was great too. You were picked up by a station in a nearby city by a limo. After a 20 minute drive through the county side hills we arrived at this middle age castle. There was a red carpet from the limo over the draw Bridge into the castle. On both sides were burning torches every few meter. So inside à very luxurious party with the creme de la crème of dj's playing via krell and infinity. It was very nice and a once in a lifetime event. It happened during the end of the nineties
I own Magnepans...great speakers but the best ones that I've ever heard were a pair of McIntosh speakers from the late70's/early80's. They were huge and they were magical.
I have a pair, but they are tiny. Apple obviously doesn't make 'em like they used to. 😁
I have been so fortunate to have grown up in Washington DC in the 60’s and hearing great performances in so many places. The Howard Theater, where I heard all of the Motown and R&B artists including James Brown, which made me a fan. Also my introduction to jazz came there. Add classical music at DAR Constitution Hall, and musicals at the National Theater. The 70’s add the clubs, like hearing Charlie Byrd or Ray Brown Trio at the Cellar Door or Blues Alley, and Roberta Flack at Mr. Henry’s. Jimi Hendrix at the Baltimore Civic Center. My 80’ highlight has to be Jean-Luc Ponty and Parliament Funkadelic at the Warner Theater. B.B. King and Brian Culbertson at Constitution Hall stand out in the early 2000’s. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at Merriweather Post Pavillion depending on who the sound engineer was, made all the difference in whether a performance was great, or ruined by being too loud. Many of these Capital Jazzfests were outstanding. Some standouts were Marcus Miller, Kenny G, Morris Day and The Time, Hiroshima, and Natalie Cole shortly before she died, and many others. P.S. I think my audio system does an outstanding job of reproducing all of these genres. You “can” have it all!
One of the best sound systems I've ever heard is the one built into the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, NH. Maybe it helps that the room is shaped like a dome; I don't know. But talk about an immersive experience, with clear sound and hi-def, 3D imagery of stars and galaxies projected onto the ceiling! As we used to say in the UP of Michigan, "Holy wah!" Mind blown.
Never been a up'er, but have been a troll all my life. It sure is pretty in the UP.
I fell in love 25 years ago with ATC, and I still love them. I have had many pairs over the years. I love the SCM100A Pro Actives, and for a smaller more affordable, I really loved the SCM7 stand mount. As for for Quad ESL57s its interesting, I totally agree with you, that they need very careful placement within a room, however when you get that right... and its not that difficult to get right, they come alive and sound extraordinary :) Problem is the sweet spot is pretty special and you need to be sat in the right place to experience everything that they can deliver. They are superb if you are happy with those constraints ;) I would rather have my ATC SCM7s
richard booth ATC are exceptional. There is nothing better period.
Steve, I realize we all have that particular sound that tells us..."this is the one". I have heard the Utopias, Quads, and Altas..all fine speakers.
For me hands down the best speaker you never heard of is the GT Audio Works planar ribbons with optional open baffle subs. For around $30k including powered subs, they will compete and or beat with anything I have ever heard.
You mention the live sound of the church listening to Duke Ellington..The GT Audio Works give you this in spades. Amazing resolution, expansive stage presentation, visceral bass and dynamics, and volume levels that will make much more expensive speakers run for cover.
I love it, those Focals look amazing! I couldn't agree with you more about the Dizzy's Club, sometimes called the Coca-Cola club, everytime I go it is an awesome experience.
Wish you had told us what system gave you that great musical feel at Beatlemania. Did you ask? Most venues likely don't think about that wonderful non-amplified sound that you heard, and how to find it. Thanks for letting us honestly into your wonderful and unique world of music and audio. Excellent channel.
I just picked up an altec 604c... it is amazing all on its own
Many of those old coaxial speakers sounded wonderful in proper enclosures. I'm using the Electro-Voice 12TRXC models, which were competitors of the Altec drivers. I'm very happy with the sound and don't plan on different speakers in the foreseeable future. I have also heard Jensen drivers from that period which sounded wonderful.
The Audax 15" coaxial is also celestial in a Tannoy Arden enclosure with 2 of its 3 vents plugged.
The best speakers I have ever heard, with the biggest deep depth Soundstage, (sounds like your really there). I sold speakers on long Island, NY in the late 70's and OHM-F's at that time were the kings of all speakers
Hey Steve, this is one of my favorites that you have done. I’ve been watching for about a year. Can I suggest you explore live sound amplification/pa systems further? Can you please discuss music hall acoustics vs how amplified music is presented live?
On so many occasions I have found the sound system at live shows just ruins the music and it is really a shame. Perhaps you could do a video with someone who does live sound like you did with the recording engineer (also excellent and informative, his name escapes me, relatively young guy). What are some of your other favorite venues throughout the country? Can someone please make a public service announcement to these venues that their sound sucks? Shouldn’t they know better as professional sound people? What challenges do they face to prevent good amplified sound in large venues? And why is it rarely achieved?
Thanks.
twostepped999 I’ve done CNET articles on mixing live sound for the Black Eyed Peas. But for me live sound is always much too loud at concert venues, I’m trying to save my hearing. Like in recorded music louder is the name of the game.
I use to work at Custom Hi-Fi in the mid 1970's! Remember back then there was also another store called Pacific Stereo. Back then I bought a pair of RTR G-200 tower speakers from Custom Hi-Fi. I still got them today. They are actually a 2-way speaker with a passive radiator going through 4 ohms. To this day they are the most accurate, true fidelity speakers I've ever heard. I wouldn't take anything for them, priceless. I fact, as the years went by about a decade ago, I had to have a foam edge kit put into the speakers, started to rattle. Here are the specs: 10" woofer, 12" passive radiator, tweeter, made from 1976-81, Retail $600 a pair, 120 watts at 4 ohms, 91db 1 watt/1meter, 25-25,000Hz frequency response, Cabinet dimensions are 14 1/2" W x 36 1/4" H x 12 1/2". At the time, the founder of Toby Speakers, Toby Guynn, still had a shop here in Fort Worth and I had him put the foam edge kits in the speakers. I told him that these were my pride and joy and that they were the best. We got into a discussion and he said that these were just 2-way speakers and they really couldn't be the great! So anyways, he re-foamed the speakers and told me they were ready for pickup. This guy had been making top high end speakers for a few decades. When I picked them up he said he ran audio test on the speakers and he told me that these were some of the best sounding and technically one of the most accurate speakers he ever tested. He wanted to buy them! True story!
How sensitive are they?
Sorry about the late response, but you MUST give a lot of credit of your experience listening to the Blues In Orbit to the original Columbia Six Eye! Yes I know you heard it with other speakers, understood. You are right a superior speaker Does take it to the next level, (so glad you did this video) but you know that foundation of minimalist recording gear, mics and the like, venue and all tube well mixed audio made those Columbia recordings pure magic! That is just a great topic in itself for you to cover sometime in the future, what you are "feeding" your system, the differences and why it's important I know you could write novels on this topic just by what you have or have heard. That is why a condensed video/series could pas some valuable knowledge onto this new generation of audiophiles that long for that magic, but are uncertain of where or what to look for! Places to find LPs, how to check condition, where to check for badly aligned cartridge marks from an arch tracking tonearm and what that looks like. You are like an encyclopedia of knowledge for young audiophiles who are looking for high end recordings on the cheap! You have the magic it takes to convey that sense of joy you felt during the listening of a piece of music! I believe one video on this topic would get enough response for you to get many requests for a series! Think of how you and I started, remember the excitement of stumbling into a "goldmine" of nicely recorded well kept records at the flea market? Mike Peshkin, aka. MuzikMike, on Vinyl Asylum, and wrote for Art Dudley in Listener was my best friend and I dearly remember the thousands of hours we spent at yard sales. (we almost always were the first ones there and once woke up the homeowner because we arrived too early, that's a story!) Flea markets, used record stores and such. Steve, THOSE memories are priceless and your young viewers need to hear your experiences on the topic so that maybe, after we're gone, they will impart some of the magic of the rich tapestry of memories to the following generations. Sorry for the rambling, you may already have done this and I missed it if so, please point me in the right direction! Thanks for all you do!
You mentioned that Quad 57 is one of the best speakers you have listened to. The same experience I have, from almost forty years ago. But, now I have the Quad Z3 which I paid about $ 1700 for. Delightful speakers that not only manage the dynamics, but go all the way down and up at Duke Ellington's Blues In Orbit. Gorgeous. Like being at a concert.
The DQ10 sounded good too, if you don't like bass.
Hey Steve, have you heard and good diy speakers? Some of them are highly regarded, like the Swan/hivi, Paul Carmody design, dayton and morel speaker kits just to name a few. Would like to hear your thoughts. Cheers.
I had what can only be described as a polar opposite experience. It was with a flea watt tube amp and a pair of full range speakers. The music was a Nils Lofgren acoustic CD. Sublime in its simplicity.
Nils is the greatest for helping rate a system.
My current "kitchen system" consists of Altec 755A's, Line Magnetic 218 Mini, Westrex line transformers, and Sony PS1 cd player. I have Klipschorns & Mark Levenson cd in my basement, but the kitchen system is more enjoyable. (especially at lower volumes!) Full-range speakers bring me back full circle to the portable "stereos" of my youth with retractable speakers that became a carry case (with the turntable) when not in use.
Great video 👏🏻
Best sound.. the Count Basie orchestra (1980 or 81 i think) in a tiny 100 seat ballroom... with no mics. The ensemble blend was life altering.. Speaker.. I grew up with my Dad’s Quad ESLs and Quad II tube electronics and a Garrard 301/original SME table. Then one day I walked into an audio colleague’s place where his IMF RSPM VIIs were playing. There was the midrange which sounded scarily like the Quads with ultra deep bass and dynamics and a massive 3D soundstage to boot. Still the winner for me.. and I’ve heard a ton of high end speakers. They also are very convincing at lower than live levels.. perfect for enjoying all kinds of music in the real world at 2am! ...They were $3800 new in the mid ‘80s. I’ve had their ‘home version’ the Professional Monitor, now, for 30 years and they’re still a thrill to listen to.
Love the sound of my Focals - I wish they would figure out a concentric two-way. I think my search would stop right there.
I love that you said this, Steve: "So I didn't make that mistake and buy those speakers! Because when you do, you fall into this trap of playing the music that fits the speaker envelope -- let's say 'performance envelope' -- not what you want to hear. You're sort-of feeding the system what sounds good. That's not a good idea. That's not a recipe for long-term satisfaction."
Hm, thinking back, the first speaker that did it for me was the B&W 802. Then I heard the Hales Transcendence 8 and I realized they were much, much, better than the B&W. Down the road over the years I'd have to list a few of my tops, the MBL Extrema system, the Usher BE-20's were probably the most sound for money at the time, various Wilsons, reference Von Schweikerts, the Adam Audio flagship was pretty insane, the old Krell master reference system, Rockport, Kharma, etc. But the one that really stands out in my mind is the Sonus Faber Aida, what an amazing sound. I heard the Focal Grand Utopia too, but to me they had such a small sweet spot since they were "focused" in, plus the recording of a violin was playing about 10 times louder than a violin really is, so it didn't end up being a pleasurable experience for me. It probably just was the setup on that day and recording though.
The best sound from speakers I've ever heard was at the Axpona show a few years ago when they had the MBL extremes in their full Glory. I knew they were a speaker that emitted 360° sound but I really wasn't prepared to hear what I heard. The sound was so far above anything else I ever heard that I didn't want to leave The listening room
AR9’s for hifi speakers were amazing, and whatever Pink Floyd used on the Delicate Sound of Thunder tour for live.
John Pulford
Pink Floyd toured with turbosound flashlight and floodlight and a combination of 18” and 21” subs from turbosound using bss tms3 amplification, i never saw pink Floyd live , but the best sounding show I ever saw was on a similar system
A memorable instalment, Steve.
Cant comment on best speakers I have ever heard But do love my Klipsch RP 600ms However best live would be all the big concert bands during the 80s that played at Western Springs in Auckland New Zealand this was an outdoor arena (a speedway track) Bowie ZZ top Pink Floyd all played there it was a natural amphitheatre and sounded outstanding.
Best speakers for me was in 1976 at a local audio shop and their listening room features 4 stacked Klipschorns, two in each corner, all SAE electronics, a Thorens Turntable with a Shure V15 cartridge, and the music was the Broadway West Side Story Soundtrack. It was excellent audio experience and that moment has never left me.
Very similar to me back in 1975! SAE electronics Thorns and Klipsch. Love the LaScala as well.
Gary Karczewski yep, I had a friend who bought a used pair of black plywood LaScalas for $150. The deal of the Decade
I heard a monster pair of dpeakers in a high end store thst blew me away. Not sure what those were but they were magical.
They weren't Magnapans? ;)
I’ve found that the key to getting the sound I love the most is getting that large sense of scale that can only come from big speakers in a big space.
I would tend to think the same thing... but since I only have small space...just pack em in !
@Christiaan Baron yes I am currently building some.
@Christiaan Baron this is good . ? I dunno....the ones. I heard sounded great .
Christiaan Baron totally agree. The one set of boxed speakers I heard sounded BAD...I feel like maybe the levels of distortion were acceptable maybe 20 years ago but now driver tech has moved us forward. I have some interesting ideas using open baffle and concrete . Still in formative phase.
@Christiaan Baron yea baffle step loss is a problem with those huge baffles.
The best sound I ever heard were a set original Infinity IRS V back in the 80s. My girlfriends father was an audiophile and I was blown away by his system. I heard details in music my Sony boombox could never reproduce. He opened my eyes to different genres of music and began my quest for the best sound I can afford. I have owned a lot of Infinity speakers in my lifetime, my theater system is all Infinity now, but nothing compares to those original IRS.
Infinity is the best speaker ever. Hands down. Paul @ PS hopes to capture that sound and maybe in "Listening Room 1" he will. Otherwise, no.
The best live sound I've heard was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2012 induction ceremony. Darlene Love performed Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. I remember thinking to myself at the time that I'd never heard a PA system sound this loud and this good.
Martin Logan CLX are my choice, so real, the Quad 2905’s close, would love to hear the Focals. Very much personal preference.
Steve, what you're referring to is known as "Proportional Scaling of the Live Instrumental Sound" in regards to how the Instruments sound "excites" the sound of the Live Space in which it's being played ! In other words an Orchestra playing in a Concert Hall has a tremendous capacity for Sound Volume according to the Dimensional Space of where the music was being played (I think I made sense of what I was trying to explain)
A friend had a pair of the Stax, driven by Audio Research. Pure Magic.
How can anyone dislike this clip?! Not just to not like it but to dislike it!!!!
Have to agree about the Grand Utopias. I heard a pair at an audio trade show back in 2014. Best box speakers I ever heard without a doubt. But I have heard even more sense of realism from good electrostatics and also from the MBL 101 omnidirectional speakers.
Steve... take the front grils off the Quads and you'll get even more transparency even exceeding the Stax ESL F81. I heard a pair of Quads with his custom acoustically transparent grills in the early 80s set up by Mitchel Cotter. They were sitting on Janis (coffee table) subwoofers playing his pipe organ recordings. Some of the most life like sound I ever heard at the time and even now.
I like you better as an audiophiliac than I ever liked you as an actor.
Have you ever heard the RadioShack Optimus Mach 3's? Made in the late 80's and early 90's. I have the same pair since 1991 and other than replacing the surrounds on the 15" woofer still sound amazing.
Best live ever, .... the Ramones, Fugs, and Velvet Underground at the armory in Jersey! Just kidding breaking some East Coast balls here. Love your channel SG!
The best I have heard was a pair of Klipschorns, which are way out of my price range, and wouldn't work in my room anyway. I currently use a pair of Electro-Voice 12TRXC triaxial drivers in homemade 4.4 cu ft bass-reflex enclosures. Huge dynamics, clean, and 100 dB sensitivity. Driving them with a 45 watt Vector-Research receiver. I never come close to running out of power.
Best live sound I have heard was jam sessions out in the woods or camp grounds ate folk music festivals. Live acoustic instruments with no amplification and no bad rooms. I've both listened and jammed at this type of thing since the early 1980's. Nothing beats it.
Klipschorns are what got me hooked on Hifi in the 70s. I have never had the room nor the money for a pair. I have a pair of RF7 IIs which don't get much love in the audio community but do from my ears.
Best (most musical and emotionally engaging) speaker I ever heard? Ruark Excalibers that was updated and tweaked out by Stuart Chapman Jones (upgraded custom crossover, Duelund silver bypass capacitors, and Bybee iQSEs). I would love to hear a pair of AvantGarde speakers with a great 300B SET amp someday.
Those Stax ohhhh man, i fell in love with those the minute that i put Miles on 😍
I use a magnepan tympani for such music....it's divine on planar type Speakers
Shostakovich's 10th Symphony at Carnegie Hall, played by Ashkenazy and the RPO. In the middle of the first movement I was thinking to myself that it couldn't possibly get any louder, and then it did.
Brother of ...?
1. Yamaha A-S1100SL or 2. PS audio Stellar Gain cell w/S300 or 3. ?
I heard Pavarotti from close enough to have literally been able to reach out and touch him. He was so loud that I have no doubt he could fill a 1500 seat venue without amplification. However I do not think there ever has been an acoustic guitar that could match that kind of output, nor would his style suit "Yesterday". That really must have been an incredible sound system.
James Drissel actually not entirely true, it’s well documented his voice was ramped up on volume tremendously.
That being said? The man was the king of high C notes, absolutely ridiculous how his timbre and technicality was
I've also made a fairly extensive library of my own recordings of classical concerts and also 12th Century Music.
I've got the Stax ELS-F81 they are the best at what they do.
Gallo Nucleus Reference 3.1 and Magnepans were my favorite speakers. I don't like listening to speakers way out of my affordable range.
Why on earth, or rather, what on earth are people doing giving Steve a thumbs-down on this video? Geez.
If you ask me, a weird list. Maybe Steve's history going back to the Stax or Quads. But so many top flight speakers go without mention.
My favs that I have spent time with: Rockport Altairs, Wilson MAXX (bet their bigger ones sound better, but that was amazing by itself), Martin Logan Statements, Maggie Tympanis from the old days, havent heard the new ones yet, MBL 101Es, Nola Grand Reference, Sonus Faber Amatis, I'd include the Axpona show w top VAC electronics and the Focal Grand Utopias as well.
Thats the only speaker in your group that could do justice to live music consisting of more than a string quartet- and even there, I think most of your choices would be softer on top that the live versions in a small space.
My suggestion- listen to more statement speakers when you are at the shows. The list of those I don't like is certainly longer than my list above, but finding the gems is worth the effort. Even as an introduction- you mention the Quads- did you ever hear the Levinson HQD? He knew the Quads were essentially low level midrange drivers, so he doubled them, added and e stat supertweeter and a sub to get them to reproduce all of the recording information.
Is this more of a list of best speakers you sold plus the Focals?
What’s you’re impression of the Focal Egg? My speakers are loosely based on them. At the time, my friends owned a speaker shop in Phoenix, and selling their own design. They had just finished work a a pair of 8” two ways. They were veery good and for the price, I would have bought them, but didn’t need any at the time. Four of those early surround sound system along with a subwoofer would have been great! But when I went in to listen to them, my friends had a pair of Eggs set up next to them for comparison. The Focals had a lot more detail than their design, but that was all that set them apart, other than bass extension, which the 8” offer had more of than the 5” woofer in the Focal Eggs. Years later, I moved in with my wife at her parents house as her mother needed help to run the house. One day her cats knocked the grills off of my Peerless 12” three way speakers and that destroyed the cones and surrounds. So I started looking for suitable replacements. The woofers were no l’ gear available so I decided to look at something to replace them for a long time. Then in 1997, my friends designed their very best ever line of speakers. The smallest of which was a 7” two way Focal driven design. They also had a 12” 3 way that I really didn’t care for. The Sirius, (7K415 woofers with T90DK tweeters), were punchy, articulate and very accurate.)And the best thing was, they had a barely any listening fatigue! They had a QTS of .8 instead of the more common .707. This gave the bottom it’s punch. They were ported speakers with an F3 of 45 Hz. One day, while they had set them out on display ad we’re taking pre-orders, a rep from Coda Amplifiers came in looking for a store to sell their products with. So the rep brought in his amp, and Bill, one of the pair of owners, hooked it up to their Sirius Speakers then called Auroras. (They soon got a cease and desist order from the government to stop using the name. As part of their brochure they were using a prate rendering of the SR 71’s replacement spy plane on its cover and we think that they had struck a nerve.) anyway the rep looked like he had just seen a miracle when they fired things up, grabbed his cell phone and ran outdoors. He made a phone call that lasted a few minutes and then he came back inside, pulled my friends away from me and the other customers killing around on one of our Saturday Movie events. They came back in and when the gory left they paused the movie and told us that the Coda rep had asked them to share a booth with them at CES, so they could use the Auroras to demo their amp with, and Coda was paying all their expenses. Of course I volunteers to go with them so the other could stay and run the store, but.....
I’ve had mine as they are the first production set ever delivered. Mine are serial number 00003 and 00004. 00001 and 00002 are the prototypes, still owned by the company owner. They were finished in piano black,mine in oak veneer. The only problem with mine is the veneer is peeling off. I’m got done to take them apart and refinish them in black crinkle coat sold by Parts Express. After I got the pair of speakers the guys came up with a matching subwoofer using an NHT1259 woofer that used a sealed box with a QTS of .8. F 3 is 23 HZ, but F6 occurs at 18hz, the sealed design and the higher System Q give a rise in amplitude that’s about 2db higher at 40 Hz than most subs. I let them roll off, or cut in at 50 Hz, the lowest the active Ex on this amp will go, then adjust the volume until it’s flat as I can get it. So the system is basically flat from 23 Hz to 23kHz, and sounds incredibly good. Now I don’t listen to classical as a usual musical type, but I have and it sounds very good, but the bass may be a touch hotter than most would like. For rock, classic rock, southern rock to decent modern rock it’s very transparent. One of my favorite songs to play for people is Dave Mathews, Sattellite. It’s starts off with acoustic guitar plated softly along with a violin. Her the firs drum accent with bass guitar hits the first beat it blows people away. The only com0laint I’ve ever heard was from my brother in law who thinks Boom Box bass is the be all and end all of sound. While his car was being repaired he borrowed my wife’s and the next time I drove it I though he had blown the stereo or the speakers. It turns out that he had set the balance and fade so the the speaker in the back deck behind the driver was the only one playing and he had turned the treble all the way down, bass all the way up to get this boomy slushy mess. I wanted to slap him! But we soon found out he had lung cancer.
Can you do a "tier list" (it's a new youtube trend) type of video of the best speakers and headphones you have ever heard regardless of price?
Hi Steve you need to do a review of definitive technology speakers what do you think?
One of the best system i ever heard was 20 years ago Classe with Magnepan
DR-9. Great amp.
Dahlquist DQ10s were the first speakers that blew my mind, as for live sound the Greatful Deads Mac/Jbl system, my friend explained to me i wish i could have heard.
Glad to see the reference to the DQ 10s. Best speakers I ever owned.
ESS AMT 3's from the 70's for me.
Best Live sound I ever heard... Respighi Pines, Fountains, and Festivals at Severance Hall with Cleveland Orchestra, one of the worlds best for sure.
Amen! What a blessing you were able to be there.
No word on best speaker sound but best live was the first primus concert at red rocks amphitheater I had been to. Was phenomenal. Saw many shows there since, including more primus... But something about the first time blew me away.
So what's the best remote controlled speaker selector? After a couple of martinis I want to change genera but sometimes I'm to wobbly and really don't want to damage anything when I hook up the big boys or the knock over the mags. Any sugestions?
LOL'ing. Strong coffee?
Hi Steve. Have you ever sat in front of a pair of Rogers LS3/6. Lots of great history. Very vintage but great mid and bass. Original through. Recently inherited.
eismcsquared not that one, but LS3/5A, sure! I’ve owned them, but I never really warmed up to them. Sorry
Best sound at rock concert was Nirvana in utero tour at the PNE forum in Vancouver, I went down and told the sound guys fantastic job! But nothing beats a full orchestra in a good room!