Best Sounding Speaker in $3500 range (1 Viewer)

[Chris Tsutsui]

With high end speakers by Wilson Audio, Martin Logan, and even Avantgarde. They use exotic finishes/materials and a lot of money is spent on appearance and sculpture. They have to use all the money on paying staff for R&D and cost for production.

Given just the bare drivers and crossovers from those speakers and some instructions for an enclosure, you could easily drop the prices below $2000 which is what DIY companies do.

 

[Bruce Chang]

Sorry rodney, I should have but Used N804s can be had for $2500. My friend got a smoking deal for $1200. I hate him for it.

 

[Kevin T]

i'll second david and recommend thiel speakers. specifically the cs2.3 ($3400 retail - $2600-$2800 street) and possibly the soon the be released cs3.7 (don't know retail be street price would be close to $3500 i imagine). you must listen to the thiels if at all possible!

kevin t

 

[Mal P]

I agree with Chris, most of these high-end companies tend to use the same drivers (or slight variants) as those that are available to the DIY community. Even then, since high-end speakers have generally low volume sales, these companies can't justify customising a lot of the drivers, so they are straight off the shelf. If a competent engineer, with good measurement facilities (including anechoic chamber) can design using these drivers for good frequency response, time-domain performance etc, chances are, the sound could be quite stunning.

Cheers,
Mal

 

[Jason_Me]

I agree with Chris, most of these high-end companies tend to use the same drivers (or slight variants) as those that are available to the DIY community.

Thats true, but it only applies to certain brands. I would say the $30,000 Dynaudio Evidence Temptation has more advanced drivers, X-overs, resonance free cabinet construction, and just flat out top notch engineering, then any DIY speaker could hope to have.

 

[rodneyH]

Jason, put the flame suit on, the DIYers are going to FlAAAAAAAAAAme away at that comment

 

[Jason_Me]

A DIY speaker can only be as good as the off-the-shelf parts you use. I don't see why I should get flamed for stating a speaker that uses parts superior to what you can get off-the-shelf.

 

[Carl Gaff]

I vote for Martin Logans. I have B&K amps and the combonation of Martin Logan and B&K is great(and well within your price range). If you're looking for clarity and a sweet sound in two channel, M&Ls can't be beat.

Carl Gafford

 

[Dustin B]

Jason, up until recently Dynaudio's drivers where avialable to the DIYer. None the less even when they were available a lot of people didn't use them as there were other better options. Still given what is available for drivers, the crossover, room, and enclosure will affect the sound a lot more than any special version of a driver a manufacture uses.
DIY designs often use better parts in their crossover networks. And in recent years access to the measuring tools required to design superb crossovers has become inexpensive.
A well designed and built MDF enclosure (not hard to do) will be so close to the fancy cast alluminum and composite enclosures that the room the speaker is in will play a significantly larger part in the sound of the speaker than any advantage a manufatures cabinet gains them. Infact Ariel and I'm pretty sure JMLabs top speakers are made of MDF.
DIY designs can get so close to the megabuck speakers that the room will become the deciding factor. And the money you save with the DIY design will be plenty to properly fix up a room allowing the DIY speaker to surpase the megabuck speaker in an untreated room.
You may find these links interesting.
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/801web.html
http://www.cliowin.com/FOTO/gpphoto/...The%20Eros.htm
And then take a look at this link. Jon has spent some time with actual X1 Slamms. He feels he has captured greater than 90% of their sound with his $4000 project. And from the Clio contest he won, others agree as well.
http://www.cliowin.com/FOTO/gpphoto/Hancock/slamm.htm

 

[Bruce Chang]

Seems like me and Jason have the same feelings about DIY speakers. I don't think they are as good a manufactured speaker. Who cares about the driver, it's the overall workmanship of the enclosure and the drivers that match well with the design. Instead of people saying, oh I have the focal utopia midrange driver which makes the speaker sound better then paradigm. This is not true. This is one of the reason's why Dynaudio is stopping the sale of their drivers to the public because the DIY ruined dynaudio's reputation of a great sounding driver.

 

[KeithR]

I will fourth or fifth the Dyn 1.3SE recommendation--although you can find them much cheaper than 3500 if you look around, new.

 

[Mal P]

Hi Bruce,

I agree, it takes a lot more than just the drivers to make a good speaker. A lot of people start off in DIY with kits, designed by professionals. For example, Joeseph D'Appolito, the Godfather of speaker design himself *bows head* designs many kits when invited to do so by speaker driver manufacturers. He has full measurement facilities, and immense experience in designing cabinets and crossovers. The speaker one can make from his kits (for example, the SEAS Odin or Thor, which uses them fancy SEAS Magnesium cone drivers and the SEAS Millenium tweeter which I think could take on the Dynaudio Esotar) would sound as good as it could reasonably get, except without the name brand.

Usually, when people have enough experience, they then start to make their own designs, but they often need proper measurement facilities in order to achieve a true flat frequency response and good time domain performance. It requires a great deal of time and experience, but after quite a while, these designers could easily be picked up by some top speaker manufacturers and be able to float.

Cheers,
Mal

 

[Nathan **L]

I just purchased some Nautilus 804’s for $2700 a pr. I did also listen to the Tannoy Definition 700 they where $4000 pr, both of the speakers sounded very good but I was also on a budget. If I had the money and patients I would of really like to buy the Tannoy’s. Something else to confuse you. Sounds like you are going about the speaker shopping business the right way. Good luck and have fun.

 

[Danny Richie]

I like the way this thread ended up.

It started an interesting debate. One that I might be inclined to have plenty to say about, but I will refrain from a lot I could say.

A couple of post struck me as particularly funny though.

Especially since I have worked with so many Dynaudio drivers in the past and am well aware of the quality (or lack there of) of components used in their speakers, plus how their speakers really sound.

In fact I would go so far as to say this... I would be willing to bet you will find higher parts quality used in the crossover components of our $229. a pair A/V-1 kit than you will find in the $30,000. pair of Dynaudio Evidence Temptation.

I would also be glad to answer any direct questions that one may have involving the debate that this thread has begun to take.

I have had speakers in the retail market and I am currently designing speakers for other companies that will be in the retail market so I have been on both sides of the fence.

Personally I really like catering to the hobbyist.

Any questions?

 

[Dustin B]

Keep up the catering Danny.
Won't see me complaining about it

 

[Jason_Me]

Danny Richie

I should take your extremely biased point of view serious because??

That's about as absurd as if someone from Dynaudio came to HTF and started bad-mouthing B&W speakers are.

 

[Dustin B]

Then take him up on his offer Jason. Send him some specific questions by email and see what he has to say.

 

[Jason_Me]

I don't see the point of that. Its impossible to get an unbiased point of view on speakers, when the person your talking to designs speakers for specific companies.

I'm only interested in what the other consumers have to say. I get enough propaganda from the media everyday, I don't need it on this forum.

 

[Darrel McBane]

I looked for two years to replace my 12 year old Klipsch speakers. Listened to every speaker I could find available from Seattle to Olympia area. I found the Vandersteen 3A Signature speakers and was about to purchase them till I heard the Revel F30 speakers. I love the Vandersteens but the Revel seemed to fit my taste. In it's price range they have the best mid-range. Very clean and uncolored. With plenty of power behind them they sound just fantastic. I'm not sure if I'll keep the Revel as long as the Klipsch but, they will be in my system for many years.

I would recommend to take your time. Listen to everything you can before you purchase. Speakers are the end of the line in a system and besides your preamp. Have the biggest influence in what you hear.

Good luck!

 

[Stacy Huff]

I think you could do way worse than RM40's for $3,500.00. Personally, if I had the money, I'd load up the truck and drive to Texas to pick these up.
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